Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

Select a section:

WP:RD/C

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

How can I get my question answered?

Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
Note:
- We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
- We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
- We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
- We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

January 14

How are quantum computers different than normal computers we know?

What exactly will change with the increase in use of Quantum computers? will they completely overtake the currently popular types of computers? Yashrajkarthike (talk) 07:27, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As stated above, we can't answer requests for predictions. Have you read our comprehensive article on Quantum computing? Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:50, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, but thanks for reminding me. I will check out the article for more details. Thanks! Yashrajkarthike (talk) 10:04, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 16

Algorithm to match U.S. state names to USPS state codes

Re this mini project, I wish to match a list of USPS state codes (set A) with a list of U.S. state and territory names which has spelling variations (set B) in any order. Set B may have missing items, in which case set A matches [null]. This is an example successful match:

Set A	CO, CT, DC, VA, WA, WV
Set B	Conn., Wash., Washington (District of Columbia), W. Virginia

yields

Set A	Set B
CO	[null]
CT	Conn.
DC	Washington (District of Columbia)
VA	[null]
WA	Wash.
WV	W. Virginia

Can someone please suggest a robust, performant yet simple to program algorithm? The target language is JavaScript.

Thanks,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 09:03, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Cmglee: I've re-read this multiple times and can't understand what this program is supposed to do. Are you trying to convert a natural language name to a USPS code? One which could have many variations, such as eg DC being "District of Columbia", "Washington DC", "Washington (District of Columbia)" for example. Is that what you're trying to do? —Panamitsu (talk) 10:28, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your reply, @Panamitsu: Sorry if I didn't make it clear. Yes, I effectively wish to convert a natural-language name to a USPS code. It is helped that the names are presented in one file, and each state or territory occurs at most once, so if one name somewhat matches one code, no other name can match that code. Here's my use-case:

I have created a template SVG map showing the states of the USA (and Washington DC). In the SVG code, I refer to the states' shape and labels with the USPS codes AK, AL, AR, AZ etc.

My collaborator, Timeshifter, however, receives data in the following format:

Alabama 41.4
Alaska
Arizona 31.4
Arkansas 43.5

The order of the states or their exact spelling cannot be guaranteed. Some states may be missing data: in the above, I have "Alaska" without a number, but that line could be left out entirely.

The JavaScript can have a lookup table with their nominal spellings, but may need to make matches e.g. using Levenshtein distances etc to find the best mapping. In my contrived example, the lookup table might have "CO → Colorado, CT → Connecticut", so when the data has "Conn.", it figures that "CT" is more likely than "CO".

Does it make sense now? It sounds that this is already a common solved problem in computer science. Thanks, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 11:38, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Your lookup table (which should be a map, not a table) is backwards. Let's assume it is called "map" in your code. If you get "Missouri", you set state=map["Missouri"] because map["Missouri"]="MO". It is likely that many people have made this map for their code. You can make it for yours. You have 51 states (including Washington DC), so you type it in. If you get one you haven't seen before, add it. Because of the way this map is made, you can have map["Colorado"] = "CO", map["Col."] = "CO", map["colarodo"] = "CO", etc... 12.116.29.106 (talk) 16:45, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would not use Levenshtein distances; I would just put common spellings into the object. I would restrict the case. If a match is not found, then add the failing string to the map.

/**
 * Table that maps lowercase state names to USPS abbreviations
 * @type {Object.<string, string>}
 */
const mapStateToUSPS = { "al" : "AL", "alabama" : "AL", "ak" : "AK", "alaska" : "AK", "ca" : "CA", "calif" : "CA", "california" : "CA" }; // etc...

/**
 * Convert a state name to a USPS abbreviation
 * @param name {string} name of the state
 * @returns {?string} the USPS abbreviation
 */
function lookupUSPS(name) {
  // normalize the name
  // could also remove punctuation: "N. Carolina" to "N Carolina"
  var key = name.toLowerCase();

  if (mapStateToUSPS.hasOwnProperty(key))
    return mapStateToUSPS[key];
  else
    return null;
}

