What's A 'Scroll Lock' And Why Is It On My Keyboard? 866
Jeff Bauer writes "Today's article in The Straight Dope explains all
the weird keys that come with standard PC keyboards. Now if someone could just explain what the 'Alt Graph' key does on my Sun keyboard, enlightement would be at hand ..."
real application! (Score:5, Funny)
"In command-line environments such as DOS, the pipe symbol can add functionality to a DOS command. The way I most frequently use it is when doing a directory listing (DIR) on a large directory with hundreds of files. Say I type "DIR" at the command prompt like so:
C:\Una\Lesbian Porn>DIR
. . . then the 22,000 files in that directory scroll past so fast I can't see their names. However, if I apply the pipe function at the command prompt like this:
C:\Una\Lesbian Porn>DIR | more
. . . then the display will show me one screen of files at a time, with a "More" at the bottom. To display the next screen of files, I hit any key to continue, until all of the files in the directory have been listed (or I break, by pressing Ctrl-C). This is similar to using the "/p" modifier, such as "DIR
Not only do they explain it, but give a real life situation where it'd be useful! It's always hard to sort through 22,000 lesbian porn pics.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
Try "| sort | more" instead
Re:real application! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:real application! (Score:5, Funny)
Can Linux do this? If not, Windows is better than Linux.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Funny)
No, it requires a mouse.
Re:real application! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:real application! (Score:5, Insightful)
Serious though, it depends on which distribution you use and what bits you have installed.
WindowMaker comes with a command to do this.
Openwindows (the XView stuff not the OLIT stuff) on SunOS came with a util to do this.
Standard MIT X Windows also comes with a cut and paste history which lets you "go both ways" between files and the "cut buffer(s)".
Re:real application! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
Yes: Screen (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the clipboard is a property of the environment, rather than the OS. But there's certainly at least one environment that allows this: GNU screen [fu-berlin.de].
Screen has a concept of a buffer file that can be used to store or load the clipboard. The name of this file is defined in your screenrc, so it can vary from system to system, but it's often called /tmp/screen-xchg or (better for multi-user systems) ~/.screen_exchange. The keystroke ^A< reads this file and ^A> writes it; ^A> will also flash up a message telling you what the name of the file is (for example, Copybuffer written to "/tmp/screen-xchg" ).
So what you do is:
And there you have it.
Yes, and here it is. (Score:3, Informative)
In theory, after running "apt-get install xclip" you can do things like
and the primary X selection will be loaded up with the output, all reading for middle-clicking. Likewise, you can sweep a bunch of text and use it with
Other options let you use other clipboards, etc.
In practice, you can't just apt-get it. You have to apt-get the source, apply the content negotiation patch [debian.org], and run buildpackage yourself. Then it works perfectly. (I have no clue
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
For example, is you issue the command:
cat somefile | pbcopy
the clipboard receives the contents of somefile, whereas if you type:
pbpaste > somefile
puts the contents of the clipboard into the file somefile.
Re:real application! (Score:3, Insightful)
The only time I can see this being useful is if your terminal app is too crippled to allow you to copy and paste natively.
So, this isn't a great innovative feature, it's a clever workaround for some other fundamental brain-damage.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Informative)
$ ls | xclip -i
does what you'd expect.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Informative)
You must have it installed from somewhere else, or as part of the admin pack or whatever. Its obvioulsy just a program which puts the stdin input into the clipboard, pretty useful, but not included by default.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Informative)
Clip is one of the utilities from http://www.cmdtools.com/
Re:real application! (Score:3, Informative)
type reallybigfile.txt | clip
Care to elaborate?
Just a thought but... (Score:4, Informative)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)/windo
etc, etc, etc...
The C: drive thingies are just useful for the Win32API, so opening new files off that drive won't work, and explorer will probably fail in mysterious ways later on, if the C: is mentioned anywhere in the registry where it might be used to dynamically load some view or file operation.
As you might expect, drives letters are just places where to start a mapping to a mounted filesystem (which is internally identified with a GUID, like everything else, the drive letter has no significance). Windows only needs C: to boot and load programs, but if you aren't opening files, you don't need it.
Re:real application! (Score:3, Funny)
# umount
umount:
umount:
so maybe umount -f
# umount -f
umount2: Device or resource busy
umount:
umount:
umount2: Device or resource busy
umount:
Nope. Looks like this is a Windows-only feature. I guess Windows must be the more powerful OS...
