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A Selective History Of The Keyboard
Anonymous Gimp writes "Today's keyboards aren't what they used to be, no sir! Back in my day, we had our BS technology; our keyboards had chassis which allowed 'em to be thrown off a 3-story building and still work - barely dented. Yes those were the days. Now we've got these newfangled Wireless Ergonomic E-Mail button membrane keyboards. To heck with them, I say!"
While I don't like the gummy feeling of a lot of keyboards that are apparently trying to be 'soft', I am not exactly a fan of the loud clicky types either.
The keyboard that I've found works best and feels best to me is the original Microsoft Natural keyboard. It is ergonomically designed with no extra frills like app buttons across the top. It's also larger and a little sturdier than the Natural Light keyboards Microsoft is pushing these days with their freaky arrow keys and misaligned Insert/Delete/Home/End/PageUp/PageDown key block.
Microsoft! Do something good for the users! Bring back the original Natural keyboard!
I have been pwned because my
Yessir, back in my day we had these incredible keyboards. I have a VIC-20 keyboard and and Commodore 64 keyboard. Some people claimed they were kind of big, but for keyboards, they were sure packed with features! Like computers! :)
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
You know, the ones with the steel plates inside? I have 5 of them, 4 in storage, hopefully enough to last the rest of my life. The one I am typing this on is from my IBM AT that I got in 1992. Still going strong..... You can occasionally find them at garage sales(!) and swap meets and such. If you see one, grab it. It is really the best keyboard.
I remember with fondness the big old solid metal cased IBM keyboards, I guess the fondness comes from the fact that it was my first pc (well, ok, the companies, but the first one I used). But I would actually much prefer a modern quiet membrane keyboard. I work in an open plan office with desks in clusters of 4, and it's very distracting whne you're trying to pin down a bug and having to think and concentrate but your neighbour is clacking away typing an email (or a slashdot post!) The keyboards we have now are Compaq (well, probably not, but that's what it says on the label) and they are quite noisy when you're typing quickly, and very distracting. My keyboard at home (generic no-name $15.00 membrane keyboard) is much quieter and even has a nicer feel. It has all hose fancy media and internet buttons which I never use, I bought it cuz I needed a new keyboard fats and didn't have much money. I went for the cheapest on the shelf and was actually pleasently surprised.
The other thing I like about mebrane keyboards is that they're very easy to strip down and clean when the accumulated crud from sandwich crumbs and cake bars gets too much!
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
For those of you interested in faster and more
comfortable typing I would just like to say that
I have been using dvorak for 4 years and I'll
never go back.
It takes one or two days before you know aproximately whene all the letters are, and then
it's just to start typing (without looking) you'll
have your old typing speed back within a month
and from there it gets even faster.
hans AT anti DOT nu
Well, its slashdotted, so you're excused.
But BS = Buckling Spring.
The zx80 keyboard? Well, it had no keys at all, really - just patches of plastic you had to run your finger over to get the characters to appear on the screen.
Thene there was the zxspectrum keyboard - memorably described as having the texture of the flesh of a dead fish.
My keyboard is full of button (HP internet extensions) which Linux seems unable to use properly - I have tried avrious solutions, but none works well. There is a specific driver for this keyboard too, but it doesn't seem to drive the extra keys AFAICS.
Up until recently, I have been using trusty 'ol IBM PS/2 keyboard. Its trusty mechanical feedback was great, not to mention nearly error-free when working properly. Also, when my high school chucked out its old computers, I was able to salvage about 15 to 20 of these beauties. Nearly all worked perfectly, and those that didn't were not to hard to fix with a solder iron and spare parts.
But recently, my wrists have begun to bother me (probably CTS setting in; and I'm nary 20 years old) and the old keyboards refused to work on my new rig (I probably could have modified one of them to work, but college really cuts out the free time). So I went to Wally Mart Computer Center and picked up this Logitech Navigator keyboard. This is by far one of the best keyboards I have used. Sure, those Mikeysoft Naturals are comfy, but they take up too much space and it is quite difficult to play Unreal Tournament with. The tactile sensation, while softer and not nearly as loud as the PS/2's, has a reassuring, yet subtle "crunch" to it. Not to mention, it has a scroll wheel built in (I use mine to switch apps, it is quite handy), and numerous other handy buttons. All the Ctrl functions are silkscreened on the front side of the keys for handy reference. And it was only $30.
