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96-403: Physical layout is the actual positioning of keys on a keyboard. Visual layout is the arrangement of the legends (labels, markings, engravings) that appear on those keys. Functional layout is the arrangement of the key-meaning association or keyboard mapping , determined in software, of all the keys of a keyboard; it is this (rather than the legends) that determines the actual response to

192-595: A numeric keypad to facilitate calculations. There is some variation between different keyboard models in the physical layout—i.e., how many keys there are and how they are positioned on the keyboard. However, differences between national layouts are mostly due to different selections and placements of symbols on the character keys. The core section of a keyboard consists of character keys, which can be used to type letters and other characters. Typically, there are three rows of keys for typing letters and punctuation , an upper row for typing digits and special symbols, and

288-472: A with acute accent ), Compose followed by A and then E results in æ ( ae ligature ), and Compose followed by O and then C results in © (circled c , copyright symbol ). The Compose key is supported by the X Window System (used by most Unix-like operating systems , including most Linux distributions ). Some keyboards have a key labeled "Compose", but any key can be configured to serve this function. For example,

384-400: A dead key by default, or sometimes a normal key can temporarily be altered to function as a dead key by simultaneously holding down the secondary-shift key— AltGr or ⌥ Option : a typical example might be AltGr + 6   a will produce â (assuming the "6" key is also the "^" key). In some systems, there is no indication to the user that a dead key has been struck, so

480-554: A document being typed. Modern USB keyboards are plug-and-play ; they communicate their (default) visual layout to the OS when connected (though the user is still able to reset this at will). A computer keyboard consists of alphanumeric or character keys for typing, modifier keys for altering the functions of other keys, navigation keys for moving the text cursor on the screen, function keys and system command keys —such as Esc and Break —for special actions, and often

576-406: A key press. Modern computer keyboards are designed to send a scancode to the operating system (OS) when a key is pressed or released. This code reports only the key's row and column, not the specific character engraved on that key. The OS converts the scancode into a specific binary character code using a "scancode to character" conversion table, called the keyboard mapping table. This means that

672-465: A key that would temporarily interrupt the communications line. The Break key can be used by software in several different ways, such as to switch between multiple login sessions, to terminate a program, or to interrupt a modem connection. In programming, especially old DOS-style BASIC, Pascal and C, Break is used (in conjunction with Ctrl) to stop program execution. In addition to this, Linux and variants, as well as many DOS programs, treat this combination

768-506: A key's downpress scancode by holding the key down while the computer is booting. With luck, the scancode (or some part of it) will be specified in the resulting "stuck key" error message. [Note: On Windows 7 only one byte of the scancode appears.] Scancodes on IBM PC compatible computer keyboards are sets of 1 to 3 bytes which are sent by the keyboard. Most character keys have a single byte scancode; keys that perform special functions have 2-byte or 3-byte scancodes, usually beginning with

864-405: A letter with a specific diacritic. For example, on some keyboard layouts, the grave accent key ` is a dead key: in this case, striking ` and then A results in à ( a with grave accent); ` followed by ⇧ Shift + E results in È ( E with grave accent). A grave accent in isolated form can be typed by striking ` and then Space bar . A key may function as

960-478: A lighter touch for such characters as the period or comma, which did not occupy as much area on the paper. Since an electric typewriter supplied the force to the typebar itself after the typist merely touched the key, the typewriter itself had to be designed to supply different forces for different characters. To simplify this, the most common layout for electric typewriters in the United States differed from that for

1056-424: A manual typewriter. This was imperfect, as some shifted special characters were moved one key to the left, as the number zero, although on the right, was low in code sequence. Later, when computer terminals were designed from less expensive electronic components, it was not necessary to have any bits in common between the shifted and unshifted characters on a given key. This eventually led to standards being adopted for

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1152-406: A modifier key is held down while another key is struck. To facilitate this, modifier keys usually come in pairs, one functionally identical key for each hand, so holding a modifier key with one hand leaves the other hand free to strike another key. An alphanumeric key labelled with only a single letter (usually the capital form) can generally be struck to type either a lower case or capital letter,

1248-412: A paragraph of text and advance an editing cursor to the start of the next available line, similar to the "carriage return" key of a typewriter. When the attached system is processing a user command line , pressing "enter" may signal that the command has been completely entered and that the system may now process it. Shift key: when one presses shift and a letter, it will capitalize the letter pressed with

