Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!camex!circus!kent From: kent@circus.camex.com (Kent Borg) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: New Mac Keyboard Message-ID: <1590@camex.COM> Date: 24 Oct 90 18:20:27 GMT References: <4694@sage.cc.purdue.edu> Sender: news@Camex.COM Reply-To: kent@camex.com (Kent Borg) Organization: Camex Inc., Boston, MA Lines: 38 In article draphsor@elaine4.stanford.edu (Matt Rollefson) writes: >ar4@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) writes: > >>Why on earth is the Caps-lock key far left on the middle row of keys on >>extended keyboards, where the Control key should be? Is this in accordance >>with an accepted standard, for ergonomic reasons, or what? > >The explanation that Apple gave at a recent presentation was that it had >been changed to conform to "international standards". Now, why anyone >would want to have the control and escape keys in the wrong place as a >standard is beyond me, but... :) Simple. There are (at least) two ways to arrange a keyboard. For a programmer or for a typist. Programmers want the control key above the left shift key. Typists say: "What's a 'control key'? Where is the shift-lock?" Question: If you are selling Macintoshes and want them to be approachable, easy to use machines, which group do you cater to? Typists, of course. (Nothing in the Mac is done for programmers' convienience, why should the keyboard???) Also remember that the Mac itself doesn't use the control key. There were three different Macs before the first control key showed up on a Macintosh keyboard from Apple. Control keys are mostly used by communications programs, and only the old fashioned "glass tty" monsters at that. More modern communications programs like America Online, AppleLink, and MacNet never use the control keys. Control keys should be as obsolete to computers as UPPERCASE ONLY...maybe we should banish *both* keys. -- Kent Borg internet: kent@camex.com AOL: kent borg H:(617) 776-6899 W:(617) 426-3577 "The prospect of their mass excites astrophysicists, who are always on the lookout for ways to make the universe heavier" -- The Economist, 9-22-90