Keyboard config
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The current xkcd, title "Chorded Keyboard":
The mouseover title:
"And even though it all went wrong / I'll stand before the lord of song / with nothing on my tongue but 'I don't understand, I swear I backed up my keyboard config before messing with it'"
For those who don't get the reference, or have forgotten the details, a version of the lyrics for Leonard Cohen's song is here .
A bit of lyrical context:
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"
[…]
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah
Some additional background, from the same page:
By some interpretations, Cohen is in an argument with God. King David’s “hallelujah,” in the book of Psalms, is said to have pleased the Lord. Cohen addresses God: “But you don’t really care for music, do you?”
For others, we talk about the evolution of a relationship through a metaphor that mixes sex and religion.
Cohen originally wrote around 80 verses of the song, and used a different selection of the verses in the original recording and in a 1988 live performance.
The song wasn’t all that popular when it first came out. However, it was covered by John Cale, in 1991, for a tribute album. He used the modified lyrics, based on Cohen’s 1988 live version. Jeff Buckley heard Cale’s version and did his own cover on his 1994 album Grace. Buckley’s version went on to become the most well-known recording of the song.
Since then, the song was covered over 300 times. It is today emblematic and figures among a multitude of film soundtracks and television shows. It became a contemporary standard. Many versions change the lyrics, especially Christian versions that tone down all the ambiguities of the song.
You can sample many of Cohen's varied performances here.
There's a discussion of the "chorded keyboard" and "keyboard config" references on the explainxkcd wiki.
Stephen Goranson said,
February 21, 2022 @ 7:34 am
Maybe a rooky comment:
I knew Cohen's song and also Arthur Sullivan's "Lost Chord."
But until today, when looking at the current New Yorker cartoon caption contest (before reading here), I did not know that the words Sullivan used were by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825 – 1864).
bks said,
February 21, 2022 @ 9:56 am
Link is off by one. This is the correct link:
https://xkcd.com/2583/
Philip Taylor said,
February 21, 2022 @ 10:01 am
The only way in which my right (="other") hand can hit "H" and "Left" is by using my thumb for the "H" and my little finger for the "Left". This on an IBM 1391406 "clicky" keyboard — others might, I suppose, make the exercise slightly more easy.
Garrett Wollman said,
February 21, 2022 @ 5:19 pm
Since Cohen's death in 2016, "Hallelujah" has become extremely popular music for figure-skating programs, with most choreographers starting with either the Buckley version of the k.d. lang version. In the 2017-18 season, I think there were half a dozen skaters using it; this season there may be only two. (Because the length of a figure-skating program is fixed at either 2'40" or 4'0" +/- 10", any program based on the song will have to use an edit of the recording — the studio recording of Buckley's version is close to 7' in length and lang's is 5'.)
One suspects Randall Munroe may have been watching the Winter Olympics.
Lance said,
February 22, 2022 @ 12:53 pm
> with most choreographers starting with either the Buckley version or the k.d. lang version
Huh–and not just Canadians to the latter, as I assumed! But in any case, I think Munroe's lead time is usually a little longer than that; it's just as likely that he stumbled across the #AltHallelujah Twitter hashtag in December (origin: https://twitter.com/EllenKushner/status/1206061921604186112).
Terpomo said,
February 23, 2022 @ 2:36 pm
I knew a little bit about such techniques since I have an acquaintance who works as a transcriptionist, but frankly I'm in awe of her; it seems far beyond me. It's probably just a matter of practice, though.
Andrew Usher said,
February 23, 2022 @ 10:45 pm
Presumably you're referring to a stenotype keyboard, very different in principle. But these keyboard shortcuts or 'chords' as he's calling them have the effect of making the keyboard more like a steno.
I believe it's the _left_ hand meant to hit "H and left" while the right presses "Control and Shift". Remember that most computer users never acquired traditional touch-typing and don't automatically use the hand touch-typing says to (i.e. the right for H). I myself, when typing at my fastest speed, will sometimes find my hands crossing.