The most unique feature, however, is the zero-tilt design. All of the keys are perfectly flat; normal keyboards "curve up" as you approach the number row, but all the keys on this keyboard are on the same plane, parallel to the desk. I have to say that it takes some getting used to, but in the end it is far more comfortable than a regular "tilted" keyboard. Now if only I can figure out how to get some of these extra buttons and stuff working in Linux.... damn semi-n00b skillz.
While I miss my PS/2's (they are still attached to my other boxes), I would have to say that I am quite impressed with the Navigator. Hopefully this thing will be as durable as the old PS/2's.
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
Well, still quarter to five, and we killed em...
Google Cache
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
Anyway here's a pic if you like to drool over pics of keyboards (the page itself is not so informative unless you speak Japanese). You can probably still buy these things used on ebay... if you use a Mac and have an ADB input (I don't think they have them on the newest ones but I'm not sure) that you don't mind using your keyboard in, pick one up!! This keyboard rules over all others.... I'm so obsessed with this keyboard that I'm considering getting a USB to ADB adapter so I can plug it into my tibook.
Keyboards do matter.
This was meant to be a reply to the main thread; not the c-64 thread. I guess friends shouldn't let friends browse slashdot drunk either.
The article is slashdotted already, but since we're on the subject of keyboards...
:)
IBM Model M: Best. Keyboard. Ever. I found two of 'em in a box full of crappy Dell QuietKeys a while back, and was instantly hooked.
Apple Extended Keyboard II: Not nearly as "clack clack" as the Model M, but a very nice feel to a very solid keyboard. Whenever I get around to buying a new(er) Mac, I think the USB keyboard will just stay in the box, while the Extended II gets hooked up with an adapter.
The Microsoft Naturals are supposed to be nice, but I can't stand the look or the feel of split keyboards.
Anyway, that's my list, as if you care.
SIGFEH
Most old timers remember the super loud "clicky" IBM keyboards that were super durable. Their only two disadvantages were the loud noise and their price, but if you want good tactile feedback, you pay the price of added noise. Furthermore, if you want a strong keyboard that will last, it will have to be built out of high quality components and materials. Doing a little research finds that the original technology used in the old IBM keyboards is still around. The technology is called "Buckling Spring Capacitive Keyswitches", and a company called Unicomp long ago bought the technology from IBM. In fact, they still sell those lovable clicky and nearly indestructable keyboards.
There are a few things you need to realize about this technology. It is truely superior to the foam and rubber dome keyswitches used in most mainstream keyboards. The BS capacitive keyswitches last for millions and millions more keystrokes than the other technologies, so buying one of these keyboards is an investment. Not only that, but BS keyswitch technology is more water resistant than the cheaper keyswitch technologies. You can spill your drink into an old IBM keyboard... and as long as you unplug it and let it dry out, it will still work. Other things play into this older IBM keyboard tech. For example, keys sticking or not registering is highly unlikely with the IBM technology, but it happens all the time with the foam keyswitches used in the popular Microsoft keyboards. Finally, touch typing is so much easier with buckling spring capacitive keyswitches as you can feel the click AND hear it.
I highly suggest any self respecting computer user to get one of these keyboards for their house. Just remember the only two drawbacks: noise and price. In every other way these keyboards excel! I suggest the old skool IBM keyboard that Unicomp sells through their Yahoo store.
Are you kidding me? Microsoft uses whats known as "foam keyswitches" in their Natural Elite keyboards. Do a little research on keyboard technology and you will find that foam keyswitches are the cheapest, crapiest, most error prone type of keyswitches! Foam keyswitches don't last long, so plan on buying a new keyboard every few years. Foam keyswitches are very sensitive to moisture. Get them even the slightest bit wet, and you can forget it. Don't even get me started on the poor tactile feedback, the keystroke "bounce" errors, and the keystroke "sticking" and unrecognized keystroke errors... all of which occur with foam keyswitches.
Doing a little more research on the technologies and you will see why Microsoft uses foam keyswitches. Its not because they are quiet because a better more durable keyswitch technology with better tactile feedback exists: rubber dome keyswitches. No, Microsoft uses foam keyswitches in their keyboards because they are the cheapest. It saves them money because the average user doesn't know a damn thing about computers. Buzz words like CPU frequency numbers, RAM capacity numbers, and harddrive sizes are about the only specs that the average computer user looks for when buying a PC. Keyboards? Keyboard technology? Nah, they won't know any better, just give them foam keyswitches.
