Difference between revisions of "Talk:2206: Mavis Beacon"

Revision as of 15:56, 30 July 2021

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-<!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--> <!--Please DO NOT ADD NEW SECTIONS-->
+http://google.com
-;So the # key, then?
-Shifted or not? The implication is that it is, since that's where ‘~’ is. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 18:44, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-: On a typical German QWERTZ layout keyboard, the tilde key '~' can/must be entered via <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span>; alternatively, <span style="border: 1px solid black">Ctrl</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> should work when there is no <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span> key. On certain "dead key" keyboard layouts, there even is no single and direct '~' key: To type a tilde, one would have to press <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> followed directly by a space or to double-tap <span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> while holding <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>. This would mean even more complicated or pretty much impossible key combinations that would be needed to be pressed at the same time. However, holding <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span> or <span style="border: 1px solid black">Ctrl</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span> to try and type a tilde would probably cancel out the "single" <span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span> key necessary for the comic's secret key code. So, once you've managed to type a tilde, it likely wouldn't count any more for the key combo, making it impossible to type this key combination on such keyboard. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:26, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-::I've seen many programs provide hotkey instructions calling the grave key the tilde key due to the difficulty of differentiating between the grave key and the apostrophe key. So I'd assume no shifting is required. [[User:CJB42|CJB42]] ([[User talk:CJB42|talk]]) 01:51, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-:::I don't know if Mavis Beacon was ever internationalized, but it was presumably originally designed for full-sized (non-laptop) U.S. QWERTY 101-key keyboards, where the ~ (tilde) is on the same key as the ` (back-tick) character, and which requires the use of the Shift key to activate. If Mavis Beacon was internationalized, and if this boss reward really existed and was unlocked by a particular key combination, one would hope the key combination would take into account different keyboard layouts. I would also assume that it would not require the shift (or other modifier) key, otherwise they would include that particular modifier key among the list of keys in the combination.  So, like CJB42 pointed out, while they would say ~ since that's clearly labeled on the keyboard and easier to display, they really mean ` which might otherwise just look like a smudge. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 19:49, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-The link from Friday's comic to this new one is missing. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 19:21, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-: This page was created by the bot only a short while ago. I may be wrong, but I think those links will be set automagically by such bot at some point after the creation of this page. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:31, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-Currently, the button on Comic #2205 to go to this comic is missing - someone with more technical expertise than me, please fix this [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.134|172.69.22.134]] 21:07, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-:Fixed it - to do it, go to https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2205:_Types_of_Approximation&action=Purge , this works for any page if you change "2205:_Types_of_Approximation" to what it should be. {{unsigned ip|172.68.174.88}}
