by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/02/07 06:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/02/07/1616301.aspx
Looking back at some of the comments to this post, particularly this one and this one, I am actually reminded of one of the very first posts I ever died in this blog, when I gave some keyboarding terms. The two specific terms in question:
Supported keyboard layout -- this is an odd terminology that actually means a keyboard layout is defined on the system. It may not be currently selectable by a user (e.g., if it's a Thai keyboard layout and Thai/complex script support is not enabled). It can also be an IME or a speed-to-text converter, so DEFINED INPUT METHOD might have been a better term. This terminology is slowly being removed from documentation and it's not entirely clear what is replacing it. Installed keyboard layout -- another odd bit of terminology, it means a keyboard layout that a user has selected. It can also be an IME or a speed-to-text converter, so SELECTED INPUT METHOD might have been a better term. This terminology is slowly being removed from documentation and it's not entirely clear what is replacing it.
Keeping these two things in mind, I commented (without using this terminology):
There are two different operations:
1) Installing a new keyboard layout on the machine.
2) Adding a keyboard on the machine to the user's Language Bar.
#1 requires you to be an admin, but #2 does not.
Now MSKLC 1.4 blurs the line a little bit since it will actually try to do both things when you run setup (due to user confusion at needing to go through separate steps to get #2 done when doing #1).
Now of course the term INSTALL can always so easily be taken for the operation of adding a keyboard layout to the machine that it is very easy to mix these terms up. Even without MSKLC 1.4 going ahead and doing both (which is honestly the most common need here!). But I really wish they had chosen another term like ENABLE or something. Because the bottom line is that the word INSTALL here is confusing....
Thankfully the terminology seems to be moving in another direction now, so perhaps the situation will get better over time. :-)
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