FN Key?

[richmond62]

Can anyone tell me why my ASUS laptop (on which I run Xubuntu GNU_Linux)
has an FN key on the left of the Windows key?

LiveCode, on Linux, picks up no keyDown or rawKeyDown signal from either key.
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Special, blurry, bad photo.

fnUck.png (53.54 KiB) Viewed 2333 times

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I thought (bad idea, thinking) that FN keys were a Macintosh thing.

[richmond62]

Erm . . . Whackypedia . . . for what its worth:

"is a modifier key on many keyboards, especially on laptops, used in a compact layout to combine keys which are usually kept separate. It is typically found on laptops due to their keyboard size restrictions. It is also found on many full-sized "multimedia" keyboards as the F-Lock key. It is mainly for the purpose of changing display or audio settings quickly, such as brightness, contrast, or volume, and is held down in conjunction with the appropriate key to change the settings."

Not, frankly, that that is much cop as suspect that this will not trap it:
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[bwmilby]

When you hold the Fn key and press a (valid?) key, then the action is trapped before any key message would make it to the OS. It is handled by the BIOS I think. Most of my work PC laptops have had these keys. As your clip stated, it is frequently used to adjust volume and screen brightness. I’ve also seen it used to turn Wi-Fi on/off.

The function keys are a different thing. F1-Fn keys are actual keys with a key code. On a Mac, that Fn key worked in the opposite way and make the special keys on some of the Mac keyboards return a function key code (F1…) instead of performing the normal action depicted by the label. In both cases, that actual Fn key isn’t a key that can be detected directly as it isn’t something that the OS “sees” as a key. I’m not sure if it had any effect on other keys at all.

On many laptops, the Fn key action is printed on or above the keys, some times in a different color.

[richmond62]

I installed LiveCode for Windows on my Xubuntu laptop last night and ran it under WINE, and it
picked up a rawKeyDown signal from the Windows key.

The Linux-native version of LiveCode did NOT pick up a rawKeyDown signal from the Windows key.