Any writer, programmer, or gamer should definitely keep away from foam keyswitch based keyboards. If you want a quiet keyboard, get a rubber dome keyswitch based keyboard. If you want THE best keyboard money can buy, minus loud typing noise, then go with a buckling spring capacitive switch keyboard.
Microsoft's mice are another topic in and of itself. Lets just say that compared to Microsoft's keyboards, their mice are pieces of gold! I mean, you can't get worse than a foam keyswitch based keyboard.
> The [Sinclair ZX80] had 4KB of RAM (not 4MB, 4KB!).
.5 Mhz Z80 featured both as ZX81 CPU and video processor. The keyboard featured a set of keys for BASIC commands FAST and SLOW to switch off video output and boost the micro's performance.
Hmm. 4KB is probably less than the on-chip buffers found in current PS/2 keyboards.
Wow... back in the days, when a single
The closest current analogy to this is probably the "sleep" key found on laptops!
I fell in love with the tactile clickety-click keyboards while at Uni in the early 1990s - and put up with quite a few people telling me to shut the hell up when I -really- got going on them. Pity. Not that anyone was particularly quiet on the things
Now having a mac with only a USB Pro Keyboard to keep me happy (and with its big fat keys it has its own kind of appeal) I don't have access to anything clickety - anyone know of USB keyboards with 'kick'?
a grrl & her server
Listen kids, back in MY days, we used teletypes. Those keyboards were not for the weak. You had to hammer down the keys. And when one key was down, the other were mechanically locked and could not be pressed. You would hurt your fingers if you tried to hammer two keys at once.
The wonder of the teletype! No electronics. It was all mechanics. Imagine that! And they also had a paper tape reader/puncher which was handy to save your programs if your 100K disk allowance was used up.
)9TSS
Oh yes, the old IBM keyboards. I loved those, wish I had one - no, two, one for home and one for work.
The first computer I had, a Tangerine Microtan 65, had the option of a really good keyboard, and aside from the aforementioned IBM keyboards was one of the best computer keyboards I have ever used.
Modern membrane keyboards range from the barely acceptable to the completely useless. I cannot stand typing on a keyboard that feels like limp wet lettuce, which is what some of the cheaper membranes often supplied with PCs feel like. Ugh! After a keyboard failed at work lately, I had to go through five spare keyboards to find one that I could use.
When I type, I like to feel the keys go down with a satisfying 'clunk', not a soft 'squish'.
Membranes. Hate 'em!
"Information wants to be paid"
Too many of the new keyboards have the capslock key where the control key should be and used to be. Correcting this would make the keyboard more ergonomic. How often does anyone, aside from people writing Nigerian mail scams, use the caps lock? Odds are not as often as the control key, even for MS-Windows users.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
The Happy Hacking Keyboard is about the best new keyboard I've found. Good feel, no extra keys, remarkably small, but keys as big as an old IBM.
From their site:
- NO CAPS LOCK KEY
- NO WINDOWS KEY
- CTRL Key is in Right Position
- Full Size Key Pitch
They don't have any of those cutesy 'Shop on the Web' buttons that link you to long-dead dotcoms or even seperate number pad or arrow keys - this is a keyboard perfect for serious text editing. (Dare I say it? A real man's keyboard!)
If you've ever used one, you probably know what I'm talking about...
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
we used to run them through the dishwasher when they got too dirty - and they would work fine afterwards.
reminds me of an urban legend/ it horror story about some IT guy telling some chick that she needed to clean out her machine and she ran it through the dishwasher.
Small enter, big pipes
I think there's a lubricant you can get that will help with that...
(sorry.)
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
My own review of the IBM 42H1292 and related 'boards is here, in case anybody cares.
