{Because this crosses over between Windows and Linux, I am trying to
move it to alt.unix.geeks]

On 2026-03-07, Sn!pe <snipeco.2@gmail.com> wrote:

My Danish ex-wife could not say "ashtray", instead saying "atchray";
and likewise "thashed" instead of "thatched".

To be fair, I can neither say nor spell in danish the phrase "r?dgr?d
med fl?de p†" which means "red pudding with cream on".

As a Dane living in California, I correspond in Danish and (US) English,
so keyboards have always been a challenge; both the mechanical aspect
and the key mapping aspects. Young folks with malleable brains may be
able to manage touch typing on two different key layouts, but as a
six-finger typist, I need to look at the keys as I type. Years ago, I
settled on a US keyboard and "United States - International" keymap.
There is an almost identical keymap for Linux, which I use.
But there are occasional nuisances.

Just today I found that a new GPU driver (AMD Adrenaline) on my Windows
system had hijacked ALT+l (Danish ?) to turn on GPU performance logging,
and it took a whle to figure out how to get it to not do that.

But more commonly, I find that the CAPS key gets accidentally touched
when I meant SHIFT (non-locking), and the Windows version needs me to
touch CAPS again to get back, while on Linux I can reset it by touching
(and releasing) SHIFT. I would much rather have it be inoperable (dead)
on both. How do I do that on each? (And what idiot invented that CAPS
lock function? It might make sense on some cyrillic keyboards, where the shifted position is latin letters?)

--
Lars Poulsen - an old geek in Santa Barbara, California

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 7 Mar 2026 14:02:03 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen wrote:

As a Dane living in California, I correspond in Danish and (US)
English, so keyboards have always been a challenge; both the
mechanical aspect and the key mapping aspects. ... Years ago, I
settled on a US keyboard and "United States - International" keymap.
There is an almost identical keymap for Linux, which I use. But
there are occasional nuisances.

Just today I found that a new GPU driver (AMD Adrenaline) on my Windows system had hijacked ALT+l (Danish ?) to turn on GPU performance logging,
and it took a whle to figure out how to get it to not do that.

But more commonly, I find that the CAPS key gets accidentally
touched when I meant SHIFT (non-locking), and the Windows version
needs me to touch CAPS again to get back, while on Linux I can reset
it by touching (and releasing) SHIFT. I would much rather have it be inoperable (dead) on both. How do I do that on each? (And what idiot
invented that CAPS lock function? It might make sense on some
cyrillic keyboards, where the shifted position is latin letters?)

On Linux (or *nix, generally), you can define a Compose key <https://wiki.wlug.org.nz/ComposeKey> for typing a whole range of
non-ASCII characters. Why not map that function to Caps Lock, and
solve two problems at one stroke?

Here?s my attempt to type the subject line (no copy-and-paste, honest):

R?dgr?d med fl?de p†

? ? compose-o-slash (or compose-slash-o)
† ? compose-o-a (compose-a-a also works)

Maybe slower than having dedicated keys for those characters, but still
... more versatile. ;)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-03-07 23:52, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

On Sat, 7 Mar 2026 14:02:03 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen wrote:

As a Dane living in California, I correspond in Danish and (US)
English, so keyboards have always been a challenge; both the
mechanical aspect and the key mapping aspects. ... Years ago, I
settled on a US keyboard and "United States - International" keymap.
There is an almost identical keymap for Linux, which I use. But
there are occasional nuisances.

Just today I found that a new GPU driver (AMD Adrenaline) on my Windows
system had hijacked ALT+l (Danish ?) to turn on GPU performance logging,
and it took a whle to figure out how to get it to not do that.

But more commonly, I find that the CAPS key gets accidentally
touched when I meant SHIFT (non-locking), and the Windows version
needs me to touch CAPS again to get back, while on Linux I can reset
it by touching (and releasing) SHIFT. I would much rather have it be
inoperable (dead) on both. How do I do that on each? (And what idiot
invented that CAPS lock function? It might make sense on some
cyrillic keyboards, where the shifted position is latin letters?)

On Linux (or *nix, generally), you can define a Compose key <https://wiki.wlug.org.nz/ComposeKey> for typing a whole range of
non-ASCII characters. Why not map that function to Caps Lock, and
solve two problems at one stroke?

I'll think about it the next time. I'm using the windows key for compose.

Here?s my attempt to type the subject line (no copy-and-paste, honest):

R?dgr?d med fl?de p†

? ? compose-o-slash (or compose-slash-o)
† ? compose-o-a (compose-a-a also works)

Maybe slower than having dedicated keys for those characters, but still
... more versatile. ;)

Yes, very versatile.

--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES??, EU??;

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 8 Mar 2026 14:27:28 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:

I'm using the windows key for compose.

The generic (non-Microsoft-specific) name for that key is the ?Super?
key. I have it assigned to the function that was by default on the Alt
(or ?Meta?) key for window management, to avoid clashing with the
meaning of the Alt/Meta key in my favourite content-creation app,
Blender.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)