Subject: Re: Operation of "shift" key according to ISO/IEC 9995

From: "Alain LaBont/e'/" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 16:41:01 -0400

At 16:13 15/07/1996 EDT, [email-masked] wrote:
>To: Alain LaBont/e'/   <[email-masked]>
>cc: POND    --TOROLAB6 Pond, Rick        
>*** Reply to note of 07/15/96 15:51                                            
>From: C.Y.Alexis Cheng,     National Language Technical Centre                 
>IBM Mail: CAIB2499 at IBMMAIL    Internet: [email-masked]                 
>( )IBM Confidential  (x)Unclassified                                           
>Subject: Re: Operation of "shift" key according to ISO/IEC 9995                
>
>Bonjour Alain,                                                                 
>
>I still think the current OS/2 and Windows95 violate the                       
>descriptions of ISO/IEC 9995-7.  The Level 2 Select key                        
>" selects the set of characters or functions allocated to the                  
>level 2 of the keyboard in the active group."                                  
>
>Consider the key 'A' in the Latin/English group.  The character                
>on level 2 of that key is 'A', as evident when pressing the                    
>Level 2 Select key and the letter A key at the same time.                      
>
>Now ISO/IEC 9995-7 describes the CapsLock as "to select                        
>the stat in which only capital forms of the letters are entered."              
>The capital form of upper case 'A' is still 'A'! In summary,                   
>pressing CapsLock, Level 2 Select, and the letter A key altogether             
>should produce the upper case A, not the lower case a in OS/2 and              
>Win95.                                                                         
>
>What do you think?                                                             
>
>Cheer, Alexis                                                                  

Strictly speaking you are right. However in my cache brain circuits, I also
considered that on some national keyboards, as per "On certain national
keyboards, for certain keys, this function is equivalent to level 2 lock",
this could also mean that the effect of the CapsLock is canceled, like on
mechanical typewriters for Level-2 Lock (formerly called Shift Lock).

But my brain is somewhat twisted, the reason why I said there could be other
opinions which are discussable.

In any way, to me it never made sense to do lower case letters when in
CapsLock mode... So I tend to support your opinion, but the standard is not
made to repress, it is made to help... And unfortunately many people are
used to that defect (mainly technicians), so at least the option must be
tolerated.

Now you know what I deeply think.

Zai jian.

Shàn Alán (LaBonté Alain)