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Path: utzoo!utcsri!utai!lamy
From: lamy@utai.UUCP (Francois Lamy)
Newsgroups: net.info-terms,net.internat
Subject: Re: In search of a sane keyboard standard
Message-ID: <1645@utai.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-May-86 10:53:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: utai.1645
Posted: Mon May  5 10:53:59 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 5-May-86 11:34:01 EDT
References: <2071@cbosgd.UUCP>
Reply-To: lamy@utai.UUCP (Jean-Francois Lamy)
Followup-To: net.internat
Distribution: net
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 59

In article <245@myrias.UUCP> cmt@myrias.UUCP (Chris Thomson) writes:
>   2. No meta key is specified.  It should be optional, and below the left
>      shift key.  This is the ALT key on IBM PC's, the S2 key on Ann Arbor
>      XL's, and the LEFT key on Sun-2's.

Meta keys are nice. Agreed.

This being net.internat, and being stuck quite often with my native tongue, I
think that a "compose character" key MUST be present, and should sit under the
<shift>.  Ideally, that key should be "hardwired", and distinct from a "meta"
key.  Why? So that the first unilingual programmer around does not get tempted
in using the key for something else...

How are other ISO Latin 1 characters entered? I'd prefer only one strike,
using "compose" as a modifier key.  <compose-[> might yield "e'" on a
french-canadian "programmer's layout". A "secretary's layout" with "e'"
on the keyboard might still be useable by a programmer if <compose-e'>
yielded a "[".

This is not a trivial issue.  Programmers won't use "secretarial layouts"
if getting "[" requires 2**n key strokes, n -> infinity.

National keyboards are a necessity.  I believe that there should be a standard
keyboard interface standard, so that you could buy a keyboard with your
favorite layout, and hook it to your favorite computer/terminal.  This
presumes that information like modifier keys depressed be transmitted as well

> 3. The placement of caps lock could just as well be as on the Sun-2,
> where it is under the left part of the left shift key.

I personally despise <caps lock> and see no need for it to be reachable
from the home keys (how often is it used in a normal session? even once?).

>   4. While I hold the opposite view to Mark regarding the relative placement
>      of caps lock and control, his double-wide control key satisfies both
>      points of view.

I prefer a full sized control key.

What follows is extracted from a Macintosh layout, with Control replacing "caps
lock", "compose" replacing "clover", and "meta" replacing "option"

>------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| CTRL  | A  | S  | D  | F  | G  | H  | J  | K  | L  | :  | "  | RETURN +
>|       |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ;  | '  |        +
>------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| SHIFT   | Z  | X  | C  | V  | B  | N  | M  | <  | >  | ?  |    SHIFT  +
>|         |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ,  | .  | /  |           +
>------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| META| COMPOSE|               SPACE                   |
>|     |        |                                       |
>-------------------------------------------------------+

-- 
Jean-Francois Lamy              
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto,         
Departement d'informatique et de recherche operationnelle, U. de Montreal.
CSNet: lamy@toronto       UUCP: {ihnp4,utzoo,decwrl,uw-beaver}!utcsri!utai!lamy
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