Does anyone really know what the Scroll-Lock key is for on the computer keyboard??
When programming I used to use it as an easy way of pausing a program list so I could isolate the upper lines. I still use it occasionally when I’m listing directory contents in DOS and the list is so long it scrolls off the bottom of the screen. There are better ways of doing this but this is the fastest. Basically it freezes whatever is listed on the screen
Yes. It is a zen thing. When you understand the scroll lock key, you will become enlightened.
Its not all that hard to understand - it locks scrolling.
Consider an old DOS program. You know, before Windows.
Pretend your browser is running in a non-windowed environment (it is full screen, and the only thing up ). Pretend that you are posting a reply to the SDMB. You have two panels - the one where you’re typing the reply, and all of the entries below that ( the previously posted messages). If you scroll up and down using the arrow keys, you’d expect the cursor to move up and down in the message you are typing. If you hit the scroll-lock key, you’d expect the, err, scrolling to be locked, and you’d expect the messages below to become visable. Whether or not that would happen would be anyones guess, because this was in the dark ages before moderately consistant UIs.
That’s pretty much how I remember it, but it has been about a 6 years since I used a DOS-based application.
Yes, it was and still is used to pause the output of more than one screen’s worth of info. Sane thing as piping output in DOS to more, or in Unix, more or pg. Some things still use a character interface.
I just tried using the scroll lock key on my inux box it did not pause the scrolling. But it did light the scroll lock LED so I guess that is what it is for.
Any FlightSim devotee will tell you that SCROLL-LOCK is used as a shortcut to toggle between views from the aircraft cockpit. Much quicker than mousing to a drop-down menu.
“Stupid computer question!!”
Is your computer stupid? I have seen this brand of computer around a lot on the board. Also, the scroll question has been answered before…
Like here
You can use the scroll lock light if you ever find yourself trapped in a prison in the Philipines because some one planted cocaine in your luggage at the airport because you have encrypted files that contain the latitude and longitude of a huge hoard of gold hidden by the Japanese at the end of world war II. Since the nefarious people who planted the drugs on you will obviously attempt to use Van Eck Phreaking to read the contents of your screen when you decrypt the intercepts captured by the US Army, you can write a quick and simple program that will allow you to output the contents of files in morse code (which you learned when studying for your ham radio license), and use the num lock, caps lock, and scroll lock buttons to display the morse code signals.
In fact, that’s probably the entire reason for the key to be there.