4 ms·

All of those extra keys, and no left/right/up/down arrow keys. Crazy.

by D13Fd 4y ago

kps 4y ago
The original Macintosh keyboard didn't have cursor keys either. You were expected to use the mouse. Star at least had the NEXT key to select the next item/field, rather than the horrible conflation with TAB that the Macintosh HIG and IBM CUA jointly saddled us with.
- digisign 4y ago
  Works well though. I wouldn't want tab characters in my text fields.
  - kps 4y ago
    But I don't want my ‘next field’ key to suddently stop moving between fields and instead enter characters, just because some fields of text are different from other fields of text. The mess goes back to IBM pre-computer unit record (punch card) equipment, for which fields were just columns on a card and moving to the next tab stop was the same as moving to the next field if you set up your keypunch appropriately.
NonNefarious 4y ago
But look, it has a Delete key AND a Backspace key... just every normal keyboard today. But inexplicably not the vast majority of Apple's.
- alexdbird 4y ago
  Fn + backspace does this on every Apple keyboard. IMO it’s gloriously consistent compared to the bizarre places that delete ends up on PC laptops and compact keyboards.
  - NonNefarious 4y ago
    Two hands to delete a character? No, thanks. Not to mention that your consistency argument is out the window because Apple doesn't put Fn in the same place on all its keyboards. Also, that combo isn't marked on the keyboards, so it may as well not exist for the vast majority of people. With the demise of the Eject key, there is no excuse for the lack of Delete on Apple laptops. Not to mention that Apple put a hardware delay on the Eject key for some reason, so you couldn't even remap it to be Delete. If accidental CD ejections were causing enough fatalities to demand a NON-DEFEATABLE DELAY, why didn't Apple simply make Eject a secondary function on a Delete key, requiring Fn (and being marked as such)? Both problems solved.

All of those extra keys, and no left/right/up/down arrow keys. Crazy.

by D13Fd 4y ago

All of those extra keys, and no left/right/up/down arrow keys. Crazy.

kps 4y ago

The original Macintosh keyboard didn't have cursor keys either. You were expected to use the mouse. Star at least had the NEXT key to select the next item/field, rather than the horrible conflation with TAB that the Macintosh HIG and IBM CUA jointly saddled us with.

digisign 4y ago
Works well though. I wouldn't want tab characters in my text fields.
- kps 4y ago
  But I don't want my ‘next field’ key to suddently stop moving between fields and instead enter characters, just because some fields of text are different from other fields of text. The mess goes back to IBM pre-computer unit record (punch card) equipment, for which fields were just columns on a card and moving to the next tab stop was the same as moving to the next field if you set up your keypunch appropriately.

NonNefarious 4y ago

But look, it has a Delete key AND a Backspace key... just every normal keyboard today. But inexplicably not the vast majority of Apple's.

alexdbird 4y ago
Fn + backspace does this on every Apple keyboard. IMO it’s gloriously consistent compared to the bizarre places that delete ends up on PC laptops and compact keyboards.
- NonNefarious 4y ago
  Two hands to delete a character? No, thanks. Not to mention that your consistency argument is out the window because Apple doesn't put Fn in the same place on all its keyboards. Also, that combo isn't marked on the keyboards, so it may as well not exist for the vast majority of people. With the demise of the Eject key, there is no excuse for the lack of Delete on Apple laptops. Not to mention that Apple put a hardware delay on the Eject key for some reason, so you couldn't even remap it to be Delete. If accidental CD ejections were causing enough fatalities to demand a NON-DEFEATABLE DELAY, why didn't Apple simply make Eject a secondary function on a Delete key, requiring Fn (and being marked as such)? Both problems solved.