1344-411: A physical keyboard may be dynamically mapped to any layout without switching hardware components—merely by changing the software that interprets the keystrokes. Often, a user can change keyboard mapping in system settings. In addition, software may be available to modify or extend keyboard functionality. Thus the symbol shown on the physical key-top need not be the same as appears on the screen or goes into

1440-446: A scancode for each key being pressed and a different one for each key being released. In addition, many keyboard standards (for example, IBM PC compatible standards) allow the keyboard itself to generate " typematic " repeating keys by having the keyboard itself generate the pressed-key scancode repeatedly while the key is held down, with the release scancode sent once when the key is released. On some operating systems one may discover

1536-470: A single byte; the low 7 bits identify the key, and the most significant bit is clear for a key press or set for a key release. Some additional keys have an E0 (or rarely, E1 or E2 ) prefix. These were initially assigned so that ignoring the E0 prefix (which is in the key-up range and thus would have no effect on an operating system that did not understand them) would produce reasonable results. For example

1632-546: A type of shift key, such that one or more following characters were interpreted differently, hence the term escape sequence , which refers to a series of characters, usually preceded by the escape character . On machines running Microsoft Windows, prior to the implementation of the Windows key on keyboards, the typical practice for invoking the "start" button was to hold down the control key and press escape. This process still works in Windows 10 and 11. An "enter" key may terminate

1728-505: A very influential electric typewriter, which was imitated by computer keyboards; and the IBM PC (1981), namely the Model M (1985), which is the basis for many modern keyboard layouts. Within a community, keyboard layout is generally quite stable, due to the high training cost of touch-typing , and the resulting network effect of having a standard layout and high switching cost of retraining, and

1824-586: Is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia . It is the designated national script in various Slavic , Turkic , Mongolic , Uralic , Caucasian and Iranic -speaking countries in Southeastern Europe , Eastern Europe , the Caucasus , Central Asia , North Asia , and East Asia , and used by many other minority languages. As of 2019 , around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as

1920-476: Is especially useful when using a terminal, X11 (a Unix environment included with OS X as an install option) or MS Windows . The key can generally be used to produce a secondary mouse click as well. There is also a Fn key on modern Mac keyboards, which is used for switching between use of the F1 , F2 , etc. keys either as function keys or for other functions like media control, accessing Spotlight , controlling

2016-483: Is indicated by an F0 prefix. For computers since the IBM PC AT, the keyboard controller on the motherboard translates AT (set 2) scancodes into XT (set 1) scancodes in so called translation mode . This translation can be disabled in pass-through-mode , allowing the raw scancodes to be seen. Therefore, whether a software developer will encounter AT scancodes or XT scancodes on a modern PC-compatible depends on how

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2112-514: Is the standard script for writing the following languages: Slavic languages : Non-Slavic languages of Russia : Non-Slavic languages in other countries : The Cyrillic script has also been used for languages of Alaska, Slavic Europe (except for Western Slavic and some Southern Slavic ), the Caucasus , the languages of Idel-Ural , Siberia , and the Russian Far East . The first alphabet derived from Cyrillic

2208-557: Is to trigger the Stop button in many web browsers and operating systems. ESC was part of the standard keyboard of the Teletype Model 33 (introduced in 1964 and used with many early minicomputers). The DEC VT50 , introduced July 1974, also had an Esc key. The TECO text editor (c. 1963) and its descendant Emacs ( c.  1985 ) use the Esc key extensively. Historically it also served as

2304-522: Is typically based on ⟨p⟩ from Latin typefaces, lowercase ⟨б⟩ , ⟨ђ⟩ and ⟨ћ⟩ are traditional handwritten forms), although a good-quality Cyrillic typeface will still include separate small-caps glyphs. Cyrillic typefaces, as well as Latin ones, have roman and italic forms (practically all popular modern computer fonts include parallel sets of Latin and Cyrillic letters, where many glyphs, uppercase as well as lowercase, are shared by both). However,

2400-555: Is used by Linux by default when it detects a PS/2 keyboard that can properly support scan code set 3. The IBM PC AT introduced the "AT" ("set 2") scancodes. On the 84-key AT keyboard these were largely a subset of set 3, with some differences caused by the revised layout (for example, the position and scancodes of the function keys changed). Keys added since the PC AT often have different scancodes in set 2 and set 3, and in set 2 frequently have an E0 or E1 prefix. Again, key release

2496-697: The Space bar on the bottom row. The positioning of the character keys is similar to the keyboard of a typewriter . Besides the character keys, a keyboard incorporates special keys that do nothing by themselves but modify the functions of other keys. For example, the ⇧ Shift key can be used to alter the output of character keys, whereas the Ctrl ( control ), Alt ( alternate ) and AltGr ( alternative graphic ) keys trigger special operations when used in concert with other keys. (Apple keyboards have differently labelled but equivalent keys, see below). Typically,

