On 7 Feb 2003, Jens Petersen wrote:

>[Feel free to cc me since I'm not currently subscribed to the list.]
>
>Hello,
>
>I would like to ask why the following change was made to the
>pc symbols file.  Why should we rather have Super on Win
>keys in 4.3, than Meta as in 4.2?  Additionally xkb doesn't
>seem to want to have both Alt and Meta on the some modifier
>currently afaict.
>
>Thanks for any light on the matter,

One word: consistency

When $JOE_USER goes to one computer, and presses the key labelled 
"foo", he expects to have it respond with action "bar".  When he 
goes to a different computer with a keyboard with a few extra 
keys, and he presses the key labelled "foo", he expects the key 
to respond with action "bar" as well.

Having a frequently used keypress like "Meta" be one key on one 
keyboard, and some other key on a very similar keyboard that just 
has a few extra bonus keys, is not only insane, it is a technical 
support nightmare.

I don't think anyone would want to be working telephone helpdesk 
support if Meta was to be a different key on 4 different 
keyboards.  ;o)

There are people out there who prefer the Meta key to not be the 
same as the Alt key, however I believe those people are also 
technically competant enough to configure XFree86 to remap the 
key to be the Windows key or whatever else they choose much 
easier than $JOE_USER can remap Meta to be Alt, where the 
majority of people are going to expect it.

It's just a case of making the defaults sane for the average 
user.

This is the same behaviour as under 4.2.x

-- 
Mike A. Harris




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