The most typical pointing device is a mouse, although a graphics tablet, track ball, joystick, and other tools also work as pointing devices. You can use any pointing device in place of a mouse. This guide assumes that a mouse, or any pointing device, has the following three buttons. Input Models describes the button bindings for pointing devices that do not have three buttons.
Since not all keyboards are the same, it is difficult to give style guidelines that are correct for every manufacturer's keyboard. To solve this problem, this guide describes keys using a model keyboard mechanism. Wherever keyboard input is specified, the keys are indicated by the engraving they have on the OSF/Motif model keyboard. The model keyboard does not correspond directly to any existing keyboard; rather, it assumes a keyboard with an ideal set of keys.
In addition to the standard letter, number, and character keys, the OSF/Motif model keyboard is composed of the following special keys:
The OSF/Motif model keyboard also contains the following optional keys, which although useful, either are not necessary or can be replaced by combinations of other keys:
Throughout this guide, behavior is described in terms of model keyboard keys. When a behavior takes advantage of an optional key from the model keyboard, it is also described in terms of the required special keys. Each of the nonoptional keys described on the OSF/Motif model keyboard must be available either as specified or by using other keys or key combinations if the specified key is unavailable.
See Input Models for a more information about input devices.