2592-503: The Ctrl , Alt and AltGr keys seen on commodity keyboards, Apple Keyboards have ⌘ Cmd ( command ) and ⌥ Option keys. The ⌥ Option key is used much like the AltGr , and the ⌘ Cmd key like the Ctrl and Alt , to access menu options and shortcuts. Macs have a Ctrl key for compatibility with programs that expect a more traditional keyboard layout. It

2688-581: The faux row to ensure it can be rendered properly across all systems; in some cases, such as ж with k -like ascender, no such approximation exists. Computer fonts typically default to the Central/Eastern, Russian letterforms, and require the use of OpenType Layout (OTL) features to display the Western, Bulgarian or Southern, Serbian/Macedonian forms. Depending on the choices made by the (computer) font designer, they may either be automatically activated by

2784-561: The Humac tablet to be the first such document using this type of script and is believed to date from this period. Was weak used continuously until the 18th century, with sporadic usage even taking place in the 20th century. With the orthographic reform of Saint Evtimiy of Tarnovo and other prominent representatives of the Tarnovo Literary School of the 14th and 15th centuries, such as Gregory Tsamblak and Constantine of Kostenets ,

2880-515: The Latin script , the center, alphanumeric portion of the modern keyboard is most often based on the QWERTY design by Christopher Sholes . Sholes' layout was long thought to have been laid out in such a way that common two-letter combinations were placed on opposite sides of the keyboard so that his mechanical keyboard would not jam. However, evidence for this claim has often been contested. In 2012, an argument

2976-646: The XO laptop , which does not have a ⇪ Caps Lock . The UNIX keyboard layout also differs in the placement of the Esc key, which is to the left of 1 . Some early keyboards experimented with using large numbers of modifier keys. The most extreme example of such a keyboard, the so-called " space-cadet keyboard " found on MIT LISP machines , had no fewer than seven modifier keys: four control keys, Ctrl , Meta , Hyper , and Super , along with three shift keys, ⇧ Shift , Top , and Front . This allowed

Keyboard layout - Misplaced Pages Continue

3072-570: The language bar in Microsoft Windows ) that allow the user to easily switch between functional layouts. For example, a user with a Swedish keyboard who wishes to type more easily in German may switch to a functional layout intended for German—without regard to key markings. A touch typist skilled in the use of another language layout can use a keyboard with English-language legends if it is remapped to their familiar layout, because they rarely look at

3168-513: The layout of a keyboard may refer to its physical (arrangement of keys), visual (physical labeling of keys), or functional (software response to a key press or release) layout. Physical layouts only address tangible differences among keyboards. When a key is pressed, the keyboard does not send a message such as the A-key is depressed but rather the left-most main key of the home row is depressed . (Technically, each key has an internal reference number,

3264-408: The local variant locl feature for text tagged with an appropriate language code , or the author needs to opt-in by activating a stylistic set ss## or character variant cv## feature. These solutions only enjoy partial support and may render with default glyphs in certain software configurations, and the reader may not see the same result as the author intended. Among others, Cyrillic

3360-504: The medieval stage to the late Baroque , without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe . Late Medieval Cyrillic letters (categorized as vyaz' and still found on many icon inscriptions today) show a marked tendency to be very tall and narrow, with strokes often shared between adjacent letters. Peter the Great , Tsar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms ( ru ) in

3456-450: The "bit-pairing" and "typewriter-pairing" forms of keyboards for computer terminals. The typewriter-pairing standard came under reconsideration, on the basis that typewriters have many different keyboard arrangements. The U.S. keyboard for the IBM PC, although it resembles the typewriter-pairing standard in most respects, differs in one significant respect: the braces are on the same two keys as

3552-564: The 'Start' (applications) menu. Keyboard layouts have evolved over time, usually alongside major technology changes. Particularly influential have been: the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (1874, also known as Remington No. 1), the first commercially successful typewriter, which introduced QWERTY ; its successor, the Remington No. 2 (1878), which introduced the shift key; the IBM Selectric (1961),

3648-587: The 12th century. The literature produced in Old Church Slavonic soon spread north from Bulgaria and became the lingua franca of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Cyrillic in modern-day Bosnia, is an extinct and disputed variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that originated in medieval period . Paleographers consider the earliest features of script had likely begun to appear between the 10th or 11th century, with

