From: Robert Abel (freakrob@googlemail.com)
Date: Thu Jan 07 2010 - 16:24:24 CST
2010/01/07 19:35, verdy_p:
> My notebook (a new one as well as all the past ones I have used) could
> not fit any symbol on the front of keys.
> Doing that would make the keyboard too thick, and with the current development of notebooks to reduce their weight,
> there's simply no space available to put anything on the front of keys, all labels must fit on top of keys, meaning
> that there cannot be a third row of labels, unless the labels have a ridiculously small and hardly readable size.
>
> Do you really describe a notebook?
>
Now what's the argument about? How to fit the little labels on the key
can hardly be of any concern for keyboard layout creators, after all
these are supposed to work with many different keyboards (concerning
number of keys and size of keys anyway).
On a side note, I have seen notebook keyboards that used the side space
of keys to fit function key (fn) labels on there, so it certainly is
possible.
> May be yours was sold 10 years ago when they were much heavier& thicker. All the notebooks I can see today use very
> thin keys and can't fit any label on the front of keys (unless you reduce the surface of the top to make the front
> visible, making it rectangular instead of square (but this will not increase the surface for fitting labels, and it
> will be more difficult to type on smaller keys which will also be less rigid and more fragile).
>
Actually, I do own a quite recent notebook/laptop (from 2008) that even
features a standard width numeric block. And as widescreen laptops
become more and more common you do have vertical space for that. So it's
not like keytops would get too crowded with two groups of two levels. I
also have seen at least one notebook that did not have numeric block
labels at all. It used different-colored keys to mark the respective
keytops, so that would always be an option for keyboard vendors if there
ever was no space left on a key for numeric blocks overlapping the
regular keyboard.
I wonder whether it should be of any concern to keyboard layout creators
how big or small keys can get. Right now two groups á two levels works
just fiine in my opinion.
On my Japanese keyboard all number keys have four labels printend on
them. One row for kana keyboard layout, the other for regular Roman
keyboard layout. I don't find that crowded at all. However, having one
layout have more than two labels might be somewhat confusing, but alas
it's not needed for Japanese, because you can type most foreign stuff in
an IME anyway.
Regards,
Robert
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