[comp.std.misc] Position of the ESC key

egr@contact.uucp (Gordan Palameta) (02/21/91)

In <1991Jan28.195647.21789@craycos.com> pmk@craycos.com (Peter Klausler) writes:
>>
>>intended you to use (with the exception of DEL/ESC, which is in such a
>>fucking brain-damaged position...right next to the left shift key. If
>>you like it there, good for you. I don't-I've used close to 20
>>keyboards, and the HP is the ONLY ONE with ESC there.)

Well, I got sick of having ESC next to Left Shift or on F12 on various
different keyboards, and finally got into the habit of typing  Control-[
(control open square bracket), which is in fact the ASCII code for ESC.

It can be touch-typed, and it's standard on every keyboard I've tried.
Try it, you'll like it...

karl@ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) (02/28/91)

In article <1991Feb21.015322.14213@contact.uucp> egr@contact.uucp (Gordan Palameta) writes:
>Well, I got sick of having ESC next to Left Shift or on F12 on various
>different keyboards, and finally got into the habit of typing  Control-[
>(control open square bracket), which is in fact the ASCII code for ESC.

I've used two classes of terminals where Control-[ did not generate 0x1B.

On one, there was a BACKTAB key where ESC should have been.  The real ESC key
was hidden so cleverly I couldn't find it for a while); so I gave up and tried
Control-[.  It didn't work--I got a backtab, because of the internal remapping
that was being done in the firmware.

On the other, left bracket and right bracket were on the same key, and using
the Control key (with or without shift) would generate Control-], 0x1D.  The
only known way to generate 0x1B on such a keyboard is with the ESC key.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@ima.isc.com or uunet!ima!karl), The Walking Lint

quirk@quokka.rtp.dg.com (Peter Quirk) (03/02/91)

Don't forget the '[' key, and most of the other non-alpha, non-numeric keys
are located all over the place on international keyboards of the PC-AT variety.
Here's its location on some keyboards I know:

German           Third quadrant of the 8 key. Use CTRL/Alt-Gr/8 to get escape!
Swedish/Finnish  Same as German, but legend on front of key rather than on top
French/Canadian  Third quadrant of the '[' key on the US keyboard. Usre CTRL/Alt-GR/[
Spanish          Same location as French/Canadian, but legend on front of key
                 rather than on top of key
Norwegian        Same as Swedish/Finnish
Danish           Same as Swedish/Finnish
Italian          Same as Spanish
Swiss            Same as Spanish
UK               Same as US
French           Third quadrant of '5' key, legend on front

By contrast, the ESC key is the top left key on all these keyboards.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Quirk			Internet: quirk@quokka.webo.dg.com
Data General Corporation	Phone:    +1 (508)898 4679
3400 Computer Drive		Fax:	  +1 (508)898 2684
Westboro, MA, USA 01581