Think of us, poor second level hackers that have to cope with a non-US keyboard. I am often locked up with an italian keyboard, but other European keyboards are no more different. For an instance, our beloved slash "/" is above number 7 - yes! we have to press SHIFT-'7' to get it! But that's only the beginning. Colon and semicolon are not in the same key but they are placed over the point and the comma. So, a colon for us becomes SHIFT-'.'. In the italian keyboard, also, the curly braces are non-existant. MS users can get them with the ALT-XXX trick (123 and 125), Linux users (as myself) can use RIGHTALT-'8' and RIGHTALT-'9' or '9' and '0', depending if you are on the console or X. Already sick of it? Well, also the reverse apostrophe is banned from the keyboard, again, MS users can do the ALT-XXX trick, Linux users can work it with RIGHTALT-''' (apostrophe is right of '0'). Angle braces are in the same positions, but, sigh! condemned to be invoked with RIGHTALT. The "@" is right to the 'l', but again, treated as a secondary character, so you must press RIGHTALT with that key. The same destiny has been ruled for the '#'. The backslash key is intact, with the "pipe" over it, but it is way left of the keyboard (next to the '1'), where the ESC should stand sovereign. What we get in return? a lot (4) keys with accented letters. What a waste of keys! The spanish keyboard instead, uses a special key (the one next of 'p') to put the accents. Like on a typewriter, you press that key first, then the vowel you want accented.
Things change, really, and usually for worse. I changed my keyboard recently. I bought a cheap one, mede of what it seems recycled plastic. The first days where a pain. These brand-new keyboard has a miniature RIGHTSHIFT, which I often miss. Also, a miniature replica of the space bar, just to make room for the Windoze keys! Double sigh!
Reading of the "intuitiveness" of the cursor keys cited on the article made me grin. Years ago, when coding my first programs in BASIC on my then-proud-C64, I did a nibbles clone and made the movement keys redefinable. The default set included 'b' for down and 'n'for up. And that was eons before I knew Un*x or vi.;)
Anyway, seems that we have to cry for real keyboards or we won't get any.
Slashdot Mirror
CNN is asking: "Do you have Linux running on your desktop computer?"
Let's show 'em, guys!
Think of us, poor second level hackers that have to cope with a non-US keyboard. I am often locked up with an italian keyboard, but other European keyboards are no more different. For an instance, our beloved slash "/" is above number 7 - yes! we have to press SHIFT-'7' to get it! But that's only the beginning. Colon and semicolon are not in the same key but they are placed over the point and the comma. So, a colon for us becomes SHIFT-'.'. In the italian keyboard, also, the curly braces are non-existant. MS users can get them with the ALT-XXX trick (123 and 125), Linux users (as myself) can use RIGHTALT-'8' and RIGHTALT-'9' or '9' and '0', depending if you are on the console or X. Already sick of it? Well, also the reverse apostrophe is banned from the keyboard, again, MS users can do the ALT-XXX trick, Linux users can work it with RIGHTALT-''' (apostrophe is right of '0'). Angle braces are in the same positions, but, sigh! condemned to be invoked with RIGHTALT. The "@" is right to the 'l', but again, treated as a secondary character, so you must press RIGHTALT with that key. The same destiny has been ruled for the '#'. The backslash key is intact, with the "pipe" over it, but it is way left of the keyboard (next to the '1'), where the ESC should stand sovereign. What we get in return? a lot (4) keys with accented letters. What a waste of keys! The spanish keyboard instead, uses a special key (the one next of 'p') to put the accents. Like on a typewriter, you press that key first, then the vowel you want accented.
Things change, really, and usually for worse. I changed my keyboard recently. I bought a cheap one, mede of what it seems recycled plastic. The first days where a pain. These brand-new keyboard has a miniature RIGHTSHIFT, which I often miss. Also, a miniature replica of the space bar, just to make room for the Windoze keys! Double sigh!
Reading of the "intuitiveness" of the cursor keys cited on the article made me grin. Years ago, when coding my first programs in BASIC on my then-proud-C64, I did a nibbles clone and made the movement keys redefinable. The default set included 'b' for down and 'n'for up. And that was eons before I knew Un*x or vi. ;)
Anyway, seems that we have to cry for real keyboards or we won't get any.
Regards,
AJH