From: Behnam (behnam.rassi@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Apr 29 2007 - 07:39:13 CST
Optimus keyboard is particularly useful for those who have
multilingual use. Particularly those who don't use other languages
frequently enough to memorize the location of characters on the
keyboard. For the rest of us, it's just a fancy shiny device that
provides no performance advantages whatsoever. I frequently use two
languages and switching back and forth between the two on Mac OS X is
just a matter of fraction of second. For the third language that I
occasionally use, the keyboard viewer comes in very handy and it's
very versatile.
The real estate of Keyboard Viewer on the screen can become a real
issue, if it is needed constantly. But in terms of visibility, its
window is selectable in two size, the small size, which is somewhat
hard to see but more convenient for real estate, and the large size,
which is pretty close to the size of a real keyboard and quite
visible. The font in use for Keyboard Viewer can be selected
independently from the font you use for typing. So I often select a
rather bold or heavy face for the Viewer and keep it in small size to
save some space on the screen.
As for 'minority languages', I don't see any advantages in Optimus
keyboard, except for non native users of those languages. If those
minority languages can not provide themselves with a keyboard with
their own characters engraved, I think it is safe to assume that they
have more emergent needs than the Optimus keyboard. Such as a
computer, or a whole social and infrastructure support to attach to.
Regards,
Behnam
On 29-Apr-07, at 3:40 AM, Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
> I believe you're missing the point here. I do a lot of
> multilingual typing on Mac OS X. It's easy enough to switch
> keyboard mappings, but that's really not the problem. The problem
> is that once switched, it's annoying to squint at Keyboard Viewer
> to see what character is on which key. And Mac OS users are
> fortunate in that Keyboard Viewer is easily accessible: I *still*
> haven't found a reliable equivalent in Kubuntu or Windows XP.
>
> Having variable displays on each key would solve that problem
> neatly. If I want to know what a key does, I can just glance at
> the keyboard. The letters on the Optimus keyboard appear to be
> bigger and more legible than what Keyboard Viewer would provide,
> too, and the Optimus labeling takes up no screen real estate. A
> great solution, if you ask me.
>
> Best,
> --
> Marnen Laibow-Koser
> marnen@marnen.org
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