24 May
2001
24 May
'01
10:27 a.m.
On Wed, May 23, 2001 at 07:32:19PM +0200, Hans Franke wrote:
If you ever worked on a Xerox, where you had the
copy/move/prop/... special
keys on the left hand side of your keyboard you'd know how easy handling can
be ... unlike todays interface, where you use the mouse for several thing,
here the little critter was only a pointing device, while you selected most
functions via keys (and your left hand). In fact, I still belive we schould
go back there and add some keys - the old PC Keyboard could be used in a
similar way, and one of my first tasks I did with GEM on the PC was a Desktop
which used the function keys in a way similar to the Xerox system.
I think function keys should have little LCD displays in them. (And there
are POS keyboards which really do have these.) OTOH, usability folks
would probably say that the functions of the function keys should always
be the same anyway. For most apps that's probably true.
Sun keyboards still have a column of function keys along the left, and
I haven't seen any software use them. Well I wouldn't be surprised if
some of the CDE apps do... anybody know what apps use them the best?
It does seem like a good idea.
--
_______ Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD ecloud(a)bigfoot.com
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