arethinn: glowing green spiral (Default)
*pokes thunderbird in the eye*

Why make \ the key for "collapse all threads"? / would have made a lot more sense since it's right next to *, which is the key for "expand all threads". \ is completely somewhere else on the keyboard. It makes no sense. I want the two keys to be next to each other since they are inverse functions. Mrg.

Date: Mar. 3rd, 2007 01:06 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] digitalsidhe.livejournal.com
/ is right next to *? What the heck kind of keyboard are you using?

On a more constructive note, I'm guessing the idea is that there's a mnemonic: *, as per the shell wildcard, maps to "show me everything", while \ kind of means "just the root directory" (if you think in DOSish instead of in Unix).

I note that F/B and P/N are examples of other commonly-used inverse functions where the keys are far apart, but are chosen for their mnemonic value.

That said, I must admit I don't use Thunderbird because its interface drives me nuts. :)

Date: Mar. 3rd, 2007 02:29 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] starlightforest.livejournal.com
/ is right next to *? What the heck kind of keyboard are you using?

....one with a number pad?

Does yours not look like this?

Image

"I'm guessing the idea is that there's a mnemonic: *, as per the shell wildcard, maps to "show me everything", while \ kind of means "just the root directory" (if you think in DOSish instead of in Unix)."

Odd, I didn't think of that, though I cut my teeth on MS-DOS. I dunno, it just seemed more... kinetically? natural?

Date: Mar. 3rd, 2007 02:56 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] digitalsidhe.livejournal.com
Oh! Numeric pad! I keep forgetting those things exist.

In my world, * is in between & and (, while / sits right next to . (now, how do I end this sentence?).

Does yours not look like this?

As a matter of fact, mine looks exactly like that — we seem to both have black KeyTronic keyboards. It's kind of spooky, actually, because it looks like you could have snuck over to my house and taken a photo of my keyboard for this purpose.

Date: Mar. 3rd, 2007 03:27 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] starlightforest.livejournal.com
My KB is like that too (being an American English layout), but for many uses I have gotten used to using the numpad * because it is fewer strokes than "shift-8".. so naturally I drifted to numpad / (which isn't /). FTM / and * are not next to each other! So I guess maybe your character-input idea may be it.

*sneaks over to SF*

I bought this KB just because I had a black monitor. My case is on the floor so I don't see it, but a beige KB and a black monitor looked weird to me.

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arethinn: glowing green spiral (Default)
Arethinn

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