I suppose the conceit of this xkcd is to recognise the similarity to the song, but it took me just the first line to do that, and I would think the same would be true of many (and I haven't even heard it very often).
k_over_hbarc at yahoo.com
Terpomo11 said,
February 26, 2022 @ 2:13 pm
I actually don't remember exactly what the technique she uses is called but I don't think it's stenotype. She does use some sort of shortcuts, though, I know that.
Michael Watts said,
February 26, 2022 @ 6:37 pm
A number of things bothered me about this comic; the new lyrics don't rhyme (unless anyone thinks "word" rhymes with "chord" and "shift" rhymes with "left"), but also, there's no realistic way of pressing H and left with the same hand. The only way I can even get a hand into position to do that is if I put my left thumb on left and my left pinky on H, which would leave my right hand to hit lctrl and lshift. It's never going to happen.
Andrew Usher said,
February 27, 2022 @ 2:08 pm
Oh, the left _arrow_ key! I assumed 'Left' meant the left Windows key, a much more reasonable choice to reprogram; it would be easy then to hit H and 'left' with the left hand as I stated. With the left arrow key, you are correct, it is a long stretch, and in a normal position easier to make with the left hand than the right. If those four keys had to be pressed, one could use the right hand for the arrow key only, and the left for the others, or the left hand for H only, and the right for the others – in either case right control and shift as in my assumption.
The rhymes are of course imperfect, but they only need to be suggestive for the purpose. Most songs have some imperfect rhymes anyway, but the eye-rhyme of word, chord, belongs more to writing – which, after all, xkcd is.
Philip Taylor said,
February 27, 2022 @ 4:55 pm
Although I would never personally refer to the cursor-left key as just the "left" key, I nonetheless assumed that it was indeed cursor-left to which the "chorded keyboard" verse referred, whence my earlier observation that I could achieve it only in a manner which is effectively the mirror of that which Michael described (assuming that his "pinky" is my little finger, of course, and using my right hand where he uses his left). I would find it very odd indeed to use my left hand for either "H" or cursor-left.
Andrew Usher said,
February 27, 2022 @ 8:34 pm
I did not notice your earlier comment. Yes, it can be done with the right hand, but the wrist is forced to bend unnaturally and it's definitely painful for me; sitting farther away makes it less awkward, but the left always has the better angle.
Anyway I doubt he had in mind any particular motions, the keys were chosen just for metrical reasons and because they came to mind. 'H' had to be in there because it's the first letter, and 'left' is the best rhyme for 'shift' on the keyboard …
Michael Watts said,
March 3, 2022 @ 12:36 am
It doesn't really matter that 'left' is the best you can do to rhyme with 'shift', because there's no reason to use 'shift'. You could replace 'shift' with A and 'left' with J and you'd have a chord that was easy to type while rhyming perfectly.
I would guess Randall Munroe mentally committed to using 'shift' in an effort to rhyme with fifth.
The only two names available for this key are "left" and "left arrow". "Cursor left" is not a possibility, so it's unsurprising that XKCD didn't use it.
For example, you can see it identified both ways in Microsoft's documentation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.keys?view=windowsdesktop-6.0 (specifying that the variable Keys.Left represents the "LEFT ARROW" key).
Philip Taylor said,
March 3, 2022 @ 2:40 am
Not clear why you cite Microsoft as an authority, Michael — Microsoft produce software, not hardware. IBM, for example, who do produce hardware, refer to it as the "cursor-left" key here — a nomenclature with which I grew up and which I retain to this day.
Michael Watts said,
March 3, 2022 @ 4:50 am
I'm not citing Microsoft as an authority. I'm citing them as an example – they communicate with their developers using terms that are known to the computer-using community. If you say "cursor left", no one will be able to understand you.
In the first three pages of Google results for "cursor left", there are many, many examples of people wishing to move cursors. There are three results which have "cursor left" as the name of a key – the same IBM documentation you linked, and two scammy online dictionaries offering to translate "cursor left key" into Turkish or Japanese. But zero examples of anyone using that name for the key.
Michael Watts said,
March 3, 2022 @ 5:22 am
Heck, here are several keyboard layouts from IBM identifying the function of that key as "Left" in a context where they're happy labeling other keys as "cursor blink" and "cursor select": https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/personal-communications/13.0?topic=reference-keyboard-layouts#Header_5