Re: accented letters

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Caballero wrote:
> I like the way the accented characters have drawn out a few hitherto
> silent voices on this list!
Indeed. And I am delighted to see that XyWrite is still being used in
such exalted places as the UN. Also grateful to M. d'Or for reminding me
of the term tréma, which I had forgotten (if indeed I ever
learned it). And for alerting us to the fact that political correctness
has come to France, and waiters are now--wait a minute! monsieurs? not
messieurs? Comment?
> Is it possible that IBM was actually following an international keyboard layout in the pre-computing
> era by putting the tréma on the key for double quotation marks...?
I suspect it was simply the similarity of appearance (esp. when quotes
were the old-style, typewriter straight quotes, or primes, not "smart"
quotes, or nines and sixes, as they were called in typography).
> ... But anything is better (from the typist's perspective) than the
> pedal-tone ALT plus a three-note numeric arpeggio in the right hand!
Amen. (And I _love_ the trope.) I am impressed by M. W. Poirier's
ability to remember numbers, but could never match it. And the problem
with numeric codes is that they differ from program to program, and I
have to use WordPerfect, dBase, and 1-2-3 too. The US International
Keyboard means one set of keystrokes, and a similar set in XyWrite.

Patricia M. Godfrey