As far as layout goes, the Amiga keyboards rock! They place the system options keys "Amiga keys" next to the space bar where they should be and there is actually a help key. Of course the Amiga OS knows how the use those keys far more efficent than Windows can use it's Windows keys. On the Amiga, left key is for global system hot keys and right is for app short cuts. But when it comes to physical construction, nothing can beat the Omni Key Ultra keyboard. I could kill someone with it. Plus when you press a key, you know it's been pressed. Since that keyboard supported the Amiga, although somewhat buggly in faster Amigas, it combined the best of both keyboards. -Tekoneiric-
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
Thank you! This is absolutely true. The viperlair article even makes the accurate claim that consecutive letter have often been placed on opposite sides of the keyboard: this makes you alternate work between your hands, and reduces the possibility of hammers sticking, thereby increasing the rate of typing.
You will also note that this concept of hand alternative is one of the two reasons for dvorak being claimed to be a better layout (the other being that the most commonly used English letters and punctuation are on the home row in dvorak.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
I use one of those, on the plus side its so old and worn out that its a bit clackety to type on which I like. I now however only use the right side of the spacebar when i'm using normal keyboards.
I actually found the design offensive, by having half of the space bar a delete key they are insinuating that you will make one error per word (i.e you need the delete key as often as the space). The bastards!
Best keyboard I ever used came with IBM terminals, it had 24 function keys and was programmable. It clicked really nicely and was tough.
no sig.
About 10 years ago until about 7 years ago their keyboards were made in the U.S.A. or Ireland. I bought two Natural Keyboards in 2000, both made in Taiwan. The crappy keyswitches butchered my hands and the key switches started wearing out within two months so that when you pressed shift or any broad key it would just jam in the "up" position and not go down. That was also a major cause of pain, eventually.
Now, my hands are 26cm (~11in?) thumb-tip to pinky-finger-tip, so the average keyboard and things like my Logitech "ergonomic" mouse were far too small.
So I dropped by an ergonomic equipment specialist in Holland and after trying out a bunch of keyboards I spent the dosh, and got a Kinesis Ergo Elan keyboard. For my huge hands it was a good size, and the ultra-light keyswitches and 6 keys under each thumb, all arranged in two bowls, have meant hours of typing without pain. Combine that with a Anir Vertical Mouse and I'm a happy hacker. I made sure work bought be one as well. At home I've got a huge Countour Perfit mouse to fit my hand
As for my fave keyboard. The Union Bank of Switzerland (now UBS AG) used to be the biggest IT shop in the country. They were even developing their own Unix workstation at one point. They manufactured a keyboard for traders with 4 or 5 extra rows of keys over the normal QWERTY layout plus a number pad, with a 4 line LCD display built in. Talk about lots of short-cut buttons... :-)
There have been a number of posts complaining about how they have a new keyboard and it doesn't work in Linux. Well, though the Keyboard HOWTO doesn't mention it, these new keyboards work without modification to the standard X setup. That is to say, when you press an "internet" key, the X server recognizes this and recieves the scancode. All you have to do is map that scancode to a useful key, and presto, you have a functional internet keyboard.
Step by Step:The thing with qwerty that bothers me the most is that it requires my fingers to dance over the keyboard all spidery, while dvorak only forces me to move my fingers once or twice per word. I worked as a translator one summer, typing all day long. After a while, my finger began aching. That's when I seriously began thinking of switching.
Look: some economic students want to badmouth dvorak and promote qwerty for some rather silly reasons having to do with economic theory. I don't care about that.
I've used qwerty for twelve years before I switched to dvorak. Now I use both (nothing but dvorak on my own computer, though). The switch wasn't that easy, but it was worth it. It took me a few days to learn it properly. (One of my friends learned it in one evening, though - she wrote freakishly fast almost right away.)
More and more people are hearing of dvorak from the internet or their friends, and some of them switch. I know several people IRL (living in my town) who uses dvorak. In the typewriter age, switching to dvorak is a difficult and expensive task. In the computer age, switching is a manner of typing "setxkbmap dvorak" in the nearest xterm. (Have an image of the new keyboard layout on your screen, and look at it instead of at the keys. Keep the fingers on the home row. If you like it (it takes about a month to be good, though), you can mod your keyboard or get a special one.)
Dvorak isn't the be-all and end-all of keyboards, but I think it's an improvement on qwerty, just as qwerty was an improvement on the abcde-style layouts before it.
Dvorak won't miraculously cure your RSI (although it did help against my finger-aches) or make you become the fastest typist in the world (although the fastest typist in the world did use dvorak).
I used to have a TeleVideo 925 terminal - for my FLEX system. (Anyone here remember FLEX?).
Great keyboards...