Glrx (talk) 18:56, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For the example given, you cannot use Levenshtein distances. The example is CO and CT with the abbreviation Conn. For that, the distance between CO and Conn is 2. The distance between CT and Conn is 3. CO is less distant than CT. So, it will not claim that CT is a better match. It will claim CO is a better match. If you really want to go down this route, you have to do a Levenshtein check between the abbreviation Conn and all full state names. But, you have a string length weakness. Conn to Colorado has a distance of 6. Conn to Conneticut has a distance of 6. If you divide the distance by the max possible distance, Conn to Colorado is 6/8=0.75 and Conn to Conneticut is 6/10=0.60. Now, 0.60 is less than 0.75. But, you will certainly hit more problems. You are much better off making a very complete map of all abbreviations. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 19:53, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note that "Washington (District of Columbia)" and "W. Virginia" from your set B do not occur as such in our article List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations, so you may need to add more name variations by hand. You can normalize the key by ignoring case and removing spaces and periods, so that "W. Virg." is replaced by "wvirg"; this will reduce the number of entries. While edit distance should not be the primary criterion, some well-crafted version of least edit distance can perhaps be used as a fallback if the key is not found in the lookup table. --Lambiam 22:08, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another option to finding these abbreviations is to get a list of redirects to each state/territory which have the redirect templates {{R from alternate name}} and {{R from misspellings}}. This isn't going to get them all of course, but it should be a good start. Manually mapping typos isn't too much work. Heck, I have a database of over 1,000 flags which I manually type out descriptions for and it only takes a couple of minutes to map each typo. —Panamitsu (talk) 03:02, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much, everyone, for your feedback. Though I originally wanted a generic fuzzy-matching function, I've scaled back my ambitions and adapted Glrx's idea by first converting the name to lowercase and removing any non-alphanumeric-or-underscore characters.

If there is an exact match, it returns it, otherwise it finds the one with the lowest Levenshtein distance. This doesn't make use of the fact that each state appears at most once, but is hopefully sufficient for foreseeable data. I'll add a note to add common abbreviations e.g. "conn" or "wvirg" should the need arise.

Cheers,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 10:48, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 17

Where can I purchase Windows 10 OEM Operating system on a disk.

Hello,

I meed a disk with Windows 10 Professional OS. OEM is desirable.Thanks AboutFace 22 (talk) 23:53, 17 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@AboutFace 22: I found https://softwareld.com/product-category/windows/windows-10/ with a quick search. Pro version but not OEM. It looks like you can get USB key or DVD. I have no experience with this seller, I found the link at Amazon. RudolfRed (talk) 00:54, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Which OEM? Dell, hp, Lenovo...? What do you want it for? A re-install of Windows 10 on a system that came out with Windows 10 or an upgrade from (say) Windows 7/8? Either way, you can download the official Microsoft Media Creation Tool for Windows 10. In the case of a re-install you will not have to buy a license as it is baked into the hardware - if it came out with Win10. For an upgrade of the OS from an older version you will likely have to buy a license. In the case of a custom built PC where the various components are possibly sourced from different vendors (MSI, NVidia, Seagate, etc.) you will have to buy a new license from the Microsoft store. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 08:14, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I bought a Dell computer with Windows 11 OS. I cannot handle it. Tried many times. I want to install Windows 10 over it or make Windows 11 one of possible choices. I have experience with using two OS on one computer, e.g Linux and Windows 7. Thanks 107.191.0.90 (talk) 13:47, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Unless You really need an app that only runs under Windows, switch to Linux. Much less hassle. I have been using Fedora Linux for years and I find that it just works and does not harass the user as Windows does. --Ouro (blah blah) 22:25, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a frequent viewer of the Computing helpdesk, but I seem to remember that a few years ago it was agreed here not to answer queries about problems with 'Operating System A' with a recommendation to replace it with 'Operating System B'. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.1295} 176.24.47.60 (talk) 17:06, 22 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Didn't know that. I acknowledge lack of established precedent Nonetheless I stand by the recommendation. --Ouro (blah blah) 20:20, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 23

