From: Ronald W. Heiby (heiby_at_falkor.chi.il.us)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2000 - 09:13:09 EDT
Thursday, April 27, 2000, 6:40:47 PM, Randal wrote:
RW> I don't see how. Typewriters were around far longer than
RW> computers ever were, using the Dvorak keyboard. Then a computer
RW> comes along and changes the layout, and people think the new
RW> layout is the standard?
Horse and Buggy was around for centuries before the automobile ever
was. Then an automobile comes along and changes the entire human
interface, and people think that having an accellerator pedal is the
standard?
RW> I'll completely concede that the Caps Lock key is all but useless,
RW> and that putting the Ctrl key there might well be an improvement,
RW> but the standard *is* and always has been right above the Shift
RW> key. Anything that departs from that is the oddball (though
RW> perhaps an improvement nonetheless).
I'll completely concede that the buggy whip is all but useless and
that putting a side mirror there might well be an improvement, but the
standard *is* and always has been to have a buggy whip right next to
the driver, where he can reach it easily. Anything that departs from
that is the oddball (though perhaps an improvement, since there's no
longer an actual horse).
In this age of "icons", I'm surprised that some car company doesn't
put an icon of a horse on the accellerator pedal.
BTW, the "standard" for non-computerized keyboards was not Caps Lock,
but Shift Lock. Randall seems to think that they are pretty close to
the same thing. Maybe they are close, but they are not the same. Caps
Lock does not shift any non-alphabetic characters. Caps Lock is not
cancelled by pressing the Shift key. Substituting a "close to the same
function" key can be worse for congnitive dissonance than substituting
a key with a completely different function. So, they were wrong on
that score, too. Tick off the programmers. Tick off the typists. Who's
left?
Ron (who used an ASR-33 TTY in ~1971, which had CTRL where it should
be, on a DEC PDP8/S with Core Memory, programmed in Focal or Fortran).
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