Talk:Modifier key

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What's AltGr?

Great Unsolved Mysteries: what's "Alt Gr"? (is it for very angry sufferers of computer rage -- "alt ... grrrrrrrr!" ;-) -- Tarquin 15:43 Nov 28, 2002 (UTC)

Probably German for "Alt Shift", where "Gr" stands for "grosse". -phma

Nah, the "Gr" is either for "Graphics" or for "German". [1] --Eloquence

I guess it's for "graphics" since it's on my keyboard which is not german. Or perhaps "glyph" ? (with a Japanese accent ;-) FvdP

Sunir on Meatball found this: http://www.electriceditors.net/grapevine/issues/114.txt Quote from that page:

Alt Gr stands for Alt(ernative) Graphic. It was originally, as you correctly say, intended for additional keyboard characters, and many layouts use it for that purpose, with the additional character being shown to the right of the lower character on the key. The German keyboard, for example, uses this key for superscript 2 and 3, square and curly brackets, vertical line (|), backslash, tilde, at symbol and mu (the Greek letter used for "micro" in units). This means it can contain all the keys of a standard US/UK keyboard (except for the pound sterling symbol) plus quite a few others (Umlaute, the "double s" character, accents, circumflex, section symbol and mu). It might help you to know that Windows interprets Alt Gr as Alt+Ctrl. I use this fact in Word to assign additional symbol characters to it. On your laptop you may be able to reassign some of the Ctrl key functions to Ctrl+Alt, in effect turning the Alt Gr key into a second Ctrl key. Some apps, like Word and WordPerfect let you assighn keyboard shortcuts, or you could get a shareware keyboard mapping program, which lets you (re)assign keys globally.

I have some older keyboard where the Alt Gr is Alt Car... TulipVorlax 17:22, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WASD

I am skeptical of the Trivia about the Windows key causing a shift to the WASD control scheme in games. This seems like speculation. Can a source be cited for this?

I am aware of the WASD scheme being used as early as 1996's Daggerfall. My understanding for the adoption of WASD is that it is a cross similar to the arrow keys, but can be comfortably reached by the left hand. This frees the right hand to use the mouse to look around.

--Larry 00:11, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The suggestion that Half-Life was the first popular game to use WASD keys is laughable. This "trivia" was probably written by someone who was still drinking from a bottle back then.

WASD is merely the IJKLM for the left side of the keyboard. IJKM /IJKL have been used for decades as an arrow-key system on many platforms. The section only seems useful for noting that modifier keys such as Ctrl and Alt do not always function as modifiers, as in the Doom example. Other examples exist... I know of some console software which uses/used Ctrl to "escape" from input focus on a form field and jump to the next (but for this I have no citation). --Sorpigal (talk) 17:44, 23 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

not allowed to ghost

"not allowed to ghost" - What does that mean? Please refrain from jargon!Knulclunk 13:48, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ALTernate Text section

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this section refers to a Windows-only convention, and as such is at least inaccurate given without any context. It also seems inappropriate to have this listing in this article. If there's no objection I propose removing the section entirely. Orinthe (talk) 04:38, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Amphibious?! Section? Someone had deliberately vandalized the page. Someone dedicated (and sober) should fix it... 213.81.110.27 (talk) 03:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]