Better keyboard shortcuts

[Xen]

Dale Amon schreef op 27-06-2016 0:50:
>>> I believe it is called the Super key? What a stupid name to begin
>>> with! And Alt is called the Meta key? Equally stupid!!!!.
>>> [...]
>>> What on earth were people thinking when they tried to get away from
>>> calling it "windows key" and "alt key"????
> 
>> While nowadays there are only two naming schemes that are still
>> commonly used (IBM PC-based & Apple), a long time ago many computer
>> companies had their own keyboard layouts & key names.  On many old
>> keyboards these keys were named the "meta" and "super" keys:
>> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Space-cadet.jpg/800px-Space-cadet.jpg
> 
> {META_KEY} was, and probably still is, a term used in a number of 
> important Unix
> based utilities like Emacs and EmacsLisp. The specific binding of
> MetaKey depends on the
> system, and documentation is meant to be agnostic, thus some have come
> to think that
> a particular key on the recently/mostly standardized laptop keyboards
> and 'Microsoft
> Compatible' keyboards is what MetaKey means. Nope. It just happens to
> be assigned to
> that particular use on those particular keyboards/systems.

Maybe those keys are not assigned to the "meta key", but the meta key is 
assigned to those keys, if you know what I mean. Maybe that's what you 
say, you think.

But which is more important, the name "meta", or those keys?

I would say the name "meta" is completely irrelevant in todays world. 
Those keys are not.

So you can say those keys are attributed to that name, but you can also 
say that that name is a label attached to those keys on an insignificant 
amount of systems world-wide.

Meaning, the name is in the minority, not those keys.

If you want to be compatible with everything and choose your names and 
policies based on that, even if the things you want to be compatible 
with have already died off......

Or if you want to cater to systems that are so in ill-use, that they are 
less than 1% of the total population of keyboads, probably.....

Then it starts to not make sense to choose your naming policy based on 
those systems and the width or scope of the compatibility you want to 
achieve (call them statistical outliers) because you're now trying to be 
compatible with systems of which only a single exemplar still remains, 
so to speak.

If you have 10 million of one type and 3 of the other, maybe it doesn't 
make sense to treat all of them as equal.

It's a bit the same in reporting, 10.000 scientists say one thing, 5 say 
another thing, and both are treated equal in the press (both groups).

Not representative, is all I am saying here.

You could at least change it to "alt" or "command" and still make sense 
in this world. You could even call the windows key the "system" key 
insteadof command, but super key just doesn't make sense. The super 
duper key.

On all Windows and Mac systems, the meta key (in a sense) is called Alt. 
Can we do a calculation here? Are you trying to be relevant, or 
irrelevant? And what audience are you working for, the ones that use 
you, or the ones that are dead?

I would feel rather disregarded and disrespected, if I was your client.

You care more about people on another planet, than the ones right in 
front of you, so to speak. (Reminds me of people making phone calls 
while talking with you, or while having been talking to you).