Re:real application! (Score:3, Insightful)
Fan of Michael Moorcock I presume? (Score:4, Informative)
Well call me Catherine Cornelius and break out the psychotropic lesbian porn fiction...
Well it is true to the spirit of Moorcock. Just look at the cover art [eclipse.co.uk].
Ok, so it is a touch off-topic, but I was stunned to see a literary(sic) reference in a /. link
Q.
The Straight Dope (Score:3, Funny)
is extremely knowledgeable and cosmopolitan. No urban legends, actual investigation, proper journalistic techniques. Believe me,
Re:Fan of Michael Moorcock I presume? (Score:3, Insightful)
Q.
Re:real application! (Score:5, Funny)
You're new here, aren't you?
Re:real application! (Score:4, Funny)
Windows Key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows Key (Score:2)
Re:Windows Key (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Windows Key (Score:3, Informative)
WHERE ARE MY HOTKEYS???"
Wherever you set them.
I have alt+c close current window, alt+k,c to sigkill it, alt+mwheeldown/up to cycle through tabs in my current pane (I use ion. I'll provide screenshots if someone asks). Then theres the GNU ReadLine shorcuts that a lot of apps respect(most because they actually use ReadLine, then the rest just because theyre standard.
^A - begining of line
^E - end of line
^K - delete text from cursor to end of
Re: Windows Key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Alt -escape (Score:5, Funny)
You're right. The "Windows Key" (AKA Start Button) is CTRL+ESC. The "right-click" is SHIFT+F10. The "Task Manager" is CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. The "Boot a Real OS" is CTRL+ALT+DEL.
Re:Alt -escape (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure if that is was a Win95 bug, a Duke bug or what. However, clearly it is possible to detect the difference between the two keys.
Hmmm, that might have been Ctl-Esc, but I remember the bug in Duke was like that.
Kirby
Re:Windows Key (Score:3, Informative)
An old one (Score:5, Funny)
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
Re:An old one (Score:5, Funny)
}"_# |
-@$&/_%
!( @|=>
;`+$?^?
,#"~|)^G
hat less at less point at star
backbrace double base pound space bar
dash at cash and slash base rate
wow open tab at bar is great
semi backquote plus cash huh DEL
comma pound double tilde bar close BEL
Re:An old one (Score:5, Funny)
Re:An old one (Score:3, Informative)
Scroll Lock Key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scroll Lock Key (Score:5, Funny)
Many thousands of years ago, a new technology brought forth rampant unapproved duplication of holy scrolls. Fearing their power was slipping out of their grip, the religious leadership began a campaign of identifying and stoning to death the worst offenders.
When this campaign backfired, causing people to buy even less scrolls than before, they changed their approach by embedding actual physical protection on scrolls they sold, in an attempt to reduce the illegal duplication and maintain control over distribution.
These "scroll locks" were placed on all scrolls manufactured, and indeed served to protect their power for several decades. But, eventually they were cracked, for it was only a matter of time, and scrolls and their content became free.
The world changed for the better, and people vowed never to let anything like that happen again. As we say now "when pigs fly", they too saw the improbability of ever allowing such a thing to happen again. "Yeah, maybe 2000 years after the Son of God walks the earth, then we'll let this happen again, but not before that!" laughed Haramud Ha'abbahakbar.
And so it was inscribed in many religious texts (rough translation) "And bind upon your keyboards always a key named 'Scroll Lock' so that you may be reminded daily of the plight caused by this wretched behavior of control, and that you may take your child upon your lap and tell him of the horrors forced upon his ancestors in the time when individual men were treated as slaves."
It saddens me that this history is forgotten, and all we can think about is scrolling a spreadsheet or switching monitors. To think that people actually would remove this key frightens me and foretells of a coming apocalypse, as people have foresaken their history and are doomed to repeat it.
Scroll lock is useful in Linux terminals (Score:5, Informative)
Many people think that scroll lock is now useless, except in Microsoft Excel, but it does have a much more useful purpose, at least in Linux and perhaps BSD.
Re:Scroll lock is useful in Linux terminals (Score:4, Informative)
P.S. this works places other than Unix also.
