Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 October 5

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October 5

Apple vs Microsoft

So I installed El Capitan, as one does, and now my Microsoft Natural keyboard is no longer recognized as such. In particular, I no can haz right Command key, which really cramps my style. Shall I wait for a fix, or try to revert? (And how can I reinstall 10.10 without a disk?) —Tamfang (talk) 04:59, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

At the very least, a formal bug report to both Microsoft and Apple is in order.

Regarding a downgrade: I believe this is possible - but not recommended - the procedure is explained on About Recovery; although the recommendation is always to use the newest compatible version.

Nimur (talk) 15:06, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Did you try the Microsoft Natural Keyboard driver for Mac? It is at [ https://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/d/natural-ergonomic-keyboard-4000 ]. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:31, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

• I already have a Microsoft [peripherals] panel in System Preferences; is this something else? —Tamfang (talk) 16:00, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

More info here: [ http://david.rothlis.net/keyboards/microsoft_natural_osx/ ]. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:34, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

• I took (the first parts of) that advice; at least I have two Command keys again, which was the most urgent thing. —Tamfang (talk) 06:49, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

But the lack of other features is sometimes annoying. —Tamfang (talk) 08:19, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Could someone with Apple experience answer the above? I am 70% *nix and 30% Windows. --Guy Macon (talk) 18:59, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Politics of character encoding

Who sets character encoding standards? UTF-8 seems to be the norm now, but who has the last word about changes, who is heard when developing the standard, and how could it incorporate new features?--Bickeyboard (talk) 10:36, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Nobody has the last word. Go a ahead and use EBCDIC or Baudot code if you want. Of course you have to convince whoever is on the other end to accept your encoding, and they probably already accept UTF-8. As for adding new features, see See Character encoding#History and UTF-8#History. --Guy Macon (talk) 12:24, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

I interpret the question as more along the lines of "Who makes the official decisions on aspects of UTF-8?" The answer to that question is the Unicode Consortium, which is in charge of the Unicode standards. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 18:39, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

The Unicode Technical Committee develops and maintains the Unicode Consortium's standards. Their meetings are open to the public, but only members can participate, and only higher membership levels (starting at $7500/year) can vote. Voting members include Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and other big companies that care about character encoding standards. -- BenRG (talk) 00:06, 6 October 2015 (UTC)