From alb@sct.gouv.qc.ca Mon Jul 15 21:54:45 1996 Received: from socrate.riq.qc.ca (socrate.riq.qc.ca [199.84.128.1]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id VAA01234; Mon, 15 Jul 1996 21:54:43 +0200 Received: from 506.sct.gouv.qc.ca (riq-44-143.riq.qc.ca) by socrate.riq.qc.ca (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA08530; Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:54:46 -0400 Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:54:46 -0400 Message-Id: <9607151954.AA08530@socrate.riq.qc.ca> X-Sender: alb@mail.riq.qc.ca X-Mailer: Eudora Light pour Windows Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit To: rickpond@VNET.IBM.COM From: "Alain LaBont/e'/" Subject: Re: Operation of "shift" key according to ISO/IEC 9995 International Keyboard Standard At 14:07 15/07/1996 EDT, rickpond@VNET.IBM.COM wrote: >From: Rick Pond >Subject: Operation of "shift" key > >Hello Alain, > >I have a question for you about ISO 9995. The keys at either end of row >B are called "level 2 select" whereas most people think of them (and >they are labelled on my keyboards) as "shift". If they perform a level >two select, then when "caps lock" is on they should have no effect on the >normal English (non accented) alphabetic keys. However, in many cases >(including both OS/2 and Win 95 -- I haven't tried others) when caps >lock is on, pressing one of these keys will cause a LOWER case alphabetic >to be displayed. In other words, the key operates like a "shift" key >which shifts into the "other" level -- either level 2 (if caps lock is >off) or level 1 (if caps lock is on.) > >Is my interpretation of 9995 correct? If so, are many keyboard drivers >actually contravening the requirements of 9995? ISO/IEC 9995 is mute on this so this is not a requirement and is left to the application. ISO/IEC 9995-7 *describes* "level 2 select" (the up-to-date-name for traditional "shift", a term deprecated [in French "Sélection du niveau 2", as per the same standard], as there are now 3 levels on keyboards, except on American ones) as: "to select the set of characters *or functions* allocated to the level 2 of the keyboard in the currently active group" and describes Caps Lock as: " to select the state in which only capital forms of the letters are entered. Note: On certain national keyboards, for certain keys, this function is equivalent to level 2 lock". With this data, my interpretation as editor (of course there might be other opinions, I am not alone in this committee) is that a lot of things are allowed with much flexibility, allowing the market-bettering of user system interfaces: -it can be considered a feature function of "level 2 select" to change the state of the keyboard temporarily when you are in CapsLock to cancel its effect for letters only, although I have seen some drivers which behave more intelligently, having options to turn CapsLock off whenever a letter is typed when "level 2 select" is depressed and you type a letter (my DOS Canadian keyboard driver behaves like this while beeping when it occurs and allows its tailoring to a more traditional option); if you use a keyboard intensively you know what burden it is to type a line of capital letters with a lower case initial (in many instances in this case, most of the time it is because you have forgot that your keyboard is in Caps Lock mode); on the Internet typing lines of capital letters in this mode would also nowadays be perceived as very "yahoo" (i.e. brutal, "redneck", if I interpret the translation of this English word in French as made by my dictionaries) manners btw (-: so it is better to correct this practice; -CapsLock can also in certain countries (thanks to France's insistance) be equivalent to "level 2 lock" (in countries other than France and Belgium where the Latin script is not the primary set, it might also make sense). >(By the way, one exception that I have found is Comm Manager/2 which does >display upper case alphabetics with caps lock on and shift depressed.) It imho also makes sense, it is a mechanical and less intelligent but useful variant of what I described for my DOS keyboard driver made for real people according to real people experience... > >Thanks for your help! > >Rick Pond 416-448-3222 (TL 778) >3R/979/1150 fax -4414 >National Language Technical Centre >Toronto SWS Lab inet: rickpond@vnet.ibm.com You are most welcome. Alain LaBonté Editor, ISO/IEC 9995, and co-editor with Bernard Chauvois (Tours, France) and Fred Bealle (Toronto), of specific ISO/IEC 9995-7 bcc to many selected interested parties, including Microsoft Canada now working hard on Canadian keyboard interfaces seriously so they might be interested too in international user-machine interfaces' trends