3744-677: The 19th century). After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, some of the former republics officially shifted from Cyrillic to Latin. The transition is complete in most of Moldova (except the breakaway region of Transnistria , where Moldovan Cyrillic is official), Turkmenistan , and Azerbaijan . Uzbekistan still uses both systems, and Kazakhstan has officially begun a transition from Cyrillic to Latin (scheduled to be complete by 2025). The Russian government has mandated that Cyrillic must be used for all public communications in all federal subjects of Russia , to promote closer ties across

3840-728: The Exarch); and Chernorizets Hrabar , among others. The school was also a center of translation, mostly of Byzantine authors. The Cyrillic script is derived from the Greek uncial script letters, augmented by ligatures and consonants from the older Glagolitic alphabet for sounds not found in Greek. Glagolitic and Cyrillic were formalized by the Byzantine Saints Cyril and Methodius and their Bulgarian disciples, such as Saints Naum , Clement , Angelar , and Sava . They spread and taught Christianity in

3936-745: The First Bulgarian Empire and of all Slavs : Unlike the Churchmen in Ohrid, Preslav scholars were much more dependent upon Greek models and quickly abandoned the Glagolitic scripts in favor of an adaptation of the Greek uncial to the needs of Slavic, which is now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. A number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the school, including Naum of Preslav until 893; Constantine of Preslav ; Joan Ekzarh (also transcr. John

Keyboard layout - Misplaced Pages Continue

4032-556: The No. 1 (1874)—though 1 and 0 were added later—shifted keys date in some cases to the No. 2 (1878), in other cases to the Selectric (1961), and modifier key placement largely dates to the Model M (1985); function key placement typically dates to the Model M, but varies significantly, particularly on laptops. The earliest mechanical keyboards were used in musical instruments to play particular notes. With

4128-401: The OS when connected (though the user is still able to reset this at will). Today, most keyboards use one of three different physical layouts, usually referred to as simply ISO ( ISO/IEC 9995 -2), ANSI ( ANSI - INCITS 154-1988), and JIS ( JIS X 6002-1980), referring roughly to the organizations issuing the relevant worldwide, United States, and Japanese standards, respectively. (In fact,

4224-568: The Serbian constitution; however, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means. In practice the scripts are equal, with Latin being used more often in a less official capacity. The Zhuang alphabet , used between the 1950s and 1980s in portions of the People's Republic of China, used a mixture of Latin, phonetic, numeral-based, and Cyrillic letters. The non-Latin letters, including Cyrillic, were removed from

4320-625: The Unicode definition of a character: this aspect is the responsibility of the typeface designer. The Unicode 5.1 standard, released on 4 April 2008, greatly improved computer support for the early Cyrillic and the modern Church Slavonic language. In Microsoft Windows, the Segoe UI user interface font is notable for having complete support for the archaic Cyrillic letters since Windows 8. Some currency signs have derived from Cyrillic letters: The development of Cyrillic letter forms passed directly from

4416-570: The above discrepancies between functional and visual layouts. A keyboard overlay is a plastic or paper masks that can be placed over the empty space between the keys, providing the user with the functional use of various keys. Alternatively, a user applies keyboard stickers with an extra imprinted language alphabet and adds another keyboard layout via language support options in the operating system. The visual layout of any keyboard can also be changed by simply replacing its keys or attaching labels to them, such as to change an English-language keyboard from

4512-415: The advent of the printing telegraph , a keyboard was needed to select characters. Some of the earliest printing telegraph machines either used a piano keyboard outright or a layout similar to a piano keyboard. The Hughes-Phelps printing telegraph piano keyboard laid keys A-N in left-to-right order on the black piano keys, and keys O-Z in right-to-left order on the white piano keys below. In countries using

4608-582: The area of Preslav , in the medieval city itself and at nearby Patleina Monastery , both in present-day Shumen Province , as well as in the Ravna Monastery and in the Varna Monastery . The new script became the basis of alphabets used in various languages in Orthodox Church -dominated Eastern Europe, both Slavic and non-Slavic languages (such as Romanian , until the 1860s). For centuries, Cyrillic

4704-569: The brackets, as their shifts. This innovation predated the IBM Personal Computer by several years. IBM adopted the 101/102 key layout on the PS/2 in 1987 (after previously using an 84-key keyboard that did not have a separate cursor and numeric keypads). Most modern keyboards basically conform to the layout specifications contained in parts 1, 2, and 5 of the international standard series ISO/IEC 9995 . These specifications were first defined by

