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Configurable Key for Keyboard

A User Defined Computer Key.
 
(+1, -1)
  [vote for,
against]

I could think of several uses for this, and one in particular:

Email Address Login etc.

Many programs can be customized with hotkeys etc., but I've never seen an extra key on a keyboard that when depressed is the same as an entire string of characters such as an email address or a user name.

ShawnBob, Jul 14 2010

Optimus Maximus keyboard http://www.artlebed...everything/optimus/
Cool [8th of 7, Jul 15 2010]

vt220 keybaord manual http://vt100.net/do...20-rm/chapter4.html
See section 4.15. [jutta, Jul 15 2010]

[link]






       [+], but this may count as baked - it's possible at least in Linux to remap key combinations at an OS level; it's probably possible to make a lone key into a string of letters, although I haven't tried it.
gisho, Jul 14 2010
  

       This has been baked for years. My keyboard from HP has 6 extra keys on it that can be reconfigured. I also have seen hotkeys used to store more than a single character.
jhomrighaus, Jul 15 2010
  

       yes, more than baked
ixnaum, Jul 15 2010
  

       Baked back in the late '80s. If you're lucky you may be able to find one of these on eBay but you'll need a DIN to mini-DIN or USB adaptor.   

       Keyboards which are fully reconfigurable, using OLED keycaps, are now on the market, but are still somewhat pricey.   

       {suggested-for-deletion] due to Bakedness.
8th of 7, Jul 15 2010
  

       [cue the obligatory note pointing out that "baked" alone isn't grounds for deletion - but I'd say that the existence of programmable soft keys on keyboards is quite widely known, too, and that counts.]   

       Some time in the 80ies, I'd guess, terminal interfaces grew so complicated and varied that programmable general-purpose keyboards sounded like a good idea. This feature was made less necessary by the ease with which you can remap a keycode under e.g. X Windows, but by the time they had that architecture figured out, the widely used keyboard standards like vt220 already included programmability. Now, that was probably intended to contain cryptic escape sequences and control-alt-cokebottle keys and the like, but there's really no reason not to use it for just human-readable strings.   

       So, nowadays we have programmable keys talking to programmable window managers that send them to configurable applications - while many of the devices users actually carry no longer have keys! (I will now finish this annotation through the medium of interpretative dance.)
jutta, Jul 15 2010
  

       Nice choreography, love the leotard, but the tambourine dosen't really work.
8th of 7, Jul 15 2010
  

       Needs more...cowbell.   

       8-p .........i didnt know one could do that with a keyboard (pant pant pant).
jhomrighaus, Jul 16 2010
  

       [jutta] can no longer credibly claim, if indeed she ever could, to be humorless.
mouseposture, Jul 16 2010
  
      
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