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Keyboard Conventions

 

Keyboard layouts vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even within a single manufacturers product line (compare, for example, type 4 and type 5 keyboards from Sun). This makes it difficult to describe actions that are correct for every possible keyboard. This document follows the convention established by the OSF/Motif document set in describing keys according to a model keyboard that has an ideal set of keys.

In addition to the standard letter, number and character keys, the OSF/Motif keyboard has the following special keys.

These keys are supplemented by a number of optional keys which, although useful, are either not necessary or correspond to combinations of the required keys.

If a key on the model keyboard is not available on your keyboard then there will be some combination of keys that will be equivalent to that key. A mapping between a set of actual keys and a key on the model keyboard is called a key binding. Some of the more important key bindings are listed here.


next up previous contents
Next: Mouse Conventions Up: Typographic and Keying Conventions Previous: Typographic and Keying Conventions

Chris Flatters
Thu Mar 14 16:02:50 MST 1996