Re:Scroll lock is useful in Linux terminals (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also used in Lotus Notes for its original purpose. The last company I worked for used Notes as its groupware client, and it once took me 5 minutes to figure out why I couldn't scroll through my list of inbox e-mail messages without the entire list moving up and down, not having noticed that the "Scroll Lock" light was on :).
Yaz.
Re:Scroll lock is useful in Linux terminals (Score:3, Interesting)
My KVM switch uses Scroll Lock to switch hosts, but, often this confuses my terminals, sometimes to the point where I must do mad-bomber techniques to reset the keyboard, and sometimes badly enough that I've chosen to reboot.
Is there a way to disable the scroll lock key at the keyboard driver level?
Re:Scroll lock is useful in Linux terminals (Score:3, Informative)
NO! Not in "BSD", ONLY in FreeBSD... FreeBSD is not the end-all, be-all BSD, thank you very much.
Props! (Score:5, Funny)
The Light (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Light (Score:5, Funny)
Pointing at radio tower with blinking red light: "What's that tower for?"
"They built it to warn planes."
Perhaps someone can tell me ... (Score:2)
MS Office scroll lock peeve (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll be reading a document using the scroll wheel on my mouse, get tired of that particular method then switch to using the arrow key, which then jumps the view to the current cursor position, which is by now miles away from where I was reading.
Not exactly sure I'd remember to turn on Scroll Lock in the first place, but for read-only documents it might be a good default.
--H
Re:MS Office scroll lock peeve (Score:3, Informative)
More interesting question migth be... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More interesting question migth be... (Score:3, Interesting)
FreeBSD : Run sysinstall and you can select a keymap with caps as a ctrl.
Linux : you can do it at the "KDE" level, or level of X, but the most reliable method is to just use
echo 'keycode 58 = Control' | loadkeys
at bootup
Win 9x : I believe you can just use they keymap util with powertools
Win2k (xp?) : you have to fuck with the registry. I can't recall how I did it, but I got it to work and I just run a regestry import now (you can find articles on how to do
Re:More interesting question migth be... (Score:3, Informative)
Mind you, this is not a registry thing because you actually need code to run it. With this, caps lock will go uppercase, and CTRL will release the lock.
Mad Props (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mad Props (Score:5, Informative)
What I use the scroll lock key for (Score:2)
a+scroll lock = mutt
s+scroll lock = (insert x app here)
ifyou know how to remap your keyboard, using something like bbkeys, or whatever there is for gnome/kde is obsolete.
Alt Graph on Sun-boxen ... (Score:5, Informative)
\@${[]}|~?
Not sure about the US keymap, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to go without Alt Graph.
Re:Alt Graph on Sun-boxen ... (Score:5, Informative)
On keyboards in general, most keys generates two characters. This is fine for English, not using any letters besides A-Z or any accents as far as ASCII is concerned.
However, for many European languages, there are additional characters, like a+ring (U+0035) in Swedish, and accented characters, like e+acute (U+00E9) in French. Since back in the days of XTs, there were only 83/84 keys to go around, they made some keys produce a third and sometimes fourth character. These were accessed by pressing Ctrl and Alt for the third char and Ctrl, Alt and Shift for the fourth char and then the key.
At some point, it was (rightfully) decided this was unnecessarily clunky. Keyboard BIOSes/drivers were changed to support the Mac-style input of accent + character to generate that character accented. That still left the 'standard' for older keyboards to be backward compatible with, and other chars that didn't fit that pattern.
So when the 101/102 key keyboards came out, for European languages that changed the right Alt key to Alt Gr, or alternate graphic. (For some languages it had a different abbreviation, like Alt Car). This allowed typing Alt Gr plus one of the 3- or 4-character keys to access the 3rd (and with Shift, the 4th) character. Still a pain, but less so than a 3 or 4 finger salute to get a single character.
Re:Alt Graph on Sun-boxen ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Most PC keyboards outside of the US have the Alt Graph (or Alt Gr) key. It's used to access all kinds of international characters. On my keyboard (I'm in the Netherlands), I can type the following characters with it: 1/41/23/4''xaae(R)uuiooaBdoae(C)nc
When I typed it, there were 36 special characters (accented characters, the Euro sign and other currency signs, international alphabet and punctuation characters, etc.) following that colon, I'm curious to see how many of them will survive Slashdot's US-centric character handling code...
The ` key (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The ` key (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The ` key (Score:5, Funny)
Also for execute (Score:3, Informative)
I use it for usefull things... (Score:4, Interesting)
Like I'll believe it has a use other than those...pfft.
