Keyboard Claw

A subset of the ShortCuts, are the KeyboardClaws: the odd contortions which computers sometimes require. If we were to engrave this page in stone, it could become the digital RosettaStone of the ThirdMillennium?.

CtrlAltDelete: (aka the ThreeFingerSalute) sometimes takes two hands, it is to a PC what CommandOptionPower is to a Mac User.
- Under DOS, maybe. Under modern versions of MicrosoftWindows, CtrlAltDelete either allows you to log in (assuming nobody is), or gives you the "security" app. LinuxOs can be configured such that this causes a controlled shutdown.
Ctrl-Alt-Insert: takes some PCs to their BIOS screen
Ctrl-Alt-Minus: turned off keyclick on some terminals, also cycles resolutions on Linux X servers
Ctrl-Plus/Minus: (i.e. Ctrl-[=] and Ctrl-[-]) changes text zoom level in Mozilla browser
Propeller-Plus/Minus: (i.e. CommandKey-Shift-[+] and CommandKey-[-]) changes text size in many MacOsx windows, especially the TerminalWindow
Ctrl-Enter:
Ctrl-Escape: the secret way to the start menu on a MicroSoft OS when you don't have a WindowsKey?. (Defined by CUA long before there was a WindowsKey?.)
Shift-F10: CUA defined way to open a menu for the highlighted thing long before there was a WindowsMenuKey?.
Command-Option-P-R: zaps the PRam of a Mac, forcing it to renegotiate the resolution of the monitor and its network address
Command-Option-O-F sends a Mac with OpenFirmware into OpenFirmware when rebooting. (Note: Using OpenFirmware as a 'lite' Forth for random programming isn't recommended).
Alt-Tab/Command-Tab works on newer Macs and PCs running MicrosoftWindows (as well as many LinuxOs distributions), this claw cycles forward through the active processes.
Command-Grave: Cycles through open windows of the active process (unlike Windows, Macs group windows, so Command-Tab does NOT cycle through windows in a single program).
Shift-Alt-Tab cycles in reverse through the active processes.
Control-Alt-F1 takes my FreeBSD Xserver back to the text based screen where I launched X.
Control-Alt-ArrowKeys? -- on Dell computers, it may rotate the display output 90 degrees.
Graphics+Delete: Reboots Amiga. Same difference.
Alt-9 or Control-Alt-F9 gets me back to my XWindows environment. You shouldn't need the Control key down in order to switch back.
L1-A also called StopA takes a Sun Sparc system down to the Forth! interpreter, type words to see its dictionary, and go to continue Unix.
Control-Alt-Backspace takes the X server out of the air on Linux, sometimes logging the user out. Extremely useful when Netscape has again frozen the display. If you run XDM, a new X server will be spawn immediately, so this is in general the fastest way to get out of a frozen-system situation. Much faster than rebooting with CtrlAltDelete. Though see the following.
- AltSysRq? in Linux 2.2 can be pressed together with various keys to set the console logging level, dump system status to the screen, reset the keyboard driver when it's in raw mode, kill (presumably misbehaving) processes in various ways, and shut down or reboot the system. Much more flexible than CtrlAltDelete, and less likely to cause data loss - as long as you press the right third key. This is called the magic sysreq key. Always incredibly handy. It also can prevent data loss as well, because one of the functions lets you sync your disks before rebooting to escape a crash.
- Ctrl-Shift-2-Rept was (?) the historical claw to get unpunched tape out of a teletype. IBM cards were often punched on a handpunch where you pushed one, two or three buttons down at one time: kerunge.
Left Alt-Shift-Tilde (~) is supposed to return you to the US English on Windows 2000 when in a different locale. Conveniently, this default doesn't work on a (Shift-JIS?) Japanese keyboard. I remapped it to Ctrl-Shift-1. And switched keyboards. "nippon<SPACE><ENTER>" is good enough for me.
AltLeftEnterRepeat: technique for getting past the Wiki cannot process your request at this time
Run-Stop/Restore: Gets back to the READY prompt and a stable screen mode on the Commodore 64... usually.
KVM switches for PCs typically have a claw combo for switching console screens. The one I have requires this charming dance: Ctrl-Alt-Shift, then the number of the console to switch to, and then <ENTER>. It usually takes me a couple tries to activate it.
Alt-BackQuote in MacApplications, it switches between the Apps various windows -- i.e. in Firefox, between DownLoads? and Browsers
Command-V during startup on an OsX Mac turns on VerboseBooting?
Command-Option-Shift-Esc: Mac OsX Force quits the frontmost application without asking or showing a dialog.
Command-Option-Shift-Q: Mac OsX Immediately log out the current user.
Command-Option-Control-8: Mac OsX Toggle between white-on-black and black-on-white
Propeller-S: boots Mac OsX to SingleUserMode? -- useful for running fsck -f
Propeller-Shift-V: Mac terminal program: Paste what is hilighted without changing what's in the PasteBuffer
OptionShiftVolume? gives MacUsers? more than FourBitConrol? over the volume ThanksTo? DjCapelis?
On Macs, holding down the OptionKey in early stages of booting allows you to select which boot drive to use

