Re: tlug: US student moving to Tokyo

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, Jonathan Byrne wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, Andrew S. Howell wrote:
> 
> > Just to keep opinions balanced :), I have to put in a vote against
> > Japanese keyboards. In fact, many of the Japanese in my office use
> > English keyboards. I just don't like the placement of several keys;
> > underbar '_', tilde '~', and the small space bar come to mind.
> 
> > If I've been missing out on the benefits of Japanese keyboards,
> > please, someone enlighten me.
> 
> OK, consider yourself englightened :-)  I find that Japanese keyboards are
> not only superior for Japanese input, I just plain prefer them, even for
> English input.  If a person is used to a regular QWERTY keyboard, it may
> take some time to learn to type on a Japanese keyboard, but now I hate it
> when I have to use a computer that has  a U.S. keyboard [1].  I've
> been typing on Japanese keyboards for nearly three years and using a U.S.
> keyboard nearly reduces me to hunt and peck typing.  It's even worse when
> I run across a computer that has a Japanese keyboard but not a Japanese
> keymap.

Here's what can be even worse - the Proton P5-233MMX notebook (possibly a
Sony Vaio 731 OEM) has a Japanese keyboard.. but the CMOS setup is in
English (as it should be), BUT.. the CMOS setup assumes a U.S. keymap, so
things like 'use +/- to alter value' can get interesting on this machine
:)

> [1]  I use the term "U.S. keyboard" here, but are the keyboards sold with
> computers in Europe the same, or do different European countries all have
> keyboards reflecting their national alphabet?

The latter, AFAIK.

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


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