On 9/26/2010 11:35 AM, Philipp Stephani wrote:
This is not related to the operating system, but to the default keyboard layout.
True. Let me rephrase, and the following apply to users in the US;
things are different elsewhere, I'm sure. A Mac, out of the box with
nothing added by the user, supplies easy access to a large number of
Latin script characters with accents etc., through the default
keyboard--and has done so for a very long time. A Windows machine does
not and never has. Both Mac and Windows users can install additional
keyboards. But Windows users who ask how to enter an e-acute often end
up with that awful ALT method because that's what many people (and books
and websites) think is the "standard" method. Alternatives such as the
US-International keyboard are less well documented, at least in my
experience--perhaps because they were introduced with later versions of
Windows. Mac users who want to go beyond the default can enjoy the U.S.
Extended keyboard, which provides a lot more Latin script accents and
even combining marks, within a framework that is familiar to users (the
OPTION key). Windows has nothing comparable. So I stand by my
statement that Mac OS is better, at least for Latin script. (Things are
different for Arabic, Indic scripts, etc.). I work mostly on Windows,
so don't accuse me of being a Mac partisan.
Sorry, this is a topic that pushes my buttons. End of rant.
BTW, the default keyboard layouts on modern Linux systems are much more
comprehensive than their equivalents on OS X, because only on the X
Window System you have all three options: modifier keys, dead keys,
compose sequences.
Cool!
DAvid
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