[9fans] Questions

[Scott Schwartz schwartz@finch.cse.psu.edu]

David Hogan <dhog@lore.plan9.cs.su.oz.au> writes:
| Yes, but the suggestion which spawned this debate was that programs
| such as 8 1/2 which interpret the down arrow as the "view" key should
| interpret the arrow glyphs as control characters (after matching
| modifications to the console driver).  As Rob points out, this is a
| bad idea since it makes it impossible for a user to insert literal
| arrow glyphs. 

That's not entirely true, since you could always snarf one of those
reserved characters from a ½char window.

| Unicode defines certain characters which can be used as "control"
| characters.  Attempting to use others this way would be a mistake.

But given that the architecture of the console device is to just
return characters, not events, you have to abuse some characters
or other.  The "view" key is just the narrow end of the wedge.

Isn't it the case that there are OS reserved sections of the unicode 
space that could be used for this sort of thing?

(Linux puts Klingon script there... do we want to buck the trend?)

| I actually like the way that all three of the bottom row of arrow
| keys act as the view key; one doesn't need to be so precise. 

Hm.  I have a hard time hitting the wrong arrow.  Especially on a
keyboard with a t-bar configuration.

| Of course, you're free to redefine the keys in your own copy
| of the source! 

It's much more fun to have some sort of consensus, rather than
a bunch of disparate hacks.

P.S.  skull and crossbones is 2620.