Usability

Why does usability score so low on most commercial software products? Or to put it another way, why is its importance so low when it comes to their end users? I was recently on vacation, and I noticed that the hotel staff were complaining about the usability of their in-house systems (the door key cards weren't issuing correctly and were cancelling the cards out), the rental car staff were complaining about the usability of their reservation systems (the system issued a car with the wrong license plate, which meant the correct car could not be picked up), restaurant staff were complaining about the low usability of their POS systems (their system did not put the drink orders through), uber and doordash drivers were complaining about the low usability of their rideshare and ordering platforms (delivery addresses and GPS didn't match), etc. Please do not reply with "confirmation bias". There is obviously something wrong with the way software is designed and it permeates the entire enterprise system. And as if that wasn't enough, I was at Costco today and the same thing happened at the tire center (reservation was deleted from the system). Viriditas (talk) 00:48, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If there is more here to confirmation bias, it is likely due to priority differences between the consumer and employee. Companies usually prioritise the experience of customers over their employees as customers are the ones who the company wants to bring back for their wallets. If a customer has a bad experience, they are likely to find a better company to buy from. If an employee has a bad experience, then toughen up buddy. This translates into software: if a customer has a bad experience using the software, then that is a serious issue, but if an employee has difficulty with the software, it is not as bad. —Panamitsu (talk) 01:52, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, exactly. This confirms what a high-level employee at a five star hotel told me. Viriditas (talk) 02:23, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't classify these problems as usability issues. They are plain errors (aka bugs). The prevailing approach to reducing such errors is by repeated testing and fixing. The examples are of in-house systems, possibly custom-built, which are hard to test extensively before they are deployed. The question is perhaps more why such errors are not promptly fixed. The software company that built them may have gone belly-up, and the software may be a legacy system that no one knows how to maintain. --Lambiam 11:05, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Alternatively the software may be the cheapest that management believes (based on a salesman's spiel) will do the job. Once bought it is hard for management to back out and admit to a wrong decision. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:15, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes the software may be excellent, but over-complex for the actual task involved. I worked for an engineering and maintenance company that bought an expensive, advanced and doubtless well-programmed business suite in order to use its stock management module to replace a simpler procedure using spreadsheets, despite my advice (as one who would need to consult its records) that to enter all of the system-required data properly would require extra personnel.

Just as I predicted, the existing warehouse staff found entering all the data too onerous, so the stock records rapidly became unreliable and deficient, and the new system was quietly abandoned. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 176.24.47.60 (talk) 11:53, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am nearing retirement in commercial project development. Over the past 40 years, I've been a developer on many projects from entertainment to stock control to accounting to command and control to health equity research and much more. I see the same thing time and time again. A company will hire a group of developers. Half (or more) of the developers spend the entire time arguing about what programming language to use, what framework to use, what repository to use, etc... A few of them will develop the project to the best of their ability, making decisions based on what they think should be done. Because of the isolation behind all the layers of management and bickering, they don't have the luxury of discussing issues with the potential clients. Then, when the project is released, the development staff is fired and replaced with sales people. Any usability issues are fixed with training and documentation. True bugs are fixed by logging the complaint, hiring a long line of contractors to come in, say that the programming langauge is wrong, the framework is wrong, the repository is wrong, cash a check and leave. Eventually, some companies will rehire one of the original developers to fix the bug and then go away, never to talk about it for threat of lawsuit. So, if you experience issues with a product, it isn't a surprise. That is how the developement world is set up. In the end, everyone just points at the guys who developed it and blame them, but they were fired long ago, so they don't care. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 13:34, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I first heard this story 25 years ago. Are you telling me that the software development process hasn't changed a bit in all this time? What about lessons learned? This is surprising to me, but I suppose if I think about it for any length of time, it's the same situation in every other sector. Institutionalization and "the way things have always been done". Incrementalism, inertia, and bureaucratic, top-down hierarchies are to blame. Viriditas (talk) 21:00, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds about right. Commercial software is developed (perhaps not in the first instance, but eventually) by teams of programmers who may not be familiar with the product (one among many they support) based on specifications negotiated between project managers (who are no more familiar with it that the developers) and the client's accountants (to keep the price down), on behalf of middle managers (because no one dreams of getting the actual users involved in something so complicated as working out what they need). Software development may have moved on; commercial and human realities haven't.

The best software is developed by people who need it for themselves and have the skills to do it (eg Linux and many open-source products); the best software I developed was done for myself, or for the people I could actually sit alongside to watch and talk to. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 21:51, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. I've written a lot of good stuff for myself. Also, it is best if one person does the whole thing and sticks with it for the lifetime of the project. In my career I worked on two small programs written in BASIC, but otherwise I either started from scratch (doing everything), or looked at their existing program and started over from scratch. You are so familiar with it if you have done it all yourself. (Also, I can find my bugs a lot easier than I can find bugs written by others.) Now, my daughter is a software developer, but she works only on certain aspects of projects already written by others. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:20, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Linux and many open-source products are famously criticized on usability terms. When this is raised, many developers counter by encouraging the user to fix it. The user won't so the usability flaws and the user discomfort continue until the user abandons the program.