-Here on a touchscreen the comic hotlinks to https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/oldstyle-figures [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.64|172.68.38.64]] 19:12, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-:It is also a link on a PC. It has been added to the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
-;Unicode
-Presumably a lot of this could be achieved with Unicode; any advances on 𝟙𝟚𝟛𝟜𝟝𝟞𝟟𝟠𝟡𝟘? [[User:Sabik|Sabik]] ([[User talk:Sabik|talk]]) 05:07, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-Simple means of checking: <pre>
->>> import unicodedata as ucd
->>> for i in range(0x110000):
-...     c = chr(i)
-...     if ucd.normalize("NFKD", c)[0] in "0123456789":
-...         print(c, end=", ")
-</pre>
-It actually spits out <pre>0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ², ³, ¹, ¼, ½, ¾, ⁰, ⁴, ⁵, ⁶, ⁷, ⁸, ⁹, ₀, ₁, ₂, ₃, ₄, ₅, ₆, ₇, ₈, ₉, ⅐, ⅑, ⅒, ⅓, ⅔, ⅕, ⅖, ⅗, ⅘, ⅙, ⅚, ⅛, ⅜, ⅝, ⅞, ⅟, ↉, ①, ②, ③, ④, ⑤, ⑥, ⑦, ⑧, ⑨, ⑩, ⑪, ⑫, ⑬, ⑭, ⑮, ⑯, ⑰, ⑱, ⑲, ⑳, ⒈, ⒉, ⒊, ⒋, ⒌, ⒍, ⒎, ⒏, ⒐, ⒑, ⒒, ⒓, ⒔, ⒕, ⒖, ⒗, ⒘, ⒙, ⒚, ⒛, ⓪, ㉑, ㉒, ㉓, ㉔, ㉕, ㉖, ㉗, ㉘, ㉙, ㉚, ㉛, ㉜, ㉝, ㉞, ㉟, ㊱, ㊲, ㊳, ㊴, ㊵, ㊶, ㊷, ㊸, ㊹, ㊺, ㊻, ㊼, ㊽, ㊾, ㊿, ㋀, ㋁, ㋂, ㋃, ㋄, ㋅, ㋆, ㋇, ㋈, ㋉, ㋊, ㋋, ㍘, ㍙, ㍚, ㍛, ㍜, ㍝, ㍞, ㍟, ㍠, ㍡, ㍢, ㍣, ㍤, ㍥, ㍦, ㍧, ㍨, ㍩, ㍪, ㍫, ㍬, ㍭, ㍮, ㍯, ㍰, ㏠, ㏡, ㏢, ㏣, ㏤, ㏥, ㏦, ㏧, ㏨, ㏩, ㏪, ㏫, ㏬, ㏭, ㏮, ㏯, ㏰, ㏱, ㏲, ㏳, ㏴, ㏵, ㏶, ㏷, ㏸, ㏹, ㏺, ㏻, ㏼, ㏽, ㏾, ０, １, ２, ３, ４, ５, ６, ７, ８, ９, 𝟎, 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟒, 𝟓, 𝟔, 𝟕, 𝟖, 𝟗, 𝟘, 𝟙, 𝟚, 𝟛, 𝟜, 𝟝, 𝟞, 𝟟, 𝟠, 𝟡, 𝟢, 𝟣, 𝟤, 𝟥, 𝟦, 𝟧, 𝟨, 𝟩, 𝟪, 𝟫, 𝟬, 𝟭, 𝟮, 𝟯, 𝟰, 𝟱, 𝟲, 𝟳, 𝟴, 𝟵, 𝟶, 𝟷, 𝟸, 𝟹, 𝟺, 𝟻, 𝟼, 𝟽, 𝟾, 𝟿, 🄀, 🄁, 🄂, 🄃, 🄄, 🄅, 🄆, 🄇, 🄈, 🄉, 🄊</pre>
-So unless you're mis-using characters which are not supposed to be numbers (which would change the screenreader experience from annoying in this case to actually unintelligible and is therefore ill-advisable), that's probably the closest you'd get. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.139|141.101.104.139]] 09:35, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-;reductio ad absurdum (or HHOS)
-This article, as written, made me laugh out loud even louder than the original cartoon which also made me laugh out loud.
-It seems to me that the joke of this strip originated with the idea that there really ARE lowercase numbers (also called oldstyle) which, like glyphs for lowercase letters go below and above the usual line of type.  The joke also forces a meta-level of thinking by overlapping the idea of a type-font or type-face and the idea of a character being unique because of its meaning more than because of its appearance.  Unicode matches integers to characters - but only in the context of a font does that have to do with the character's glyph - other aspects of characters are things like upper-case v. lower-case, phonetic value, what constitutes proper sort order, which character are digits and which are letters, which are punctuation, etc. etc. etc.  A character's appearance, or glyph, (bitmap or set of analog drawing instructions) is only a small part of what makes a character a character.  Godel Escher Bach deals with these meta-levels as does Russel's paradox and non-trivial concepts in math, geometry, and science, as well as other fields.  As such the joke is a kind of conceptual pun.  However.   The joke could be taken one level further by actually making a TrueType font which really does have uppercase and lowercase numbers - like a dingbat font, but where the uppercase-ness and lowercase-ness of the characters are kept, but the glyphs of a thru j are lowercase (oldstyle) numbers and the glyphs of Z thru J are uppercase (taken from the cartoon) numbers - 0 thru 9 could be Lining Figures digits.  If the font was designed using SVG (and a SVG to TrueType converter) the entire SVG file could be created with the keyboard, using only 7-bit ascii (which is a subset of UTF-8, Codepage 437, Codepage 850, Codepage 1252 and many others) and XML character entities.
