Apologies in advance for how off-topic this is getting.
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
1) ermmm... using arrow keys for playing Doom is a good thing if you ask me.... Because they are standard on every keyboard and standard put in a certain way so up is up and down is down.... W, A, S and D are placed differently on many different keyboard types...
Also, if I want to press the up key, I'm not going to press on W (or whatever), I'm going to press the up arrow...
Well, OK, I suppose that people using left-handed US Dvorak [1] wouldn't get anything except a severe case of cramp from those exact keys, but using the keys that correspond to W, A, S and D on a standard QWERTY keyboard is amazing for FPSing. Left hand there, right hand on the mouse. It's an ideal set-up. I accept that, for some people, the arrow keys may be better (left-handed people, with the mouse on the other side, mayhap). Giving people the choice to re-map keys means that everyone can be happy.
quote:
2) That doesn't have anything todo with "standards"...
"leaving something standard" and "using a standard" both use the word "standard", but the word means something different...
* "leaving something standard" => Leaving it the way it is; don't add anything...
* "using a standard" => using something that is defined and has certain rules (like the use of "enter" and "ctrl-enter"), so that everybody instinctivly knows how to use it or what the meaning is...
I was being more than a little facetious with that comment
Instinctively, I use Enter as a line feed. In a word processor, pressing Enter doesn't send your document to the printer, does it? It moves the cursor down to the next line. In text boxes in HTML forms the same happens. I've used it a number of times while writing this. So when this standard doesn't seem to have any consistent application, where is the harm in offering both options (Or all n options, if you let the user define their own keys)?
QW
[1]
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/keyboards.aspx
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