dead keys was Re: [OT?] Visual vs. logical order editing

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
wrote:

> suzmccarth wrote:
> >
> > (Dead keys IMO
> > are very non-intuitive and should only be used for a very limited
> > number of features in any script, if at all.)

> I've had the impression that you're old enough to remember

typewriters.

> Didn't you ever have to put accents on letters? Don't you remember

the

> annoyance of backspacing?

> For those of you who are younger than typewriters, a "dead key"

was one

> that didn't move the carriage but printed an accent above/below

where

> you were about to type a letter.

I think Suzanne would welcome that sort of dead key on a computer.
The dead keys I am familiar with - e.g. the dead keys in the United
States Internation 'keyboard' in Windows - do nothing until the
second character is typed. Can such 'keyboards' be modified to
display something while waiting for the second key press?

We have another case of conflicting terminology here. On a Thai
(also Tamil?) keyboard, the keys for the superscript and subscript
vowels are what Peter Daniels would call 'dead keys', but they are
not 'dead keys' in the sense of computer keyboard technology!

Richard