|
I was just doing some work on my 512 GB Surface Pro 2 with the backlit Type keyboard. I stopped typing for a bit to think and the keyboard back lights turned off. That's neat - saves power, I thought. Then when I put my hand near the keyboard again, the back lights turned back on ... before I touched the keyboard.
At first I thought it was my imagination, but no, it's repeatable. When my hand gets about an inch* from the keyboard, the lights turn back on. It even works when the Surface display has turned off.
I guess it must be capacitance activated or something. Perhaps everyone else knew about that and I'm just slow, but I find it neat, nonetheless.
* about 2.54 cm for the rest of the world
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
So the power saved by having the keyboard backlight switch off is consumed by having a sensor to switch it back on again!! 
|
|
|
|
|
Still makes sense if the sensor consumes less power than the keyboard lights 
|
|
|
|
|
Well, I'm not an electronics expert, neither do I play one on the interwebs, but I'd guess that a capacitance based detector would draw little or no current when not activated. At any rate, I get between 8 and 10 hours of battery life out of mine when I'm just doing normal stuff - Word, Excel, Powerpoint, email, web browsing, writing code and debugging, etc. At that rate, whether it consumes a little more power or not makes no difference to me.
I just think it's neat that they can detect when your hand gets near the keyboard before it actually touches it.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
Walt Fair, Jr. wrote: no current
Precisely. No movement no current. No arm no chocolate.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
|
|
|
|
|
Walt Fair, Jr. wrote: about 2.54 cm for the rest of the world
It's actually exactly 2.54 cm. The inch is defined by the meter.
And that's a de facto standard created by Carl Edvard Johansson[^].
When he created his gauge blocks[^] the inch wasn't standardized and varied not just between countries but also different factories. So he decided on 2.54 cm as it was in between most nonstandard inches. And you could also easily switch between metric and imperial threads in a lathe by using two wheels with 100 and 127 cogs on them.
It became a de facto standard when his gauge blocks became adopted by the car industry.
Politicians are always realistically manoeuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.
Buckminster Fuller
|
|
|
|
|
Very nice, but he said "about an inch", and footnoted it as "about 2.54 cm".
It weren't broke.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
Nitpick.
Politicians are always realistically manoeuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.
Buckminster Fuller
|
|
|
|
|
I'm a nitpicker nitpicker!
There's gotta be a song in there somewhere...
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
What he said. Maybe I should have said "approximately"?
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
I had no intension to be a bighead, but I find technical history very interesting.
Politicians are always realistically manoeuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.
Buckminster Fuller
|
|
|
|
|
No problem. I find it interesting, as well.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: * about 2.54 cm for the rest of the world
That's awfully thoughtful of you to think of them.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
|
|
|
|
|
... does it seem time consuming to use a keyboard and a mouse together, when keyboard shortcuts work much more quickly (at least for me)? I mean, there are cases in which the combination is much quicker and/or more efficient for me. I ask such a question because occasionally I watch videos on YouTube. These people are demonstrating various techniques related to C#, ASP .NET MVC, SQL, or whatever it is they're doing a tutorial for. And a lot of their actions are done with the mouse.
I could understand if they were showing you how to operate the IDE itself, helping you to become acquainted with it. But ... when you're in an intermediate or advanced topic, you should probably know your way around the IDE. I know that if I personally were to create a tutorial such as these, I would use my regular shortcuts. I don't click the Build button, or the Start Debug button, or the "Step Into/Over" buttons, or the Stop Debug button. I press Ctrl+F5, F5, F10, F11, Shift+F5, etc.
I use F9 to set/remove breakpoints. I use Ctrl+K/Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K/Ctrl+N and Ctrl+K/Ctrl+P to set/remove bookmarks, move to the next bookmark and move to the previous bookmark.
Same when I'm navigating through a code file. I rarely touch the mouse. I use Ctrl+Up/Down to scroll down a line at a time. I use Ctrl+. to create method stubs and such. I use Ctrl+Left/Right to navigate a line of code.
Are there people who can be just as quick and efficient using a keyboard/mouse combination for the exact same tasks? It's quite a serious question; I haven't used a keyboard/mouse together *that* often in many years. 
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
|
|
|
|
|
Matt U. wrote: I use Ctrl+. to create method stubs
Say that again? What do you use to create method stubs?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
Ctrl+(period) 
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
|
|
|
|
|
No, I wasn't busting your chops, really. I tried CTRL+. and it did nothing.
Is there something that has to be set up for it to work?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
I suspect there has been some customisation been going on as it doesn't work for me either!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
|
|
|
|
|
If you're working in a class and you want to create a method that takes 3 parameters (int a, string b, bool c) then you type it out like this:
class MyClass
{
void MyMethod()
{
int a = 10;
string b = "String";
bool c = true;
MyNewMethod(a, b, c);
}
}
And then you see a little blue box under the "M" in "MyNewMethod(...)". If you put the caret anywhere in the name or (...) (anything left of the ';', and press Ctrl+., it will show the popup to "Generate method stub for MyNewMethod in MyClass".
If you type a name like you would a type, such as:
MyNewClass newClass = new MyNewClass();
You can also use Ctrl+. to generate the class "MyNewClass". I use Visual Studio 2010 and no modifications. It's a default, at least on my end...
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
|
|
|
|
|
OH! Now I know what you're talking about. Yeah, that's a great feature. It can also generate structure members and enumeration members.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
Right on! Yeah, I use it a lot. Especially when I'm starting something for the first time, because the structure isn't really in place yet. It's simpler than typing the entire method name + parameters twice. Haha.
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
|
|
|
|
|
Check the reply I just added after Mycroft said the same thing.
djj55: Nice but may have a permission problem
Pete O'Hanlon: He has my permission to run it.
|
|
|
|
|
When I'm programming - most of the time - I use keyboard almost exclusively...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is (V).
|
|
|
|
|
Ctrl K D to indent
Ctrl M O to minimize all
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Math is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
|
|
|
|
|
Tis not just you, but I have a problem as I use a number of different IDEs and not all have the same keyboard behaviour - so it can be a pain in the proverbial, forcing me to mouse up.
I think in video tutorials they often use a mouse so the viewer can see that they are doing something - otherwise things can happen seemingly magically unless they tell you what keys they pressed.
Biggest keyboard issue between IDEs that I have is usually Ctrl-X or Ctrl-C to cut or copy ;
in VS it will cut or copy the entire line when there is no text selection. This seems to be true of few other IDEs (AppCode is the only one I use that allows it)
I use this lods of times a day - and find myself trying to do it in Word and other programs too as it is immensely useful.
II know it is possible to customise the keystrokes of most decent IDEs - but that can cause an issue especially with those I am less familiar with - as turning to the interwebs for help tends to elicit the 'just press Ctrl-Space dot K-P star' response - which if I have changed my mappings will probably do something entirely unrelated!
ON that note, I wish all debuggers would use the same keys to run, step into out of etc.!
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
