Interactive startup on F10. Pressing "I" doesn't work

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Friday 03 April 2009 03:54, Clark Martin wrote:
> Alan Evans wrote:
> > I would have thought that the key-repeat wouldn't differ functionally
> > from rapidly tapping the key.
>
> Most computer keyboards transmit to the computer a key down and key up
> for each key.

I believe this is the only possible way, if the computer is to be able to 
detect simultaneous keypresses (like shift+a). It goes detected as:

shift pressed
a pressed
a released
shift released

If one doesn't make the difference between press and release, ie. detect only 
presses, it would be next to impossible to type combinations like 
ctrl+alt+shift+f3 or such.

Switch to runlevel 3, execute showkey and play. ;-)

> This is true for modifiers as well (shift, control, etc). 

All keys are born equal (the "keyboard democracy" principle). Software decides 
which keys are to be interpreted as modifiers. Shift, ctrl, alt, menu, win, 
etc are a matter of convention --- if you code at a level low enough (ie. 
capture all keypresses and releases straight from the kernel keyboard driver) 
you can make any key behave as a modifier. I did some experimenting on this a 
while ago...

Same for repeating.

Best, :-)
Marko