-I am also surprised that no one has mentioned the old DOS/Windows ALT+Numeric-Keyboard trick for entering any one-byte character - which really worked with real keyboards (and I think is still supported in MS Word).  There was a time when a clever hacker could use this and the DOS prompt to create a executable by COPY CON FOO.COM - which would fit nicely with the text "use this power wisely".  But maybe I am reading too much into it.
-Citations:
-* https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-easily-insert-special-symbols-and-characters-windows-part-i.htm
-* https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-easily-insert-special-symbols-and-characters-windows-part-ii.htm
-** EnableHexNumpad
-* https://www.minitool.com/news/alt-codes-not-working-on-windows-10.html
-* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437
-* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_850
-* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252
-* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
-* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark
-* https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/copycon.htm
-* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2354560/creating-an-executable-file-without-a-compiler
-* https://colinord.blogspot.com/2015/02/extreme-programming-hand-coded.html
-* https://onlineconvertfree.com/convert-format/svg-to-ttf/
-* https://www.w3schools.com/graphics/svg_intro.asp
-* https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/xml_character_entities.htm
-* http://unicode.org/faq/casemap_charprop.html
-* Insert the ANSI character
-** https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-word-95ef89dd-7142-4b50-afb2-f762f663ceb2#PickTab=Windows
-[[User:BrianFennell|BrianFennell]] ([[User talk:BrianFennell|talk]]) 19:11, 7 February 2021 (UTC)
-;Trochees
-To tie this to a recurring theme in Mr. Munroe's comics...  "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - Heroes on the half shell."  [[User:Ryanker|Ryanker]] ([[User talk:Ryanker|talk]]) 20:14, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
-: "Number Maven Mavis Beacon" also fits such a pattern. [[User:Enfield|Enfield]] ([[User talk:Enfield|talk]]) 17:56, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
-Is it worth mentioning "Typing of the Dead" and its sequel?--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 14:53, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
-:It appears you have. So perhaps the former but not the latter? ;-) {{unsigned ip|172.68.47.66}}
-I just wish to say hello to all others here who first experienced Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor back in the day. It was one of the few 'games' with graphics (that weren't CGA!) that was on that early PC of mine, albeit in monochrome (green on black) because of the limitations of that Hercules graphics card/chip/whatever-it-was. That and a 'Digger' game (a clone/ripoff of DigDug, it seems). Ah, nostalgia. I wonder if I can still use my old Psion Xchange suit? Time to dig up a working 5¼” drive and fit it to whatever ATAPI-enabled Mobos I can find... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.61|162.158.154.61]] 17:32, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
-;Playing the same game for 30 years is rare [citation needed]
-[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Solitaire Windows Solitaire] was introduced on 22 May 1990. So we are less than a year from having a game that many people could have been playing for 30 years. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:52, 29 September 2019 (UTC)
-I like this one! I've often been irritated by the lack of a concept of capital numbers, and this is a great design. Get on it, Unicode consortium! 😜 (oh, and don't forget the arbitrary-length snakes!) [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 08:54, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
-;The capital numbers remind me of transdecimal numerals:
-These were invented by Michael De Vlieger to represent digits in bases higher than ten. That three-holed-eight looks a lot like the numeral for 256...
-http://www.vincico.com/arqam/digits/argam-current.html
-Does the zero look like a very simply drawn Death Star to anyone else? No? Just me then? Okay, just checking. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:02, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

Difference between revisions of "Talk:2206: Mavis Beacon"

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