Just today I was reading CUPS:

Starting with Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat provided an integrated print manager based on CUPS and integrated into GNOME. This allowed adding printers via a user interface similar to the one Microsoft Windows uses, where a new printer could be added using an add new printer wizard, along with changing default printer properties in a window containing a list of installed printers. Jobs could also be started and stopped using a print manager, and the printer could be paused using a context menu that pops up when the printer icon is right-clicked.

Eric Raymond criticised this system in his piece The Luxury of Ignorance. Raymond had attempted to install CUPS using the Fedora Core 1 print manager but found it non-intuitive; he criticised the interface designers for not designing with the user's point of view in mind. He found the idea of printer queues not obvious because users create queues on their local computer but these queues are actually created on the CUPS server.

He also found the plethora of queue-type options confusing as he could choose from between networked CUPS (IPP), networked Unix (LPD), networked Windows (SMB), networked Novell (NCP) or networked JetDirect. He found the help file singularly unhelpful and largely irrelevant to a user's needs. Raymond used CUPS as a general topic to show that user-interface design on Linux desktops needs rethinking and more careful design.

--Error (talk) 00:17, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Software crisis is written as if it were a thing of the past. Agile software promises to keep the developers closer to the user needs and to deliver something that at least approaches them unlike the bureaucratic waterfall model. --Error (talk) 00:17, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another factor may be that there are so many programmers now that the talent is spread thinly. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:26, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 24

Uber app in Tesla computer?

Heavy Uber/Tesla users and perhaps Tesla owners can probably answer this quickly.

I recently took three Uber/Tesla rides and each driver had the Uber (driver's) app on a phone. They told me it could not be installed on the nice big Uber computer. At least two of them mentioned Elon Musk in their explanations.

Is it true that the Uber app cannot be added?

If so, why?