Uses for AltGr (Score:4, Interesting)
AltGr ("alternate graphic," although it should really be "alternate glyph") is used for entering extended characters beyond what the standard keyboard layout supports. It's equivalent to the X keysym Mode_switch. When you use the "US International" keyboard layout in Windows, the right Alt key becomes AltGr, which when pressed along with other keys produces various extended characters, including accented letters, special punctuation marks, and other fancy stuff without having to type in the ASCII value on the numeric keypad while holding the Alt key. On non-US keyboards, like the ISO Spanish keyboard on my Mac, some keys have extra characters printed on the key caps, indicating which character they generate while pressing AltGr.
Wrong! (Score:4, Interesting)
The Scroll Lock key was a vestige of the old IBM word processor systems. It was used to lock the cursor in place, and the up and down arrow keys scrolled the entire screen, leaving the cursor locked. It should have been called "cursor lock."
The article is riddled with errors. For example, una says the Macintosh extended keyboards have a scroll lock key. It does not.
Re:Wrong! (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it does. It shares the same keycap as F14.
Re:Wrong! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not entirely certain what article you thought you read, but according to Una:
The main intent of the Scroll Lock key was to allow scrolling of screen text up, down and presumably sideways using the arrow keys in the days before large displays and graphical scroll bars.
According to you, it sounds like Una got it right at the start.
RTFA
Here's an idea (Score:4, Funny)
Alt Graph.... (Score:4, Informative)
ISTR that AltGraph+Help did something on older Sun machines, but I can't recall what.
15 fnc, 4 cmd, 9 movement, and 5 misc keys (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact the alt/option key is really just a replacement for the escape key, except one has to be dexterous enough to hold two keys down at once to use it.
And lets not even get started with delete/backspace key and the del key.
Just looking at my keyboard, which has as nearly as many function/command keys as character keys, I wonder if bloat stated with the keyboard and expanded into the software. I mean it looks cool and hi tech and all, but who needs to look hi tech in the 21st century?
Re:15 fnc, 4 cmd, 9 movement, and 5 misc keys (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, that's right. Wanna know what happens when you type Hyper-Super-Meta-Control-Symbol-Shift-Square? So do I...
See also space-cadet keyboard [faqs.org].
Alt-Gr (as seen on lusenet) (Score:5, Funny)
(Alt-Gr key example [www.ucd.ie] (in this case being illustrated as part of a key combo to produce the Euro symbol))
Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)
Blatanly stolen from Simpsons episode 3f05.
I can't find (Score:5, Funny)
For all the NetAdmins out there... (Score:3, Funny)
my co-worker, in all the years that he's been working here, never seems to learn this.
i'd be sitting at my desk, trying to do more important stuff (like reading
"there's something wrong with this router! come check it out..."
me: "is the scroll-lock on?"
few seconds later...
"oh."
Alt-GR (Score:3, Informative)
On the other hand, we get often used charatcers like aeoa as primary keys, and have access "# with Shift + 2, 3 and 4.
This is all based on a danish keyboard. Some people have grown beyond US-ASCII (7-bit crap)
True story (Score:5, Interesting)
At one point in the inspection, the technician had to monitor the machine from a boot-up state, and so he rebooted the machine. The only problem was, the machine didn't come back up. Instead, it hung early in the boot process, leaving the distinct impression on the observers that the technician had hosed up a perfectly good -- and very expensive -- minicomputer.
Apparently, the same impression was left on the technician, because he started sweating. A lot. He tried rebooting the machine again, obviously unsure of what the hell he had done to land in his present, miserable condition and just as obviously wanting desperately to be released from it. The machine hung up again. More sweat. Another attempt. Same thing: Hang. Then he opened the case and peered inside. He was clearly grasping at straws. The sweat started to bead on his forehead.
Eventually, after about fifteen minutes of increasingly distressing diagnostic procedures, consulting the LEDs, and hand wringing, he gave up: "You've got a bad motherboard. I'll have to call in for a swap." He half ran away from the uncomfortable scene to make his phone call.
While he was gone, the sysadmin busted out laughing. Then he pointed at the keyboard on the console VT320. The Scroll Lock LED was lit. The sysadmin said that the technician must have hit it earlier and never took it off before rebooting. When the kernel tried to send boot-up messages to the console, the console wouldn't accept them, and so the kernel blocked, waiting for the Scroll Lock to be released!