4800-484: The byte (in hexadecimal) E0 , E1 , or E2 . In addition, a few keys send longer scancodes, effectively emulating a series of keys to make it easier for different types of software to process. PC keyboards since the PS/2 keyboard support up to three scancode sets. The most commonly encountered are the "XT" ("set 1") scancodes, based on the 83-key keyboard used by the IBM PC XT and earlier. These mostly consist of

4896-454: The common QWERTY to the Dvorak layout, although for touch typists, the placement of the tactile bumps on the home keys is of more practical importance than that of the visual markings. Scancode A scancode (or scan code ) is the data that most computer keyboards send to a computer to report which keys have been pressed. A number, or sequence of numbers, is assigned to each key on

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4992-860: The compact models have 79, 78, and 80. The visual layout includes the symbols printed on the physical keycaps. Visual layouts vary by language, country, and user preference, and any one physical and functional layout can be employed with a number of different visual layouts. For example, the "ISO" keyboard layout is used throughout Europe, but typical French, German, and UK variants of physically identical keyboards appear different because they bear different legends on their keys. Even blank keyboards—with no legends—are sometimes used to learn typing skills or by user preference. Some users choose to attach custom labels on top of their keycaps. This can be, e.g., for masking foreign layouts, adding additional information such as shortcuts , learning aids, gaming controls, or solely for decorational purposes. The functional layout of

5088-772: The correspondence between uppercase and lowercase glyphs does not coincide in Latin and Cyrillic types: for example, italic Cyrillic ⟨ т ⟩ is the lowercase counterpart of ⟨ Т ⟩ not of ⟨ М ⟩ . Note: in some typefaces or styles, ⟨ д ⟩ , i.e. the lowercase italic Cyrillic ⟨д⟩ , may look like Latin ⟨ g ⟩ , and ⟨ т ⟩ , i.e. lowercase italic Cyrillic ⟨т⟩ , may look like small-capital italic ⟨T⟩ . In Standard Serbian, as well as in Macedonian, some italic and cursive letters are allowed to be different, to more closely resemble

5184-508: The cursor in the icon is not present, showing the menu only. This key was created at the same time as the Windows key. This key is normally used when the right mouse button is not present on the mouse. Some Windows public terminals do not have a Menu key on their keyboard to prevent users from right-clicking (however, in many Windows applications, a similar functionality can be invoked with the Shift+F10 keyboard shortcut ). The Windows key opens

5280-457: The desired symbol key). The Menu key or Application key is a key found on Windows-oriented computer keyboards: on Apple keyboard the same function is provided by the Command key (labelled ⌘). It is used to launch a context menu with the keyboard rather than with the usual right mouse button. The key's symbol is usually a small icon depicting a cursor hovering above a menu. On some Samsung keyboards

5376-418: The early 18th century. Over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the script. Thus, unlike the majority of modern Greek typefaces that retained their own set of design principles for lower-case letters (such as the placement of serifs , the shapes of stroke ends, and stroke-thickness rules, although Greek capital letters do use Latin design principles), modern Cyrillic types are much

5472-547: The features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reform and political decrees. A notable example of such linguistic reform can be attributed to Vuk Stefanović Karadžić , who updated the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by removing certain graphemes no longer represented in the vernacular and introducing graphemes specific to Serbian (i.e. Љ Њ Ђ Ћ Џ Ј), distancing it from the Church Slavonic alphabet in use prior to

5568-428: The federation. This act was controversial for speakers of many Slavic languages; for others, such as Chechen and Ingush speakers, the law had political ramifications. For example, the separatist Chechen government mandated a Latin script which is still used by many Chechens. Standard Serbian uses both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts . Cyrillic is nominally the official script of Serbia's administration according to

5664-516: The handwritten letters. The regular (upright) shapes are generally standardized in small caps form. Notes: Depending on fonts available, the Serbian row may appear identical to the Russian row. Unicode approximations are used in the faux row to ensure it can be rendered properly across all systems. In the Bulgarian alphabet , many lowercase letterforms may more closely resemble the cursive forms on

5760-497: The key appears dead, but in some text-entry systems the diacritical mark is displayed along with an indication that the system is waiting for another keystroke: either the base character to be marked, an additional diacritical mark, or Space bar to produce the diacritical mark in isolation. Compared with the secondary-shift modifier key, the dead-key approach may be a little more complicated, but it allows more additional letters. Using AltGr, only one or (if used simultaneously with

