OT: You OS/X Users...question for ya...

[Bill Campbell]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2007, Brian K. White wrote:
>>>I prefer one PuTTY session hooked to a linux system running screen.
>>>Wireless dies temporarily, I'm safe and can recover.  The lack of a
>>>gazillion individual windows for emulators is for my terminal emulator
>>>experience what tabbed browsing is for my browser experience.
>>
>> One session doesn't do me much good when I'm connecting to a
>> dozen or more systems.  Putty doesn't do me much good as I don't
>> have any Windows systems and ssh with xterms does everything I
>> need quite nicely.  My normal e-mail reader is mutt in xterms.
>
>How do you use the F4 F10 etc... keys on an apple laptop?
>Last time I tried to set a client up with a terminal emulator (Ericomm?) to 
>access their filepro app, I could not free up all of the F keys for the 
>terminal emulator app (or any app, including the stock terminal.app). The OS 
>retained control of a few keys for changing backlight brightness and sound 
>volume and such, even after I found a dialog somewhere (in the os or window 
>manager) that freed up most keys by changing an option.

I generally don't use function keys greater than F5 although I had one
FilePro customer running long-orphaned x286 code around FP where they not
only used high function keys, they assumed the terminal was a Radio Shack
DT-100 and reprogrammed them on the fly.  Getting this working with Apple
xterms was kinda fun, but that's another story.

In order to allow their application to use these high keys, I had to go
into the System Preferences Dashboard and Expose configuration to remap or
disable the keys they use.

Using the function keys on the Apple laptops requires holding down the FN
key at the bottom left of the keyboard -- hardly an ideal situation.  There
might be a way to reverse the functionallity so that they function keys did
the right thing normally, and the Apple functions only when the FN key is
down.

What I would really like is an Apple laptop with a ThinkPad keyboard and
eraser mouse.

...
>I think Apple desktops do not have the same difficulty either, just laptops.

I think you're right.  I spend most of my time on a Mac Mini connected to a
KVM switch to an 8-year old Microsoft ``Natural'' keyboard, three button
Logitech mouse (no scroll wheel), and a 21in Nokia monitor.  There are many
things that I put off doing when I'm on the laptop so I can use the better
keyboard and mouse on the Mini.

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676

``Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump
up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if
nothing had happened.'' - Sir Winston Churchill