Numlock as standard?

[Ian Pilcher]

Tim wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-08-17 at 11:30 -0500, Ian Pilcher wrote:
> 
>>This reverses the meaning of NumLock.  When it's *OFF* the numeric
>>keypad keys will generate numbers; when it's *ON* they will generate
>>Insert, Delete, PgUp, PgDn, etc.
> 
> 
> Hmm, interesting idea.  Would it do that for *everything*?

It does it for everything in X.  (I suppose that a X program could
bypass the key mapping and read scancodes directly, in which case it
wouldn't work for that program, but I haven't found a program that does
this.)

> 
> I really do NOT see the point in the NUMLOCK function when the keyboard
> has those same (page up, page down, etc.) keys right next to the number
> pad.  :-\
> 

It's left over from the original IBM PC keyboard (which was based on
dumb terminal keyboards of the time).  It didn't have the dedicated
cursor movement keys, so NumLock was actually useful.

For anyone who's wondering why I came up with this, I run Windows XP Pro
on my laptop, and I like to access it via rdesktop when I'm at home.  I
get to use the full-size keyboard and mouse and larger display on my
home system; it's like an instant docking station.  rdesktop leaves
Windows NumLock setting set to whatever the client's setting is.  So If
I had NumLock turned on on my home system, rdesktop would turn it on on
my laptop.  Trust me when I tell you that you do not want NumLock turned
on when you're trying to log in to Windows on a laptor computer!

With the "reverse NumLock" setup, the keys on my numeric keypad all work
as I want (i.e. they generate numbers), even in Windows via rdesktop.
Since NumLock is officially "off", however, the NumLock setting on my
laptop doesn't get turned on.

-- 
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Ian Pilcher                                        i.pilcher at comcast.net
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