9fans archive / 1997 / 09 / 76 /    prev next

From: Steve_Kilbane@ceg... Steve_Kilbane@ceg...
Subject: [9fans] Questions
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 10:29:54 +0100

> That's nonsense. The keys are what we choose to interpret them as. The
> "Return" key is a control key because that's the convention. The key
> with "W" painted on it is not because that's the convention.

There are two aspects to that. Firstly, much of Plan 9 hangs together
because agreed conventions are obeyed (namespace construction, for
example). Secondly, the mouse is used to move the pointer, which is
just a convention, but it's one that's assumed at a pretty low level
of many systems. Principle of Least Surprise.

(Incidentally, this is also a reasonable argument for Del being a
delete key; I much prefer the way libXg just accepts either backspace
or delete as the delete key.)