[OT] "The Condescending UI" (was: Do we need Win95/98/Me support?)

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Stewart Gordon" <smjg_1998 at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:jfsuc5$12pl$1 at digitalmars.com...
>
> Who decides what constitutes a "normal delete key"?

That's "normal" as in "95% of the PCs in the past 20 years." ;)  (And macs 
*are* "personal computers", contrary to the ads.)

FWIW though, any mention of "8-bit" does get me excited.

> Back in the days of 8-bit home computers (Spectrum, BBC, C64 et al), 
> delete tended to mean delete to the left.  Then there was the Amstrad PCW 
> line, with "DEL?" and "?DEL" next to each other.  Since then it's become 
> more or less standard that delete means delete to the right, delete to the 
> left being called backspace.
>
> (Though even on systems with both these keys, it's taken time to 
> standardise their meanings.  I grew up partly with a primitive text editor 
> called RPED, in which delete deleted to the left, and backspace (IIRC) 
> just moved the cursor left.)
>
>>> Fn + Backspace, on my Macbook Pro.
>>
>> Thank you :) I will try it next time I use my macbook pro. And I forgot 
>> about that Fn key!
>> Though that's pretty much standard on most laptops these days.
>
> I've been reminded of the iMac G3 that I was made to use for some of my 
> time as a PhD student.  Just the backspace key, no delete key.  And no Fn 
> key to make some of the keys double as different keys - those keys they 
> felt people could live without they just left off.
>

That's really one of the main reasons I don't consider Apple to be good at 
design: Anytime they notice that something isn't *needed* by *all* users, 
they just throw out instead of leaving it as an option. They seem to feel 
that personal customization and preferences are an "evil" that infringes on 
the uniformity of their brand image (Which also explains their love for DRM 
and gatekeeping).