Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 December 26

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December 26

Re-mapping keys

I have Win7, is it possible to remap a key on the keyboard to be a left-click without installing any additional software? In other words, does Win7 have any built-in key remapper that lets me remap a left click to be a key? Acceptable (talk) 01:18, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

I think that Mouse keys can do this. I've never used it myself, but looking at the article it looks as though it can. Cheers, davidprior t/c 14:53, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
Be aware that with Mouse Keys you have to confirm the left mouse button is the active button, then press a key to "single click" it. The "single click" key isn't guaranteed to be a left click, it depends on the active button (the shaded button on the mouse icon next to the clock). And the click is fired immediately, no matter how long you hold the key down.
To learn the keys to use, read Windows 7 - Use Mouse Keys to move the mouse pointer from Microsoft.
To see a picture of the mouse icon next to the clock, go to Windows 7 - Mouse Keys.
If you want a key press and release to exactly emulate the left mouse button (press key down = press left mouse button down; release key = release left mouse button), you'll need something else. --Bavi H (talk) 01:06, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Which content user need?

I have website name dhondo.com. Dhondo is an urdu language word. Meaning: Find, search, etc.. Please anyone give me idea what should be content or for what type of services i should offer on that website? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.189.1.162 (talk) 04:54, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

A search engine for Urdu language web pages is the most obvious. Perhaps a translator to and from Urdu and the most common languages would also fit. You could also have a directory of the most frequently viewed Urdu web sites. StuRat (talk) 05:34, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Accessing an A4 page for letter writing on the computer

Do I need particular software for this? I have a Windows Vista laptop. sincerely Lance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.214.58.131 (talk) 10:54, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Windows Vista comes with a rather basic word processor known as WordPad. If you are going to do more than just a letter now and then, you might want to look into getting a proper word processor or a full scale office suite - there are many to chose from, a fair number of then are free. WegianWarrior (talk) 14:51, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
What you need is a Word processor. One is built in to Windows (WordPad), it's fairly basic (the thing I miss most is a spellchecker) but may be enough depending on what you use it for.
If you want something more advanced, you may wish to look at Online office suites and List of word processors particularly the sections for Free and open-source and Freeware. Probably the most popular options are the word processors in Google Drive and LibreOffice. If you're looking for a paid-for commercial product, the market leader by a long way is Microsoft Word.
Cheers, davidprior t/c 14:47, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

TouchesMoved event not firing properly with iOS

Mostly resolved: see below for follow-up question

I'm learning how to use Xcode/ objective-C, and I copied some code from here. I have copied it almost verbatim, and I'm quite sure the differences are minor. Starting around 9:25, the instructor shows the result of his code, dragging a basketball image around on the screen. Mine does exactly the same thing, so long as I keep moving the mouse (on the simulator) within a space of about 3 or 4 pixels. Outside of that range, it just stops working. When I check the log file (created by printf statements), it is clear that the event touchesMoved simply stops firing when the cursor goes a little outside the point where the touch began. It doesn't even fire a touchesEnded event. It will fire touchesMoved as many times as you like if you keep the motion confined within a very small area, and if you then let go, it will correctly fire a touchesEnded. In other words, it works like the demo, provided you don't move too far. Why would touchesMoved just stop firing? I'm not set up with the iOS dev program yet (just the basic, not the $99), so I can't test on an iPad, but in the demo, the guy is clearly using the simulator, and it is working fine for him. The behaviour for me is exactly the same when I turn off the motion of the basketball image, and just inspect the log of events for clicking on the screen. Any help appreciated, IBE (talk) 12:25, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

I've now just found out that it's because touchesCancelled is firing, but I still don't know why. I'm on the trail at the moment, but please help if you can. IBE (talk) 13:25, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Follow up question

Well, I solved it by deleting some pan gestures I had added - too much information going into my head, so I couldn't see this small-looking change. Does anyone know what the pan gestures would be doing to mess things up? They weren't coded - just placed as icons at the bottom of storyboard. Also, I hope this is helping some other iOS apprentice out there, because it's kind of just me talking to myself at the moment. IBE (talk) 19:08, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Tablets and smartphones

Why is it that ios is still more popular than android devices. Aren't devices like the Google nexus 10 or the nexus 7 technically the same as the latest ipad or ipad mini? 176.27.208.210 (talk) 21:05, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Well, I get the feeling this is going to stimulate more interest than my question above :) but briefly, having tried the different devices in stores, the iPad is still the most intuitive, and has the largest app store. I don't know how the others work for things like iTunes U (ie. whether they have an equivalent, or whether they can play any iTunes U content), but Apple are likely to do pretty well for a long time because of being first, and because they focus on usability. I can't remember the exact story, but Google once said, when developers were confused by something, to just look at the technical specifications (this was for beginning developers, I think). Apple seems to have a much better idea of what it's doing when it comes to communicating with people, rather than just telling them stuff. And for the record, I thought Android phones collectively were bigger, but in the tablet market, I thought it was all Apple, by quite some margin. IBE (talk) 21:45, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
Smartphone has more, although I'm not sure how reliable it is. A Google search throws up conflicting reports from all over the place, perhaps because some pages give US data only (perhaps it differs greatly depending on where you are). IBE (talk) 21:51, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
Yes, that or mobile operating system#Market_share. Your premise is wrong, or you’ve confused "iPad" and/or "iPhone" with "all devices using iOS" and are making a different comparison altogether. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:47, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
I meant mainly iPads popularity against other tablets. I didn't mean all ios devices such as iPods etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.27.208.210 (talk) 13:21, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
You want to know why the latest iPad is more popular than any single other tablet (but not all the rest combined)? Because a lot more money is put into its marketing. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:02, 28 December 2012 (UTC)