A few minutes later, the technician returned, looking only a bit less nervous. In his best it's-under-control voice: "Yeah, we'll have that new board out right away. No problem." The sysadmin's reply: "Great! I'm sure glad we have the preventative-maintenance contract, because I bet those boards are plenty expensive. I'd hate to pick up the tab for one of them." After a few precious moments of letting that thought sink in, the sysadmin "noticed" the scroll-lock situation: "Hey, isn't the scroll lock on? Let's just see what happens if I ..." He then tapped the keyboard.
And the Vax booted right up.
True.
Re:True story (Score:3, Interesting)
We have had our AIX box hanging during a weekly nightly reboot because someone switched off the console terminal.
Indeed it can leave you puzzled for a while, especially as this console is rarely used, and operators normally use network connections to access the machine.
Missing some info (Score:4, Informative)
The Print Screen/SysRq key was used in Dos to send the current screen of text directly to lpt1: (your printer), hence the name "Print Screen". In Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.x), Print Screen executes a screen capture (without the mouse cursor) and puts it on the clipboard. Alt+PrintScreen copies just the current window.
In addition to what was said in the article about Pause/Break, pressing it _during_ a dir or other scrolling text operation will halt the screen. (This includes during booting before the OS loads.) Press any key to continue.
As for the `/~ key? Still haven't found a useful function for it other than typing a ` or a ~.
And the |? That one serves just about the same purpose to me as the "Context Menu" button on many newer keyboards, which is to say, none.
What's Alt Gr for? (Score:4, Informative)
Use for the tilde key (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Use for the tilde key (Score:3, Informative)
say char boing = 0x55;
char gniob = ~boing;
Re:Losing the Insert key (Score:4, Funny)
You are not using a modern keyboard.
You are using a Modern Art keyboard.
We used to use backtick an tilde as delimiters in proprietary text storage and parsing routines. Nobody will these when entering text into a program. Well at least that was the theory at design time.
Re:Losing the Insert key (Score:4, Insightful)
What keys do you "liberate" from your keyboards?
Re:Losing the Insert key (Score:3, Funny)
I dont have an key. I dont understand whats up with people on Slashdot always griping about my typing and grammar. Its perfectly acceptable. Theres nothing wrong with it. Whatever, I just dont get it.
Re:Losing the Insert key (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Losing the Insert key (Score:5, Funny)
My car key, my office key, my desk key,
Re:Or can anyone explain (Score:5, Funny)
It's for annoying the crap out of email recipients and newsgroup readers - of course.
nigerians (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
The thing actually had an [Any] key...it was just an extra Enter key.
Re:Outstanding, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Look no further, Compaq has the answer. [compaq.com]
Xon/Xoff history lesson: blame microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
this dates back to the teletype and is enshrined in the ascii alphabet as Xon and Xoff. Originally it was intended not as a scroll lock but as a way for a teletype or printer to not overflow its fixed hardware buffer. The communication baud rate could easily out pace the tele type printers print speed. when the hardware buffer was nearly full it would send an X-off (contol-s) to the sender to pause its communications. When the buffer was printed the teletype would send a X-on back to the sender to resume spewing.
There was no need for scoll locking functionality on a teletype printer since you could just hold up the paper and look at it back as many lines as you wanted.
but when dumb video terminals came along the terminals could print as fast as the data came in the X-on and X-off functions had little use as a communications protocol, but Now they were useful to humans as a scroll lock. they had at most 40 lines of text and once you scrolled off the top of the screen, you lost that line forever. There were no "windows" or "scroll bars". So you had your fingers poised over the contrl-s key to halt the text from flowing off the screen.
finally along came the PC and Microsoft messed with all the unix converions in their VMS/CPM ripoff called dos: so you could not be sure that control-S would actually work. In part this was because DOS was not really multitasking. programs could take over the OS and capture all the interupts and put hooks directly into the keyboard handler. Since there were no Menus and the "alt" key had not come into its standard defintion yet, the control keys were premium realestate for programs to hook functions into.
thus there was a need for another semaphore. So things like scroll lock and sysRequest, and print screen got added. So yes virgina you can blame MS for these keys as valuable male breasts or an appendix.
Re:SysReq (Score:3, Informative)
I really doubt that ``it's days are numbered.''