"Information wants to be paid"
The feature you're looking for is called rollover. If you google for "rollover keyboard" you'll find plenty of keyboards that advertise multi-key rollover.
FWIW, I just checked my Microsoft ergo keyboard and it'll accept up to 5 key presses before I have to release a key.
That's too bad. My shareware keyboard macro program, mgSimply, allows you to use the Windows key as a modifier key. The benefit is the key significantly increases the number of keyboard macros you can have.
If you use Windows XP,NT, or 2000, you'll need this patch.
The Avant Prime and Stellar keyboards (mentioned elsewhere in this thread; see the CVT web site for details) were evidently designed by the folks who did the Northgate Omnikey, and judging by a review I read, share its sturdiness. (The key reprogramming software runs under Windows; no word as to whether it will run under WINE.) Rather pricey at $150, but if you're at your keyboard a lot, it might be worth it.
Yeah, let's hear it for smaller keyboards!
I was quite happy with the keyboard provided with my Mac Classic II. It felt right, and only had the keys I really needed. The Mac was designed for heavy mouse usage, and the keyboard reflected that attitude.
I don't really want the whole row of function keys on my home computer (at work it's different: I store all of my macros up there). Desk space is a minimum, and a reduced-size keyboard and a Wacom Graphire are perfect for my cluttered home desk.
I never had a chance to try out those "chording" keyboard replacements, so I can't comment on those. Pity. They seemed like they could have been small, comfortable and fast - once you passed the learning curve.
.. can use this one[pdf] :-)?
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
I'm using an IBM mini with a TP eraser pointer. It works nice. The key travel is not squishy but not long either. Like a Thinkpad really. And the eraser pointer is nice. It has it's own PS/2 mouse port in, so I plug in a Marble Mouse and switch off between Eraser and Marble.
I also have a mini (no keypad) w/o no Eraser but w/ standard 'click' travel PS/2 keys.
I also have a standard size with an Eraser but w/ standard click.
I also have 3 Soft Touch that are whisper quiet.
-all IBM KB's
BTW there are companies that make lefthand keyboards and keyboards with detachable keypads that be attached on the left or right or made free.
I liked the Happy Hacking compactness but felt that they were taking advantage of people at what, $70?
Was a PCXT 10 function button down the left side. It was STEEL and you could sled on it or bash someone's head in. Almost as heavy as the unit on a 3279. Then I had a PCAT with the 'standard 12/24 function keys across the top. Still STEEL. It weighed almost as much as small notebook machine.
Pricey, but heavy and built solid. http://www.cvtinc.com/. The Stellar, with extra F-keys down the side, is a disappointment: I wanted extra keys, but the side F-keys send the same codes as the top F-keys. They have a Windows program to change key codes, but won't release the protocol and aren't interested in anyone writing a Linux version ("somebody else wrote it; we just re-sell it").
Infuriate left and right
Spilt coffee into my Microsoft Natural Keyboard and two keys stopped working.
So I tried to wash it.
Now all the keys don't work.
I feel compelled to point out i've been typing pretty much every day for the past 10 years. I dont' do that home-row nonsense.. my fingers float over the keyboard, my hands move a lot, my writs stay straight usually, as my 'angle of attack' is crooked. I've completely stopped thinking when i type, so, obviously, it works. And i can go at about 90 WPM.
It messes me up to no end when i get on the "natual" keyboards.. they cramp my style, and my wrists.
The Apple Extended II keyboard features a locking caps-lock :)
:)
The really cool thing was to set your run key to be the capslock key... then you could push it.... and you'd stay in turbo until you pushed it again
Great.
Who needs a friggin light in the key, or in the far corner when the key just locks down.
---
Live Long & Prosper \\//_
CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
Jedi & Last *-fytr
How old is your keyboard?
a) new
b) 1-2 years
c) 3-4 years
d) 5-8 years
e) 8-10 years
f) >10 years
g) Keyboard? I use the Apple CowboyNeal Lightpen!
Believe it or not, I'm typing this on the same Northgate Omnikey 102 I bought twelve years ago - in December, 1990!
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
I found that PCKeyboard does still provide the old IBM BS keyboards, and they even promise to deliver soon 105 (non-English) keys layouts with the stick!
Too bad there's nor Brazilian Portuguese neither Swiss French layouts, and those are the ones I'm after.