Also, what can you tell me in general about the Uber screen/computer? Is it more or less like a tablet, with Tesla-specific apps? Hayttom (talk) 18:31, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The idea of adding apps to in-car entertainment systems is quickly falling out of favor. Protestations from old school car CEOs aside, most consumers use CarPlay or Android Auto to run their apps from their phone and display them on the in-car entertainment screen. It's not just easier, it's faster, and often is far more seamless with all the different options and capabilities. Tesla Android, CarPlay, and mirroring are also available. Uber drivers can now use the Uber app via CarPlay in their Tesla, although there is some configuration involved. Wireless adapter kits make this easier. I was recently on vacation and had to rent a car. With CarPlay, my entire trip itinerary, maps, and phone were on display and active in the new car within seconds. This is how it's done now, even though the car companies keep fighting tooth and nail against it. They keep trying to push this Wall Street, monetize-the-oxygen-they-breathe, subscriber model on car buyers, and it's done nothing but backfire in their face. Viriditas (talk) 22:30, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. Do CarPlay and Android Auto accept touch-screen interaction? Hayttom (talk) 03:26, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. You’re basically using your phone on the entertainment screen. Viriditas (talk) 04:34, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note that per our article, Android Auto is only supported in certain countries [1] (click the FAQ item "Is Android Auto available in my country?"). Poland is on that list, but Ukraine is not. Getting it to work seems to be complicated [2] as there seems to be some countries where you just have to get the app (e.g. sideloading) and some countries where you need to do more depending possibly also the version of Android and or Google Play servies; and car (I assume their service). Also even in countries where it is supported, acceptance is likely to vary depending a host of local factors including when support was added. E.g. for Poland this seems to be September 2021 [3] which is a reasonable length now, but still not that long. Just like e.g. Waze or What's App are more popular in some countries, but Google Maps or other services like Facetime more popular in others. (Also dependent on other factors e.g. Waze especially for those who want to know about stuff like where there's any sort of traffic law enforcement going on.) Also while it might be possible to use Android Auto in Teslas in some ways, I suspect the willingness of people to those efforts is likely to vary [4] [5]. Uber seems to the sort of thing where you don't want any flakiness, so if you're able to do all you need on your phone in the car, plenty of drivers are not going to want to risk fooling with anything else. (If your Spotify stops workings, most people will cope. Even if your navigation stops working for general purpose driving, you might be able to continue to somewhere you can safely pull over to fix it. If you Uber doesn't work properly you might miss customers or worse, be late for a pickup or screw up the drive resulting in negative feedback.) Nil Einne (talk) 11:56, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note that several users in the Reddit thread linked above also reported poor experience with Android Auto. The mention of 5 years ago, raises an important point. While the time between upgrades of phones is increasing, still in many countries I think the average is under 5 years. By comparison, in many countries it's still very common for people to use a car 10 years older or more. I don't know how much work needs to be done by the head unit with Android Auto, but if Google etc are developing their apps and increasing the requirements imposed on the head unit people's experiences in olders cars may be poor. You can get similar problems with smart TVs, but many people just use Chromecast dongles or similar with them anyway or start to ones there are problems. And even there AFAIK it tends to be more the case people simply stop supporting apps for older TVs rather than the apps starting to work poorly on older TVs because they have higher requirements. (Or maybe more accurately when that happens, the developers simply abandon support for the older devices.) Interesting enough, while TVs with Android are an option, the TV manufacturer proprietary OSes (especially Samsung and LG) seem to be much more popular in some countries, and I can't help wondering if this is part of the reason. (Although I think in most countries, people tend to upgrade their TVs more often than they do their cars.) Nil Einne (talk) 12:18, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I had more of a look and it seems that the headunit is mostly just acting as a display so the requirements shouldn't change much over time. OTOH, I found lots of reports of problems and in most cases people say they can't offer suggestions without, the phone, connection type and headunit so I don't think the headunit is irrelevant. Factory resetting the headunit seems a common suggestion too. I have very little interest in Apple products, still while some people did report Carplay was better, others don't agree [6]. Note that I'm not saying I expect most car built in systems to be better but now that I've looked, I'm not particularly surprised to find that for many people using Android Auto is definitely far from seemless or something that just works without issue even if they have a headunit in their car which nominally supports it and a decent phone. That said, as much as I dislike Tesla and the proprietary closed ecosystems in general, as well as the IMO crazy subscriber models for basic services for cars you own, I'm also not particularly surprised if plenty of people are fine with what Tesla does if it supports whatever apps they want. Since AFAIK, like Apple they tend to be good at making stuff just work if you're willing to accept the limits they impose. Of course since the headunit is doing all the work the risk of problems developing as they age and the hardware starts to be limited compared to newer models is likely to be greater even if the manufacturer has more control over the ecosystem. It's likely to depend a lot on how much they care, one advantage I guess of a subscriber model is they're more likely to car as long as there are enough subscribers to make it worth their while. (Easily hardware upgradable head units is another option but this depends if people feel it's worth while.) Nil Einne (talk) 13:01, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry it looks like I was mislead/confused by updates on the earlier link, I think support for Android Auto in Poland was added in December 2020 [7] not September 2021. So a little longer, still well after initial launch. Also besides sideloading, changing region for you Google account or adding another Google account to your phone or tablet, set to a different region and using that account to install the app would likely work and allow updates to work fine. But I assume this still doesn't help if you're in one of those countries where Google tries to block Auto's use. Nil Einne (talk) 12:30, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I do not have a Tesla. I have a Mazda. But, my experience is related. I can install Uber on my Mazda's built-in display, but I don't because it costs a lot of money. To install Uber, it is $250 (approximate because dealers add to the cost to make a few dollars). But, that isn't all. I have to have Mazda navigation installed. That is $800+ and has to be updated yearly. So, I'm basically looking at $1000 to install the Uber app in my Mazda. Instead, I have it on my phone and use Android Auto, which is free, to display everything on the infotainment screen. I also saw the note about touch screen. The Maxda uses a "hockey puck" down by the gear shift to move a cursor around the screen. It is weird at first, but that is the only way I interact with it now. I don't have to take my eyes off the road and aim my finger. I have memorized the puck motions to get from menu to menu very quickly without even looking at the screen. But, the main point is that Mazda charges a lot of money to add anything to their built-in system. Mazda is midrange. It is not luxury in any way. So, more expensive cars likely charge more because why not? If you are paying twice the cash for a very similar car, you will pay twice the cash for an app, right? It is the same reason that apps on my android phone tend to cost a lot less than the same app on my brother's iphone. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 12:58, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on how much you like your current screen, you can get a new, wireless/wired, fully compatible, Android Auto touchscreen with all the bells and whistles for between $100-200. On more sketchy sites, you can even find them for $50-100. Depending on how much screen real estate you want, there are basically three different types: 1) the full head unit replacement (which you probably don't want or need, but is something to consider as it is a popular but more installation heavy option); 2) the portable heads-up variety, which is smaller in height, but wider (similar to what Lexus and others use pre-installed now) but allows you to put it just about anywhere. Most people place it right on top of their dash with an attachment. If you live in a warm, humid, and hilly area, I've found that the glue-type attachments will fail over time and the screen will fall off of the dash. There are other, more secure mounts, of course; 3) there are a variety of non-head unit, non-dash Android Auto screens that you can put just about anywhere. One of the more popular can sit on your rear-view mirror or even attach to your sun visor. The only question becomes how you will connect the audio to your main stereo system, if at all. Most can connect wirelessly, but there's also usually a wired attachment included. There's a lot of options, and honestly, one of the easiest ways to go is to use a large, but cheap tablet, a nice strong and sturdy tablet mount, and just screen mirror your phone to tablet. That way, you get the Tesla-like visuals with little money, and its basically win-win with all the features of CarPlay/Android Auto. It's surprising to me that more people don't do this. Law enforcement figured this out way back in the 1990s, which is when they all started using huge laptop mounts in their patrol cars. It's basically the same idea. Viriditas (talk) 21:38, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 25

