I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys • Hacker News Board

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#81

Post by webstrand » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:34 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

Games often bind skills or other game mechanics to the function keys.

Anecdotally, I switched from `ctrl+shift+i` to F12 for opening the web inspector due to many websites capturing that keybinding for their own purpose (claude and code editors) if I didn't have a function row I'd have to find an even more arcane hotkey.

They're just a nice set of purpose-undefined keys that you or the application can bind to useful functions.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#82

Post by Delk » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

Shortcuts, mostly.

The shortcut for toggling fullscreen in Firefox is F11.

Many default shortcuts in JetBrains IDEs also use function keys. The keymap can be changed, of course, so you can design your own keymap to avoid F keys, but that's still a bit of a chore.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#83

Post by maratc » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

Same on a Mac: I've never used a function key in the last … 15 years or so? Where the author uses Alt-F4, I use ⌘W. I didn't even hate the Touch Bar (but not exactly used it either.)

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#84

Post by card_zero » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

addaon wrote: post #62

marmarama wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why doesn't the mouse pointer work that way on an Apple trackpad? Surely if that's the case then when you move your finger to the upper left then the pointer should move to the bottom right. Because that's how it would work if it was a real object and you were pushing the pointer around with your finger. Why is scrolling a special case? Honestly though, I wouldn't mind that much if Apple hadn't decided to call it…

The pointer represents your (pointer) finger. Single-finger motions affect the pointer. Scrolling motions affect a representation of the document. When I move my (real) finger up, my (real) finger moves up. When I put my (real) finger on a (real) document and move it up, the paper of the document moves up, causing new text from the bottom to appear in my field of view.

Or scrolling represents a viewpoint, such as a frame, or a finger pointing at the document. Then it's the other way round again. You can't just declare what the metaphor is, it's arbitrary.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#85

Post by bee_rider » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

projektfu wrote: post #79

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

I guess you never use Excel, or never learned to use it effectively.

Your guess is right. My patience for spreadsheets runs out (and I switch to Python or something) before I hit a problem complex enough that effectiveness matters.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#86

Post by roelschroeven » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

In addition to sibling replies, function keys are very useful in debuggers (to step in/over, set breakpoints, ...). And lots of other things that don't immediately come to mind.

I'm old enough to remember WordPerfect on DOS, with a paper template to put over the function keys on your keyboard as a little cheat sheet for all their functions.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#87

Post by maybal » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

At least your keyboard has a Fn lock shortcut. Mine doesn't, so I'm stuck either taping down the Fn key or living in constant fear of accidentally sleeping my PC. Real first world problems but still

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#88

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

[deleted]

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#89

Post by c-hendricks » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

webstrand wrote: post #81

bee_rider wrote: post #72

The F1-F12 keys have always felt like one of those things where… it’s like, people who enjoy oldschool interfaces seem very attached to. And I love the terminal, so I feel like I ought to have strong opinions in their favor. But the only time I need to use them is… what is it, ctrl-alt-F3 to switch to a console if my window manager has fallen apart. This is a very rare event, so I can’t find any strong feeling here.…

Games often bind skills or other game mechanics to the function keys. Anecdotally, I switched from `ctrl+shift+i` to F12 for opening the web inspector due to many websites capturing that keybinding for their own purpose (claude and code editors) if I didn't have a function row I'd have to find an even more arcane hotkey. They're just a nice set of purpose-undefined keys that you or the application can bind to useful…

I've played a lot of games and other than quick save, can't think of any that have used the F-row.

Re: I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys

#90

Post by liendolucas » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

I hate laptops now shipping with the Office 365 logo. Apparently the Windows logo wasn't enough. How many more Microsoft symbols will keep polluting keyboards?