4 ms·

In my opinion this was already done with the nightmare that have been the function keys in laptops for three decades I use F2 and F6 and screen contrast button

In my opinion this was already done with the nightmare that have been the function keys in laptops for three decades I use F2 and F6 and screen contrast buttons every single day. And the FN lock is used just infrequently enough that there is ZERO possiblity I will remember its state at any given moment, especially considering reboots or sleeps that may toggle it. And I use it just enough that it isn't worth spending 5 seconds to move my hands away to figure out its state, consequently every single time I hit an FN key I get an undesired result from pressing it. For the love of god we are talking about adding 12 keys to the keyboard, they can be half-height, or simply making the FN lock into a shift function with no lock capability to GUARANTEE determinist results when pressing a key and the lock is in an unknown state. Can we please start a petition.

Tijdreiziger 5y ago
I had to look up 'Fn lock' -- apparently you can hit Fn + Esc on some laptops to 'lock' the Fn function on? I've honestly never used this in my life. Can't your problem be solved by simply never engaging the Fn lock?
- dalmo3 5y ago
  Some keyboards, like the Microsoft Sculpt which I use, have no Fn key, only Fn lock. I just gave up using the media keys at all.
  - Tijdreiziger 5y ago
    Wow, I just looked up a photo of this keyboard and it's actually a physical switch, not even a key. What an odd design decision. Actually, the keyboard layout looks pretty odd in general. I could forgive the Insert key (maybe there actually exist people who use it), but is there anyone who needs dedicated Scroll Lock and Pause keys? edit: actually, I guess Excel power users might use Scroll Lock? It still looks like a pretty odd layout to me regardless.
    - silverpepsi 5y ago
      I'm so confused by your comment about scroll lock and pause. Have you never used a desktop keyboard? This is exactly what the 104 or 101 key standards since the 1980s or so include and always have for backward compatiblity. Every keyboard on the planet would have these if we only used desktops. But when laptops were introduced there was a compelling reason to compromise and remove keys. To this day I remain frustrated to death by the missing keys, most especially End and Home and the arrow keys. I need that functionality on a daily basis, and that need has not reduced in the twenty years since I went to mostly laptop usage. Scroll lock usually only is important if used for something specific in a specific app. And pause, yeah, has fallen out of use. But it is mostly that laptops are now so common companies avoid assigning functions to keys no one has.
      - Tijdreiziger 5y ago
        Even on desktops, smaller keyboards are better ergonomically (because they allow you to put your mouse closer). Home, End, PgUp and PgDn can be accessed on most (all?) compact keyboards as Fn+Left, Fn+Right, Fn+Up and Fn+Down. I use those very frequently, to me they're actually more convenient than dedicated keys (because Fn is near Ctrl, Alt and Shift, which are also used for cursor manipulation). I personally don't care for large ('inverted T') arrow keys, but there are certainly laptops (e.g. Lenovo's ThinkPad line) that offer large arrow keys if that's something you desire. And even back in the '80s there existed various keyboard layouts (PC, Macintosh, Sun).

Tijdreiziger 5y ago

I had to look up 'Fn lock' -- apparently you can hit Fn + Esc on some laptops to 'lock' the Fn function on? I've honestly never used this in my life. Can't your problem be solved by simply never engaging the Fn lock?

dalmo3 5y ago
Some keyboards, like the Microsoft Sculpt which I use, have no Fn key, only Fn lock. I just gave up using the media keys at all.
- Tijdreiziger 5y ago
  Wow, I just looked up a photo of this keyboard and it's actually a physical switch, not even a key. What an odd design decision. Actually, the keyboard layout looks pretty odd in general. I could forgive the Insert key (maybe there actually exist people who use it), but is there anyone who needs dedicated Scroll Lock and Pause keys? edit: actually, I guess Excel power users might use Scroll Lock? It still looks like a pretty odd layout to me regardless.
  - silverpepsi 5y ago
    I'm so confused by your comment about scroll lock and pause. Have you never used a desktop keyboard? This is exactly what the 104 or 101 key standards since the 1980s or so include and always have for backward compatiblity. Every keyboard on the planet would have these if we only used desktops. But when laptops were introduced there was a compelling reason to compromise and remove keys. To this day I remain frustrated to death by the missing keys, most especially End and Home and the arrow keys. I need that functionality on a daily basis, and that need has not reduced in the twenty years since I went to mostly laptop usage. Scroll lock usually only is important if used for something specific in a specific app. And pause, yeah, has fallen out of use. But it is mostly that laptops are now so common companies avoid assigning functions to keys no one has.
    - Tijdreiziger 5y ago
      Even on desktops, smaller keyboards are better ergonomically (because they allow you to put your mouse closer). Home, End, PgUp and PgDn can be accessed on most (all?) compact keyboards as Fn+Left, Fn+Right, Fn+Up and Fn+Down. I use those very frequently, to me they're actually more convenient than dedicated keys (because Fn is near Ctrl, Alt and Shift, which are also used for cursor manipulation). I personally don't care for large ('inverted T') arrow keys, but there are certainly laptops (e.g. Lenovo's ThinkPad line) that offer large arrow keys if that's something you desire. And even back in the '80s there existed various keyboard layouts (PC, Macintosh, Sun).