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From: c60b-1eq@web-1f.berkeley.edu (Noam Mendelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Scroll lock (maybe a dumb question)
Message-ID: <1991Mar23.231324.7791@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 23 Mar 91 23:13:24 GMT
References: <40442@cup.portal.com> <69606@brunix.UUCP> <1991Mar23.182625.19132@agate.berkeley.edu>
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In article <1991Mar23.182625.19132@agate.berkeley.edu> wbl@plague.Berkeley.EDU (Wen-Po Bobby Lee) writes:
>>>I'm just curious-- in my four years of PC usage, I have never found a use
>>>for the scroll lock key.  Are they just a leftover from mainframe days or is
>>>there a legitimate use for them?  Have I been missing the boat these past four
>>>years?  
>The only times I ever use that key is when I need to send a Ctrl-Break on my
>standard XT keyboard.  Of course, it would have made more sense to print
>"Break" on the top and "Scroll Lock" on the bottom side (or not at all).
>Perhaps, as somenone has already mentioned, IBM thought "Scroll Lock" goes
>better with "Num Lock".  Kansei (sp) engineering?

Indeed...But on the extended keyboards, Num Lock is its own key grouped with
the numeric keypad, a new "Pause" key is put in Num Lock's old spot,
Ctrl-Pause becomes break, and Scroll Lock is left by itself.  _Then_
you notice how useless it really is.

+==========================================================================+
| Noam Mendelson   ..!agate!ucbvax!web!c60b-1eq | "I haven't lost my mind, |
| c60b-1eq@web.Berkeley.EDU                     |  it's backed up on tape  |
| University of California at Berkeley          |  somewhere."             |