#acad — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Keyboard shortcuts power in UI control

I've had consistent good keyboard experiences with keyboard shortcuts in both closed source and Open Source programs
The program suite by AutoDesk ACAD which I know from version 10.0, was run on a single tasking 286 CPU with a seperate 287 math coprocessor installed. That computer was in URC, the computer lab of my University in SR/SA.
In that period of multitasking dark ages on x86 not even the coprocessor could be integrated on the CPU die. Of course my Amiga multitasked all it's programs in the same period, but that's for another toot ;)
ACAD10 and others have a set of nice functions which I still know by heart, because I can make nice 3D images with them

Sequence

o (ortho)
s (snap)
l (line) from point to point indicated by digitizer
layer (define layers and colours for objects)
a (arc from {end of} axis to nice random point)
the object snap function is at work here
create different arcs in different layers
setvar
SURFTAB1 (value as large as the math coprocessor can handle)
SURFTAB2 (same as above)
revsurf (revolution of surfaces) rotate the arcs around axis
a gorgeous multilayered / multi coloured object is created
the SURFTAB valuse will be important in the next step
shade
autoshade() creates a magnifique shaded object within a number of seconds to a minute

The 3D objects look gorgeous!

I can create them in seconds on simple hardware, and can play by making them for hours

#keyboard #shortcuts #UI #GUi #TUI #programming #OpenSource #ClosedSource #ACAD #DOS #Amiga #Linux #technology