5856-508: The keyboard is being accessed. A compliant PS/2 keyboard can be told to send scancodes in set 1, 2 or 3. USB keyboards use a new set of scancodes, mostly specified in the USB standard. All computers that recognize USB keyboards recognize these new scancodes. Cyrillic alphabet Co-official script in: The Cyrillic script ( / s ɪ ˈ r ɪ l ɪ k / sih- RIL -ik ), Slavonic script or simply Slavic script

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5952-449: The keyboard refers to the mapping between a physical key (such as the A key) and a consequent software event (such as the letter "A" appearing on the screen). Usually the functional layout is set (in the system configuration ) to match the visual layout of the keyboard being used, so that pressing a key will produce the expected result, corresponding to the legends on the keyboard. However, most operating systems have software (such as

6048-417: The keyboard when typing. Functional layouts can be redefined or customized within the operating system, by reconfiguring the operating system keyboard driver, or with the use of a separate software application, or by transliteration (where letters in another language get mapped to visible Latin letters on the keyboard by the way they sound). Mixed hardware-to-software keyboard extensions exist to overcome

6144-466: The keyboard. Mapping key positions by row and column requires less complex computer hardware ; therefore, in the past, using software or firmware to translate the scancodes to text characters was less expensive than wiring the keyboard by text character. This cost difference is not as profound as it used to be. However, many types of computers still use their traditional scancodes to maintain backward compatibility . Some keyboard standards include

6240-402: The keys to be on three-quarter [ 3 ⁄ 4 , or 0.75] inch centers (about 19 mm, versus musical piano keys which are 23.5 mm or about 0.93 inches wide). 0.75 inches has turned out to be optimum for fast key entry by the average-size hand, and keyboards with this key size are called "full-sized keyboards". On a manual typewriter, the operator could press the key down with

6336-713: The latter requiring the simultaneous holding of the ⇧ Shift key. The ⇧ Shift key is also used to type the upper of two symbols engraved on a given key, the lower being typed without using the modifier key. The Latin alphabet keyboard has a dedicated key for each of the letters A–Z, keys for punctuation and other symbols, usually a row of function keys , often a numeric keypad and some system control keys. In most languages except English, additional letters (some with diacritics ) are required and some are present as standard on each national keyboard, as appropriate for its national language. These keyboards have another modified key, labelled AltGr (alternative graphic), to

6432-408: The letters' Greek ancestors . Computer fonts for early Cyrillic alphabets are not routinely provided. Many of the letterforms differ from those of modern Cyrillic, varied a great deal between manuscripts , and changed over time. In accordance with Unicode policy, the standard does not include letterform variations or ligatures found in manuscript sources unless they can be shown to conform to

6528-457: The modern QWERTY layout. Sholes' chief improvement was thus to lay out the keys in rows offset horizontally from each other by three-eighths, three-sixteenths, and three-eighths inches to provide room for the levers and to reduce hand-movement distance. Although it has been demonstrated that the QWERTY layout is not the most efficient layout for typing, it remains the standard. Sholes chose the size of

6624-473: The native typeface terminology in most Slavic languages (for example, in Russian) does not use the words "roman" and "italic" in this sense. Instead, the nomenclature follows German naming patterns: Similarly to Latin typefaces, italic and cursive forms of many Cyrillic letters (typically lowercase; uppercase only for handwritten or stylish types) are very different from their upright roman types. In certain cases,

6720-545: The normal shift key) two additional letters with each key, whereas using a dead key, a specific diacritic can be attached to a range of different base letters. A Compose key can be characterized as a generic dead key that may in some systems be available instead of or in addition to the more specific dead keys. It allows access to a wide range of predefined extra characters by interpreting a whole sequence of keystrokes following it. For example, striking Compose followed by ' ( apostrophe ) and then A results in á (

6816-462: The numeric keypad's Enter key produces a scancode of E0 1C , which corresponds to the Return key's scancode of 1C . The IBM 3270 PC introduced its own set of scancodes ("set 3"), with a different key numbering and where a key release is indicated by an F0 prefix. For backward compatibility , the 3270 PC translated these to XT (set 1) scancodes using an add-on card and a BIOS extension. This set

6912-672: The official script for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following the Latin and Greek alphabets. The Early Cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire during

7008-454: The one hand and Latin glyphs on the other hand, e.g. by having an ascender or descender or by using rounded arcs instead of sharp corners. Sometimes, uppercase letters may have a different shape as well, e.g. more triangular, Д and Л, like Greek delta Δ and lambda Λ. Notes: Depending on fonts available, the Bulgarian row may appear identical to the Russian row. Unicode approximations are used in

