Thank you for the nostalgia. I had an 8800b - lots of fun. and I do remember the black ones were NC.
Early in the PC days, there was no keypad. I remember explicitly when the keypad came into use, the keypad ENTER was a different code. Caused me a headache, but allowed for using the keypad differently too. Good and bad. -Fernando ---------- Original Message ----------- From: Randall Morgan <rmorga...@gmail.com> To: mailing list for gambas users <gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 20:01:31 -0800 Subject: Re: [Gambas-user] Key code constant wrong? > This is an interesting thread.... If you look back at some of the early > keyboards you will see that they did name the two keys differently. And > this was a hold over from the use of Qwerty keyboards on teletypes and > typewriters. The key on the text (main) keyboard is the return key. On > teletypes the key causes the carriage to return to the beginning of the > line. While the Enter key on the ten-key (numerical) keypad was taken from > the mechanical adding machines of the day. The enter key caused the > numerical value that was punch into numerical keys to be entered into the > calculation. > > With the move away from these mechanical devices most people (except us old > timers) have never seen or used a mechanical ten-key or Underwood > typewriter. The effect of the two keys on computer systems today is pretty > much the same. However I believe they remain separate for two reasons. > First, the need to maintain compatibility with any software that does use > them differently and second because the keys are laid out in a matrix > fashion that causes each key to have a distinct value. But it would not > surprise me if someday the keys are merged. > > Hope that shines some light on where the difference came from. My first PC > was an Altair 8800 without a keyboard. Mice hadn't been invented and > remember joy and sense of accomplishment we felt when my father and I got > the 88 to draw a circle on the oscilloscope. My first key pad was radio > shack's little red (the black ones were n.c. and the red n.o.) all tide > together on a piece of paneling. All buffered with 7404 hex inverters and > sent to a custom board plugged into the 88's back plane. Those were the > days when you build what you programmed. A lot of fun and a lot of work! I > sure wish I still had that old 88. It would be worth something now but it > was lost in a fire. > > Ok, I'm done with the nostalgia thanks for letting me share. Hope I shed a > bit of light on the key issue. > > On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 5:10 PM, Dimitris Anogiatis <dos...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > Perhaps its a remnand from the typewriter days...where the separation > > between line feed and carriage return was more visible due to its > > mechanical nature. > > > > > > > > On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 2:10 AM, Benoît Minisini < > > gam...@users.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > > > > Le 10/11/2013 06:05, Alain Baudrez a écrit : > > > > > > > > Why is Enter printed on that key on my laptop ?? > > > > > > > > I would never have guessed to refer to Key.Return instead of key.Enter. > > > > > > > > Alain > > > > > > Good question: both are named "Enter" (in french) on my keyboard too, > > > but they have always been two different keys internally. > > > > > > You must assume that two physicals different keys should always have > > > different Key.Code values (even if this is not always the case!). > > > > > > -- > > > Benoît Minisini > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > November Webinars for C, C++, Fortran Developers > > > Accelerate application performance with scalable programming models. > > > Explore > > > techniques for threading, error checking, porting, and tuning. Get the > > most > > > from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and > > > register > > > > > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60136231&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Gambas-user mailing list > > > Gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gambas-user > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > November Webinars for C, C++, Fortran Developers > > Accelerate application performance with scalable programming models. > > Explore > > techniques for threading, error checking, porting, and tuning. Get the most > > from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and > > register > > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60136231&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > > _______________________________________________ > > Gambas-user mailing list > > Gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gambas-user > > > > -- > If you ask me if it can be done. The answer is YES, it can always be done. > The correct questions however are... What will it cost, and how long will > it take? > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > November Webinars for C, C++, Fortran Developers > Accelerate application performance with scalable programming models. Explore > techniques for threading, error checking, porting, and tuning. Get the most > from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60136231&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > _______________________________________________ > Gambas-user mailing list > Gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gambas-user ------- End of Original Message ------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ November Webinars for C, C++, Fortran Developers Accelerate application performance with scalable programming models. Explore techniques for threading, error checking, porting, and tuning. Get the most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60136231&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Gambas-user mailing list Gambas-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gambas-user