I would like to get a layout that once was created specifically with the same goals as the Dvorak one, but tailored for Portuguese…
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
I believe he chose the layout to SPEED UP typing. I mean, do you know how slow you type when you have to untangle hammers all the time???
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Have you ever checked out the Happy Hacking keyboard line? They offer keyboards with the Sun Type 3 layout and only 60 keys - none of this "windows" key nonsense. :)
Check them out!
(Sorry to sound like an infomercial. Sometimes, you just find something really spiffy, and *want* other people to dig it, too...)
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
A few of those original keyboards are still in use, twenty years later.
I've seen a web page of a guy that's done this - he cut the two keyboards apart, and has them taped to the side of his chair, so that his arms hang down by his side, and rest on the keyboards :-)
Sorry - can't find the link. I think he did it because he had RSI/similar problems.
Tim
The company got absorbed by Micron, true, but a ca. 1990 Zeos keyboard is every bit the keyboard a Model M is. Well, okay; it doesn't have drainholes (great idea!) or interchangable cables but it feels great to type on and could probably pass the 3-story test. I've got one stored away in a closet; I switch back to it when whatever my latest keyboard happens to be decides to crap out.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
It's feasible. All the mice I've bought recently have included a ps/2 --> USB adapter. A fancy new Microsoft Natural keyboard I tried at work came with such an adapter. All of these adapters, serial --> ps/2, ps/2 --> AT, ps/2 --> USB, seem to be simply two connectors with wires joining the appropriate pins.
By the way, I'm typing this on one of those wonderful IBM clicky-clacky keyboards. I have one for home, and bought another one with my own money for work, to replace that slimy Mickysoft Natural. The old Selectric keyboard was perhaps the zenith of keyboards, but the IBM Model M ain't bad.
See what I've been reading.
and since most Desktops are running Windows, it's obvious why standard keyboards have this layout.
It really had nothing to do with that, the way I understand it. IBM based the more-or-less current PC keyboard off the IBM Selectric electric typewriter. I can vouch for that for the most part, we still use Selectrics where I work for typing up things that don't translate easily to computers, like forms people send in.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I probably saw the same thing: just found it here (and google found me another page on fully split keyboards).
However the reason for my suggestion of two keyboards was to make some (ie the middle columns), or even all, of the keys available to both hands, for those of us who don't touch type by the book
I find myself not keeping my hands in the recommended typing positions mostly because all of the symbols which form a large percentage of the source code of most computer languages would be rather uncomfortable to type, notably the }, )and Tab (if you're using emacs or anything with tab completion) characters one a qwerty keyboard which have very high frequencies in java and c++ (and the problem is even worse on a dvorak layout, which is great for typing English, but terrible for c++).
With the whole keyboard repeated, I'd be able to type like back in the bad old days of non-split keyboards and let the other hand drift over momentarily whilst typing a back-tick, Escape or a } (or worst of all a "Page Up" (well not quite the worst, when some software forces you to have to reach for the mouse .... grrrrrr)) rather than having to either stretch excessivly or wait for the correct hand to get back in place.
Using a USB keyboard solves the problem of needing some kind of ps2 Y splitter.
You can use Ctrl - [ as an alternative to Escape in vi. Makes things much nicer.
"I've seen have used membrane technology, but I have always been a believer that ergonomic keyboards not only hinder a typist, but also do not relieve any stress from typing. I never proved that of course, but I've always felt more "natural" with standard keyboards. An article was just released at the BBC, describing how ergonomic keyboards might not be as helpful as many might hope to believe."
As fate would have it, I'm a big guy. I wear either a XXLT or XXXLT shirt. Given that I have broader shoulders than most, I find that an ergo keyboard to be very much more comfortable than regular rectangular keyboards.
I *suspect* that there's a number of variables that play a role in whether or not a person finds ergo keyboards to be a significant improvement over conventional keyboards.
"Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex, I could pinch them." --Marvin the Martian
Of course, keyboard layouts were the least of the changes between green-screen terminal applications and PC's, but we're left with the result nonetheless.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
I was driving down the road, passing by Micro Center, and some voice in my brain said "why don'tcha see what they have?" So, I did this, and they had a crapload of new Type M keyboards. I bought two of them for $5 each, and have been happy as a clam ever since. Both were made in Scotland by IBM (or at least with IBM tags on it) in 1999.
