Re: Funny old keyboard

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones) writes...

>I've tried two keyboards on my GS so far. The first one was a standard GS
>keyboard. The second looks like the first, except that some of the keys
>have three or four characters printed on them instead of just two. For
>example, the "2" key has a degree symbol as well as the @ symbol, and the
>"3" key has a pound symbol (English money) as well as "#".

    What you have is an international version of the IIgs keyboard.
Outside of the United States, GS's sold in other countries came with
a specialized keyboard (extra symbols or accents printed on some 
keycaps, mainly for the different languages spoken in that country). 

    There was a different version for several countries, including
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and England
(also used for New Zealand and Australia, though it just had the pound
"#" symbol). The different keycaps makes things easier when you set
the 'Keyboard Layout' and 'Keyboard Language' in the Control Panel to 
that of the local country. :) You probably have a French-Canadian
keyboard, considering Canada is just above the United States and
computers get leaked between the two countries (I have a mix of USA
and Canadian Apple II's in my collection for example).

>If a discussion of different Apple-brand GS keyboards is in the FAQ, I
>missed it. Can anyone tell me about this one?

    The keyboards are identical, other than the extra characters printed
on certain keycaps (and sometimes the layout/shape of keys depending on
the country). The Apple IIgs firmware has built-in support of the various
languages and layouts for each country. Play with the 'Display Language'
in the Control Panel and look at these characters:  @#]~@}|\{[

>To my surprise, there seems to be a functional difference between the
>keyboards, too. I can't print out the "option-characters" with my usual
>keystrokes on this one. For example, Option-u then an "o" key should
>produce an "o" with an umlaut over it, but now doesn't, even though
>nothing has changed but the keyboard. Any suggestions about how to make it
>work "right"?

    Sounds like you've changed the setting in the graphical Control Panels. 
Open the "General" Control Panel and toggle the 'Translation' option from 
'none' to 'standard'.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca