deskthority

Muirium wrote:Classic Model Ms may be no good for you, Spinny, but they live on at little Unicomp, with all the right keys:
<snip>
http://pckeyboard.com/page/category/UltraClassic

I also miss the mods on my Ms, thanks to being a Mac user where Command (Windows key on the PC) came as standard since 1984 and is used very heavily indeed. But I still love my SSK in any case: there I remap the mods so I can get all 3 between the 4; by going asymmetric.

The IBM Model M (and the SSK) work for me on the Mac. I don't mind having Control in one place only (replacing CapsLock), and then on the bottom row having Opt-Command-Space-Command-Opt.

Nevertheless, I have followed your lead on remapping the XT, so that it has, in addition to the Control in the CapsLock space, Ctrl-Opt-Command-Space-Command-Opt-Ctrl.

Even when those three mods are awkwardly sized (as they are on the XT) they're still tremendously useful to me. I'd really love to add a couple of keys to my SSK!

rjrich wrote:BTW, I found that double shift ---> CapsLock is already a feature in KRM4MB; all I had to do was check the box. It is reversed by hitting left Shift.

Thanks for that tip! I have taken caps lock out of my layout all together (used caps lock as backspace and backspace as backspace), but this will be great for those couple of times I need to use it

There may be (rare) cases, when someone needs to write a longer paragraph in capital letters, but I do not understand what’s so hard to simply hold down shift while typing? So, what for was Caps Lock invented?

And, why dispraise Caps Lock whitout mentioning Scroll Lock, Insert and Pause? Those keys are less in use than functions like Ctrl-S, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-C, which are not blessed with a key for its own.

I would agree with this, and am I right in thinking this is down to keyboard traditions? As I understand it caps lock used to be important for programming and so did Insert, Pause, and Scroll Lock. I mean even going back to the idea of the QWERTY letter layout, doesn't it come from the layout of typewriters and to reduce the likelihood of jamming by putting the keys most commonly used far apart?

Caps Lock came from the days when holding Shift was a lot of work:



You used to "shift" a large part of the typewriter's mechanism whenever you pressed it. So a latch was super useful for all those HEADINGS AND SUCH that weren't easily separated from other text, as you had just one font and size anyway.

Scroll Lock became useless long ago, but few manufacturers have the gumption to remove it.

And Num Lock was downright essential in ancient times, as the original IBM PC had no separate arrow keys besides its numpad:



The mainstream keyboard pretty much arrested in development in the 1980s. So vestigial oddities like these are common. They are there because they are there!

Thanks for the information Muirium!
I was aware of the num lock thing, as I know how frustrating the lack of it is in Mac OS (as other Mac Sibelius users may be able to understand).

Now I want my keyboard to look like the Kanzler! My XT looks so bland next to a real Schriebmaschine!

Muirium wrote:Caps Lock came from the days when holding Shift was a lot of work:



You used to "shift" a large part of the typewriter's mechanism whenever you pressed it. So a latch was super useful for all those HEADINGS AND SUCH that weren't easily separated from other text, as you had just one font and size anyway.

Scroll Lock became useless long ago, but few manufacturers have the gumption to remove it.

Mate. That typwriter is beautiful. God I'd love one of those. MUST RESIST STEAMPUNK TEMPTATION. MUST RESIST STEAMPUNK TEMPTATION.