7104-429: The one most common on manual typewriters. Single-quote and double-quote, instead of being above the keys for the digits 2 and 8 respectively, were placed together on a key of their own. The underscore, another light character, replaced the asterisk above the hyphen. The ASCII communications code was designed so that characters on a mechanical teletypewriter keyboard could be laid out in a manner somewhat resembling that of

7200-578: The otherwise redundant right-hand ⊞ Win key may, when available, be used for this purpose. This can be emulated in Windows with third party programs, for example WinCompose. Depending on the application, some keyboard keys are not used to enter a printable character but instead are interpreted by the system as a formatting, mode shift, or special commands to the system. The following examples are found on personal computer keyboards. The system request ( SysRq ) and print screen ( PrtSc or on some keyboards e.g. PrtScn ) commands often share

7296-534: The physical layouts referred such as "ISO" and "ANSI" comply with the primary recommendations in the named standards, while each of these standards in fact also allows the other.) Keyboard layout in this sense may refer either to this broad categorization or to finer distinctions within these categories. For example, as of May 2008, Apple Inc . produces ISO, ANSI, and JIS desktop keyboards, each in both extended and compact forms. The extended keyboards have 110, 109, and 112 keys (ISO, ANSI, and JIS, respectively), and

7392-569: The reform. Today, many languages in the Balkans , Eastern Europe, and northern Eurasia are written in Cyrillic alphabets. Cyrillic script spread throughout the East Slavic and some South Slavic territories, being adopted for writing local languages, such as Old East Slavic . Its adaptation to local languages produced a number of Cyrillic alphabets, discussed below. Capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts. Yeri ( Ы )

7488-401: The reign of Tsar Simeon I the Great , probably by the disciples of the two Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius , who had previously created the Glagolitic script . Among them were Clement of Ohrid , Naum of Preslav , Constantine of Preslav , Joan Ekzarh , Chernorizets Hrabar , Angelar , Sava and other scholars. The script is named in honor of Saint Cyril . Since the script

7584-506: The right of the space bar. (US keyboards just have a second Alt key in this position). It can be used to type an extra symbol in addition to the two otherwise available with an alphanumeric key, and using it simultaneously with the ⇧ Shift key usually gives access to a fourth symbol. These third-level and fourth-level symbols may be engraved on the right half of the key top, or they may be unmarked. Cyrillic alphabet and Greek alphabet keyboards have similar arrangements. Instead of

7680-404: The same as Ctrl+C. On modern keyboards, the break key is usually labeled Pause/Break. In most Microsoft Windows environments, the key combination Windows Pause brings up the system properties. The escape key (often abbreviated Esc) "nearly all of the time" signals Stop , QUIT , or let me "get out of a dialog" (or pop-up window). Another common application today of the Esc key

7776-576: The same as modern Latin types of the same typeface family. The development of some Cyrillic computer fonts from Latin ones has also contributed to a visual Latinization of Cyrillic type. Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Upright Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals (with exceptions: Cyrillic ⟨а⟩ , ⟨е⟩ , ⟨і⟩ , ⟨ј⟩ , ⟨р⟩ , and ⟨у⟩ adopted Latin lowercase shapes, lowercase ⟨ф⟩

7872-516: The same key. SysRq was used in earlier computers as a "panic" button to recover from crashes (and it is still used in this sense to some extent by the Linux kernel ; see Magic SysRq key ). The print screen command is used to capture the entire screen and send it to the printer, but in the present, it usually puts a screenshot in the clipboard . The Break key /Pause key no longer has a well-defined purpose. Its origins go back to teleprinter users, who wanted

7968-494: The scan code, and these numbers are what is sent to the computer when a key is pressed or released.) The keyboard and the computer each have no information about what is marked on that key, and it could equally well be the letter A or the digit 9 . Historically, the user of the computer was requested to identify the functional layout of the keyboard when installing or customizing the operating system . Modern USB keyboards are plug-and-play ; they communicate their visual layout to

8064-698: The school influenced Russian, Serbian, Wallachian and Moldavian medieval culture. This is known in Russia as the second South-Slavic influence. In 1708–10, the Cyrillic script used in Russia was heavily reformed by Peter the Great , who had recently returned from his Grand Embassy in Western Europe . The new letterforms, called the Civil script , became closer to those of the Latin alphabet; several archaic letters were abolished and several new letters were introduced designed by Peter himself. Letters became distinguished between upper and lower case. West European typography culture

