1.3.1 The Keyboard

1.3.1 The Keyboard

Before you start working, you need to know right now the functions of a number of keys on the keyboard. Many of these keys are either not used by DOS/Windows, or have different functions there. The portion of the keyboard at the left having the QWERTY layout resembles your typewriter. You need to be familiar with this section of the keyboard initially, in addition to some other keys in its immediate vicinity. If you know typing, you are on familiar terrain, and keyboard phobia should not get your way.

Apart from the alphanumeric keys, you’ll observe a number of symbols as shown below:

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Each alphabet, number or symbol is known as a Character, which represents the smallest piece of information that you can deal with. All of these characters have unique values assigned to them, called the ASCII value (ASCII- American Standard Code for Information Interchange). For instance, the letter A has the ASCII value 65, while the bang or exclamation mark (!) has the value 21.

There are some keys that have no counterparts in the typewriter. Note the key [Enter] at the right which is used to terminate a line. On some machines this key may be labelled [Return]. The significance of this key is taken up in Section 1.4.4.

When you look at a blank screen, you’ll see a blinking object called a cursor. When you key in a character, it shows up at the location of the cursor, while moving the cursor itself right. Directly above the [Enter] key is the key shown with a ← or labelled [Backspace]. You have to press this key to erase one or more characters that you have just entered, using a feature known as backspacing. When this key is pressed, the cursor moves over the character placed on its left and removes it from sight.

Another important key is the one labelled [Ctrl] (called Control) which you’ll find in duplicate on the lower side of the keyboard. This key is never used singly but always in combination with other keys. We’ll be using this key several times in this tutorials. For instance, whenever you are advised to use [Ctrl-s] to stop a scrolling display, you should first press the [Ctrl] key and then the key labelled s, while [Ctrl] is still kept pressed.

At the top-left corner, you can see the [Esc] key (called Escape), which you’ll require to use when performing file editing with a text editor such as vi. This key often takes you to the previous menu in a menu-based program. Then there is the [Delete] key, which some systems (like SCO UNIX) use to interrupt a program in the same way [Ctrl-c] is used on other UNIX systems (and DOS). On a system running Solaris or Linux, you’ll probably be using [Ctrl-c], rather than [Delete], for interrupting a program.

In the same line as the [Esc] key are the twelve function keys labelled, [F1], [F2], etc., up to [F12]. You won’t require these keys initially, but much later (for mapping keys in vi, for example). The cursor control keys (the ones with four arrows) are required for recalling previous commands in the Bash shell.