"Steven Schveighoffer" <schvei...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.v8o5k6h4eav7ka@localhost.localdomain... > > If you can bring yourself to stomach the apple store atmosphere,
Heh :) > I encourage you to visit one and try it out. It's definitely different > than any other interface I've ever used. > Maybe I will. (Although, there's a MicroCenter right around here and they have a nice atmosphere and an Apple section...Although then I'll have to keep shooing the vulture know-nothing salesmen away...) Last time I gave something a try at the apple store it was apple's version of a scroll mouse (the thing that "improves" on their infamous "one-button mouse" by having *no* buttons). By far worst mouse I've ever used. I know a guy that says he loves it, though I can't imagine why. > I do have a gripe about the mac system, however: the whole special key > shit. Control, Shift and Alt should be enough. Why do we have option, > and that funky clover key? Unless things have changed, it works like this (I'm actually looking at my Mac keyboard right here): "Option" *is* the "Alt" key (although the OS might treat it differently, can't remember). And the weird squiggly key is the "Apple" key (which is kind of a holdover from Apple 2 days when there was "Open Apple" and "Closed Apple", but no Control or Alt.) The Apple key is treated like the control key - You just have to remember that when you'd normally go for Control, on the Mac you'd do Apple instead. I don't remember what the hell the Mac's "Control" key is for. My Option key actually says "Alt" in addition to "Option" (no function key involved b/c this isn't a laptop), so...I think it behaves the same IIRC...? Of course, FWIW, Windows does have the "Windows" key and the "Menu" key. > Not to mention that on every other system in the world, ctrl-c is copy > ctrl-v is paste. Except for damn near every text-mode editor I've ever seen on Linux :/ (Note, that's "text-MODE editor", not just "text editor"). > > As a bonus, they've left off the home, end, page up, and page down keys. Ouch. That would absolutely kill me. That's definitely got to be a laptop-ism though. My Mac keyboard has all of those, and in the right places. Hmm, although it has a "Help" where "Insert" should be. Weird. Guess I never noticed because the only time I ever use overwrite mode is on accident. It does have F13-F15 where PrintScrn, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break normally are. The last two make sense to change, as I never use them. I do use Print Screen though. I do remember that OSX's keyboard combo to take a screenshot is rather unintuitive as a result. > Instead you use (yep, you guessed it) flower-key + arrow keys. And the > backspace key is labeled delete, and I still don't know how to do what a > normal delete key would do (delete the character that follows the cursor) > can someone tell me? > My Mac keyboard has the normal "Del" delete button (which also has a right-pointing arrow that has an 'x' inside it)...Although it *also* has a backspace button labeled "Delete"...So there's two "Delete" keys that each behave different. That's strange. Even more strange that I don't remember noticing it, but then it *has* been awhile. Guess I just forgot. I do agree though, keyboards on a Mac take some getting used to if you've been a Windows or Unix guy. And laptop keyboards can be a real pain in general.