Wikidata and JSON-LD

Is Wikidata pulling JSON-LD? I ask, because most of the paintings I am working with have JSON-LD files. Is there any way to import these into Wikidata so I don't have to add them manually? Viriditas (talk) 20:47, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 26

Keyboard layout

The article Keyboard layout tells us "Many Unix workstations (and also home computers like the Amiga) keyboards placed the Ctrl key to the left of the letter A, and the Caps Lock key in the bottom left." File:IBM PC XT 5160.JPG shows that the IBM XT too had its Ctrl key immediately to the left of A. But the IBM AT and generations of clones/derivatives thereof have instead put the Caps Lock key there. Why was this change made? -- Hoary (talk) 13:07, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have no specific information about the actual decision, but as someone who learned to type in 1970, I can affirm that Caps Lock next to A was then the standard position on manual (and I'm sure electric) typewriters. Having it elsewhere on a computer keyboard is an annoyance to those who have already learned to type on non-computer devices, so the AT and successors were merely following established keyboard convention.

Perhaps the more relevant question is 'why did Unix, etc., deviate from the norm?' I suspect it was because designers and most users of those particular early computers were in the main not trained typists. When use of computers spread beyond the core IT community, the inconvenience of a non-standard Caps Lock position would have become more obvious, so perhaps the AT's designers sensibly took account of this. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 176.24.47.60 (talk) 18:18, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Having the Ctrl key left of A is very much a Posix thing. It makes it easier to do Ctrl-key combinations because it is simply closer to the other keys. The decision to pick the Ctrl key most likely came from developing Unix (and C) on the PDP-11 through Unix version 4. The PDP-11 keyboard places both the caps lock and ctrl keys left of the A key. There are no keys down by the space bar. Because it became a vital key for Posix systems, it only makes sense that users would want it nearby. There are still people who map the Caps-Lock key to behave as a Ctrl key. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 20:29, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mapping the CapsLock key to something else is sometimes because users hate caps lock. Several of my users (before I retired) had the CapsLock key mapped to something else to avoid accidental switching into capitals, a serious problem for a case-sensitive OS. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 20:34, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Emulated calculator runs as slowly as the real thing

This calculator when run on my pc runs as slowly as the real thing. While I do understand that there is a considerable overhead when emulating a calculator, you would think that there would still be an improvement in speed when emulating a 1980s calculator on today's computer. So, what causes this calculator to run so slowly? Count Iblis (talk) 19:22, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't be emulating its behaviour if it went fast! It very possibly has a run fast mode in the documentation somewhere. NadVolum (talk) 19:56, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yep it says "If you want calculator programs to run faster, there's a setting for that. But watching the 7-segment flashing "running" message is, to my mind, part of the fun!". Quite right. I intend getting one up sometime that takes four seconds to multiply two numbers. 😁 NadVolum (talk) 20:07, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I found it now. On the top right there is the menu, and one can then change the delay of 50 ms per instruction to 0 ms in the settings. Count Iblis (talk) 22:19, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]