Maybe it should be KeyboardClause instead of KeyboardClaws :-)? Perhaps

LeoScott had an opportunity to attend a demo of some software running on a minicomputer using a particularly baroque color terminal. The gentleman giving the demo had the audacity to brag that his software could not be crashed. Having some familiarity with the terminal and guessing that the software might not be able to handle everything the terminal could spit at it, he proceeded to use all ten of his fingers to press various keys, causing the terminal to send a rapid stream of characters to the computer. Needing to press just one more key to cause the terminal to send really fast, he leaned over and pressed the eleventh key with his nose. The gentleman's software promptly blew chunks. Leo calls this "rolling your nose on the keyboard." It was the ultimate KeyboardClaw.

Reminds me of a pianist (his name eludes me) who said, "Play it with your nose if you have to, but play it!"

Mozart once bet Haydn a case of champagne that his older colleague could not play at sight a piece, which he had composed earlier that day. When Haydn accepted, the score was placed on the spinet rack and Haydn began to play. After the first few bars, he suddenly stopped: the composition apparently required that the hands play at opposite ends of the keyboard while a note was struck at its center. Haydn conceded momentary defeat, whereupon Mozart took his turn at the piano. Upon reaching the impossible note, he bent forward - and struck it with his nose.

from http://www.ptloma.edu/music/MUH/musiclinks/Amusing_Stories_files/Amusing_Stories.htm

My SignificantOther happens to have been born in Germany, she told me Ctrl-Alt-Delete is called the DosClaw? in German, though I think the spelling is a bit different than my phonetic reproduction. it is actually called ape claw (affengriff)

There's a DosBoot? joke in there somewhere.

The AtariSt's operating system TramielOperatingSystem (TOS), which had many similarities to DOS (including, I believe, CtrlAltDelete to reboot), was started by a boot loader called DAS BOOT.

On the KinesisKeyboard the Control, Alt, and Delete keys are adjacent to each other (in the left thumb area). With a bit of practice you can hit all of them with one finger. This can be satisfying sometimes. :-)

Even more fun, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace can be accidentally hit with one thumb on KinesisKeyboard, as mentioned above, that's the magic "Kill the X server" combo. Once, In the wee hours of the morning, ten hours into a big coding binge, about a month after I started using my Kinesis....

Northgate, who used to make gourmet keyboards, made one with a teeny tiny button in the back which issued the CtrlAltDelete when pressed.

I want a keyboard with a red button under a flip-up clear plastic cover. Flip the cover up, mash the button, reboot. I don't need it as much as when I was running WinDOS, but Netscape does tend to take the X Server down - keyboard and all - in Linux. This of course means the button can't be a key per se, but just a remote reset button such as is on the front of the case (which is quite out of reach beneath the desk). There's a human factors lesson in there somewhere.

-- StevenNewton

The AcornArchimedes machines had proprietary keyboards with a large (but sufficiently recessed) reset button at the back, next to where the mouse plugged in. This had a dedicated wire within the cable, so it could trigger a motherboard reset even if the keyboard wasn't being read.

The TRS-80 Model III had an orange reset button on the top right of the keyboard, recessed in its own little well. It provoked much curiosity among those unfamiliar with computers. "What does this do?" was often followed by the gnashing of teeth of those who hadn't yet saved their work to tape. The reset button also had a great tactile response, which just begged to be pressed. In retrospect, this may have been a GoodThing.

Ever since my VAX days (where I had to keep track of the difference between CtrlC and CtrlY), I've wanted a VelocitySensedKeyboard? - so that a moderate press of some interesting key (like Return) caused a simple line break. A harder press would cause a suspension of output (like CtrlS), and a still harder stroke would interrupt execution of the current process. Really whacking the key would, of course, force a reboot. -- TomStambaugh

harpsichord versus piano, sounds like a good idea to me.

Hmmm, I tend to keyboard in a concert-piano style, and I think this is analogous to hitting the final chord and watching your piano disappear through a trapdoor. So I vote this suggestion as something evil that must be stopped. More on track, I'm always surprised how many critical systems reboot if you unplug the system-console.

On which note, see the RISKS DIGEST 16.85 - "Re: Sparc10 keyboards and resetting the CPU". They don't actually _crash_, but they do drop into the boot monitor. http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/16.85.html#subj8