Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn Subject: Re: Archimedes keyboard Keywords: Keyboard, defunct Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 91 14:11:29 GMT References: <1991Feb25.202045.2240@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK. Lines: 46 gcwillia@daisy.waterloo.edu (Graeme Williams) writes: > In article mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes: > >What is the point of making the keyboard look just like a PC keyboard, if yo > >then make the backspace key perform a CTRL-H and the Delete key perform a > >Backspace?! AAAAARGH! > > Its proper the way it is. The PC way of doing things is quite illogical. > (Unix systems also seem to do things the PC way, but that isn't a good > reason to follow - Unix is nearly as ugly as a PC. One crowd that does > do things properly are Digital with their VAX/VMS systems.) So one other company has one product series which uses the key above return as a CTRL-H key rather than as a backspace-and-delete key. That's hardly an endorsement of the position. Pardon me if I'm being obtuse, but I thought that the purpose of a keyboard was to allow people to enter data; clearly, therefore, it is a bad idea to make your keyboard behave in a different way to 99% of the keyboards out there, yet make it look exactly the same. If Acorn wanted to do their own thing, they should have made the keyboard look different; they could have placed the delete key in the same position as it is on the BBC Micro. Having a keyboard which looks standard but behaves oddly is just stupid. > Consider: How many times do you need to delete the character in *front* of > the cursor - usually it isn't even typed yet. Every time I use a text editor. > So shouldn't a DELETE key > do what it says, namely delete the character just typed. It doesn't say "back-delete", it says "delete". It's equally sensible (if not more so) to have it delete the character which the cursor is currently flashing under. > I understand your frustration, I get frustrated swapping betwixt > machines too. Only I view things the other way: "WHY WHY WHY can't IBM > and Unix systems do things logically? - Are they so incompetent?" What's logical about dedicating a big key on the keyboard to performing a useless function like typing a CTRL-H? mathew.