8160-477: The shift key. Another use is to type more symbols than appear to be available, for instance the semi-colon key is accompanied with a colon symbol on the top. To type a semi-colon, the key is pressed without pressing any other key. To type a colon, both this key and the Shift key are pressed concurrently. (Some systems make provision for users with mobility impairment by allowing the Shift key to be pressed first and then

8256-523: The ubiquity of the QWERTY layout is a case study in switching costs. Nevertheless, significant market forces can result in changes (as in Turkish adoption of QWERTY), and non-core keys are more prone to change, as they are less frequently used and less subject to the lock-in of touch-typing. The main, alphanumeric portion is typically stable, while symbol keys and shifted key values change somewhat, modifier keys more so, and function keys most of all: QWERTY dates to

8352-714: The user group at AFNOR in 1984 working under the direction of Alain Souloumiac. Based on this work, a well-known ergonomic expert wrote a report which was adopted at the ISO Berlin meeting in 1985 and became the reference for keyboard layouts. The 104/105-key PC keyboard was born when two ⊞ Win keys and a ≣ Menu key were added on the bottom row (originally for the Microsoft Windows operating system). Newer keyboards may incorporate even further additions, such as Internet access (World Wide Web navigation) keys and multimedia (access to media players) buttons. As noted before,

8448-445: The user to type over 8000 possible characters by playing suitable "chords" with many modifier keys pressed simultaneously. A dead key is a special kind of a modifier key that, instead of being held while another key is struck, is pressed and released before the other key. The dead key does not generate a character by itself, but it modifies the character generated by the key struck immediately after, typically making it possible to type

8544-450: The volume, or handling Mission Control . Fn key can be also found on smaller Windows and Linux laptops and tablets, where it serves a similar purpose. Many Unix workstations (and also home computers like the Amiga ) keyboards placed the Ctrl key to the left of the letter A , and the ⇪ Caps Lock key in the bottom left. This position of the Ctrl key is also used on

8640-444: The whole of Bulgaria. Paul Cubberley posits that although Cyril may have codified and expanded Glagolitic, it was his students in the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Simeon the Great that developed Cyrillic from the Greek letters in the 890s as a more suitable script for church books. Cyrillic spread among other Slavic peoples, as well as among non-Slavic Romanians . The earliest datable Cyrillic inscriptions have been found in

8736-678: Was Abur , used for the Komi language . Other Cyrillic alphabets include the Molodtsov alphabet for the Komi language and various alphabets for Caucasian languages . A number of languages written in a Cyrillic alphabet have also been written in a Latin alphabet , such as Azerbaijani , Uzbek , Serbian , and Romanian (in the Moldavian SSR until 1989 and in the Danubian Principalities throughout

8832-406: Was advanced by two Japanese historians of technology showing that the key order on the earliest Sholes prototypes in fact followed the left-right and right-left arrangement of the contemporary Hughes-Phelps printing telegraph, described above. Later iterations diverged progressively for various technical reasons, and strong vestiges of the left-right A-N, right-left O-Z arrangement can still be seen in

8928-562: Was also adopted. The pre-reform letterforms, called 'Полуустав', were notably retained in Church Slavonic and are sometimes used in Russian even today, especially if one wants to give a text a 'Slavic' or 'archaic' feel. The alphabet used for the modern Church Slavonic language in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic rites still resembles early Cyrillic. However, over the course of the following millennium, Cyrillic adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit

9024-522: Was also used by Catholic and Muslim Slavs. Cyrillic and Glagolitic were used for the Church Slavonic language , especially the Old Church Slavonic variant. Hence expressions such as "И is the tenth Cyrillic letter" typically refer to the order of the Church Slavonic alphabet; not every Cyrillic alphabet uses every letter available in the script. The Cyrillic script came to dominate Glagolitic in

9120-522: Was conceived and popularised by the followers of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria, rather than by Cyril and Methodius themselves, its name denotes homage rather than authorship. The Cyrillic script was created during the First Bulgarian Empire . Modern scholars believe that the Early Cyrillic alphabet was created at the Preslav Literary School , the most important early literary and cultural center of

9216-562: Was originally a ligature of Yer and I ( Ъ + І = Ы ). Iotation was indicated by ligatures formed with the letter І: Ꙗ (not an ancestor of modern Ya, Я, which is derived from Ѧ ), Ѥ , Ю (ligature of І and ОУ ), Ѩ , Ѭ . Sometimes different letters were used interchangeably, for example И = І = Ї , as were typographical variants like О = Ѻ . There were also commonly used ligatures like ѠТ = Ѿ . The letters also had numeric values, based not on Cyrillic alphabetical order, but inherited from

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