The Ctrl+Alt equivalence to AltGr is a Windows workaround to the fact that some keyboards didn't have an AltGr (such keyboards are still sometimes found in the US) to enable people with such keyboards to attempt to write languages like Spanish and English (okay, there are other ways of writing words like façade and naïve, but Windows didn't support those either, and indeed the Ctrl+Alt technique still leaves many characters out - so copy-paste from charmap or autocorrect bindings are still needed on Windows to write many languages).
This is a reasonable workaround in that system for the following reasons: 1. They were stuck for anything else to try, because there simply wasn't an AltGr key on those keyboards. 2. They don't have many uses for other Ctrl+Alt bindings, and those they do use (Ctrl+Alt+Delete of course) don't have AltGr bindings on most keyboard layouts. It remains a reasonable workaround for that system, because it's a fixed workaround for that system - this leads to item 2 remaining true, and people don't create Ctrl+Alt bindings. Strictly, that last point isn't true; people sometimes do program bindings to Ctrl+Alt combos that have no built-in binding in their locale, and then have internationalisation problems, but the workaround dug a hole that it's now next to impossible to dig out of because so many Windows users are used to it. This is not a reasonable workaround on other systems. 1. It isn't needed for most keyboards (though admittedly such keyboards do still exist). 2. There are a large number of cases where Ctrl+Alt is bound to something. Ctrl+Alt L will default to locking the screen, Ctrl+Alt T will launch a terminal window; clearly we cannot have those happening when someone tries to type a letter, or vice versa. Windows did something decades ago that seemed like a good idea at the time, and arguably was, and has to live with the negative consequences because Windows users are used to it. *nix did something different decades ago that seemed like a good idea at the time to people who did have AltGr keys, was largely invisible to most who didn't (who mostly make little use of the characters it allows anyway), and has to live with the fact that it confuses Windows users because *nix users are used to it. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/822872 Title: LeftCtrl+LeftAlt+Key should be equivalent to RightAlt+Key To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/822872/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
