21 Nov
2007
21 Nov
'07
8:46 p.m.
On 21 Nov 2007 at 15:14, der Mouse wrote:
I don't recall seeing a computer keyboard that
*is* lowercase, ever.
Modern keyboards are generally connected to systems that map alphabetic
keystrokes to uppercase and lowercase depending on other state, and
have keys ("Shift") designed to provide that state, but the keyboards
themselves have only one case of alphabetic key, and in every case I
can recall seeing, that case is upper.
I'm very happy that modern keyboards aren't like some of the old
typewriters:
http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/kbrd_writers/_ill/caligraph
21.jpg
Still, the Caligraph No. 2 had only 72 keys; the keyboard I'm using
to type this has something in excess of 100--and yet requires "mode"
keys to obtain characters. If, on the other hand, modern computer
keyboards had the same number of keys as an 026 keybpunch, I wonder
what our human-computer interfaces would look like today.
Cheers,
Chuck