Comments on: English

By: Sergey Udaltsov

Sergey Udaltsov — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:54:47 +0000

Rob: as a person constantly switching between RU and US, I am telling you – Alt-A is very unnatural. I hate Apple for using Cmd+Space for layout switching. Modifier-only switch shortcuts are much more natural (and you can see that looking at xkeyboard-config, symbols/group file).

> Actually Isn’t alt+shift a really really bad key combo
It is so good that even Microsoft is using it;)

> as you can have user defined key combos that are alt+shift+character?
No, ATM user-defined combos are impossible.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:12:33 +0000

@Sergey: Well, I only went with the verbose option here as pressing alt and shift togther is a pretty strange key combo. ‘Press Alt-A to change the layout’ or ‘Press Ctrl-C … ‘ are probably pretty understandable to the general population though.

Actually Isn’t alt+shift a really really bad key combo, as you can have user defined key combos that are alt+shift+character?

@Andrew: I wasn’t being verbose to be precise, hence just one simple explanation that will suffice. Your point actually supports what I’ve just said above

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:56:53 +0000

Rob: more verbose does not automatically mean clearer. “Alt+Shift” is a commonly used and understood notation.

Btw, despite its verbosity your sentence isn’t fully precise. It should really be “To change the layout hold down Shift and press the ‘Alt’ key, or hold down Alt and press the ‘Shift’ key, or press them both simultaneously.” *wink*

By: Sergey Udaltsov

Sergey Udaltsov — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:34:48 +0000

Rob: too verbose, in my taste… There are multiple similar options, having them all like that… brrr

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:53:18 +0000

It seems you mean this as instructions for the user, in which case it should be:

‘To change the layout hold down Shift and press the ‘Alt’ key’

By: Karl Lattimer

Karl Lattimer — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:19:30 +0000

The proper form of the sentence should be “The keys Alt+Shift will change the layout”

Although “Alt+Shift changes the layout” is ok because of the pluralisation of changes for the two keys, however specifying that they are keys and not Alt+Shift monkey badgers is the better form of the plural.

By: daniels

daniels — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:51:13 +0000

‘changes’ is easiest.

By: Alex Stansfield

Alex Stansfield — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:23:42 +0000

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

By: Michael "Native Speaker" Howell

Michael "Native Speaker" Howell — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:25:34 +0000

Normally, I’d think of Alt+Shift as singular, like 2+2 would be (the combination of Alt and Shift, or the combination of two and two). Also, using it in a singular context implies that they must be used together.

Either “Alt+Shift changes the layout” or “Press Alt+Shift to change the layout” would be my recommendation.

By: Jeff Parsons

Jeff Parsons — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:55:08 +0000

Alt+Shift is a key sequence (or possibly unordered combination — it’s hard to tell without context).

Either way, we’re talking about that sequence (singular) rather than each of the items in the sequence (plural). At least, I assume so, since I’ve only ever heard it read as “alt shift” (a name for the combination, if you will), not “alt and shift”.

So I would say it should be the singular form: “Alt+shift changes layout”.