On 05 Jan 2024, Nightfox said the following...

browser, email reader, calculator program, etc.. One example is the Logitech K200 media keybaord - I use one of those both at home and at work. If they can make keys to launch particular applications like
those, I wonder if they could add a key to launch a telnet application.

well, those are definitely customizable in KDE at least, and probably other desktops. otherwise, even though they're not common anymore, F13-F22 keys are still there as well.. just need a keyboard with remappable keys (koolertron makes one but it's expensive..) and since basically no software would ever expect you to have those keys available, you could bind them systemwide even on windows. (autohotkey perhaps?)

i got one of those koolertron keyboards to experiement with.. see if i'd actually use for example dedicated ctrl-pgup/ctrl-pgdn (swap tabs in the browser) keys, or emulate the previous/next term keys on some IBM keyboards like the keys next to the arrows here:

https://www.laptopkeyboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/5170_P1050550keyboard .png

to do ctrl-b n and ctrl-b p to go between windows in tmux

who knows.. every time i think of it i don't feel like booting to windows.. the programmer for the controller in the keyboard is windows only heh

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