Since then, I dunno if I would be willing to pay $49 for em.
Now, almost all PC keyboards, even the very best, use the horrible "plastic-rubber-membrane" setup. And they are indescribably vile.
I believe that one of my claims to fame is that I was the first person in the world to break one of the original IBM PC keyboards. I was a contractor working for one of the companies that IBM hired to create the software for the initial release of the PC, working under severe secrecy and harsh NDAs. A few weeks before the actual release of the PC, I managed to knock one of the keyboards of our sample machines off a desk, jarring loose several keycaps, and causing some damage to the internal circuitry.
Ever since then, I've found it ironic when people refer to these keyboards as "indestructible". Although I freely admit that they are great keyboards, possibly the best ever made for any computing equipment anywhere.
$50 Active Response Keyboards? The CompUSA by me sells them roughly aroung $30. I have one sitting around which I used to use until I picked up this Apple Pro USB keyboard.
My point was that you alternate hands with both QWERTY and dvorak. Dvorak is designed to do this more, yes (assuming you are typing in English!). The viperlair author's implication was that hand alternation caused QWERTY to be slower, which is obviously nonsense.
QWERTY was not designed to slow down typing, but rather to speed it up, given the constraints of physical collisions of typewriter heads. Thus the most common letters are organised on the home row or in convenient positions above it, but in such a way as lessen the liklihood of consecutively typing letters which have adjacent heads.
dvorak by comparison is lousy at this - the concentration of common letters on the home row makes it very likely that, if there were physical heads present, there would be a jam. You would have to deliberately slow your typing to prevent this - something QWERTY was designed to avoid. On the other hand, dvorak is arguably better in a situation without physical heads, as you point out.
I have used dvorak layout before, for several weeks. I decided to stick with QWERTY because (1) it will take me several months to get my typing to the same speed with dvorak (based on my current typing speed and the testimonies of others who have taken the plunge); and (2) everyone else uses it, which makes it irritating to use other computers (where I am not the sole user, and which I have to do quite a bit).
Most particularly, I find it unreasonable difficult to type in password, because I tend to remember them as key patterns rather than character sequences ;)
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html
As a Dvorak user for 4ish years now I've never seen anyone who learned the Dvorak keyboard go back to qwerty once they reached a decent speed. Also it impresses the hell out of the drones when they see you typing on a keyboard with different layout than the printed letters (just don't tell them that once you can touch type the printed letters are meaningless :)
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
Not true! You are wrong about Unicomp's keyboards. I own two boards bought from them. One is an old IBM model M (they used to have surplus inventory from IBM), and I also bought a new Unicomp keyboard. They sell two types of keyboards: buckling spring capacitive keyswitch and rubber dome keyswitch based keyboards. They call the former "buckling spring" keyboards and the latter "quiet touch" keyboards.
Of course, the cool thing about the model M keyboards is that they are slightly heavier than the newer Unicomp buckling spring boards.
The best thing about these boards is that they will nearly last a lifetime, and therefore you can get really used to one board, its shape, size, feel... makes for easier typing.
As far as I know, all of the Elite series boards are foam keyswitch based keyboards. Microsoft saves lots of money doing that, and in fact, they make more money when you come back to buy a new keyboard after your last MS Elite board stops working because of the shoddy foam keyswitches.
They do the same thing with their software... I mean, why not try the same practices with their hardware division?
I have a Unicomp trackpoint buckling spring keyboard. In fact, I am using it right now. My parent's are borrowing my old IBM type M. I love trackpoints, but I also have a traditional 3 button mouse, for gaming purposes. Yes, you can use both at the same time.
Check out this keyboard at pckeyboard.com's yahoo store. It's probably exactly what you're looking for (except for the size thing). I'm tempted to order one.
Personally, I like the backspace key just above the enter key. It's less of a reach. And in Unix or Linux, \ isn't used nearly as much as it is in Windows. Unfortunately my fingers get confused when I go back and forth between my HHKB (or the Sun Type 6 UNIX layout USB keyboard I use at home these days) and a "normal" PC keyboard. It's also kind of weird to have `~ on the right hand side of the keyboard.
My other first post is car post.
Why not just use the PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports on your computer? That's why they're there. It'll save you a ton of money. (Unless you're stuck with some ghey machine that uses USB for everything, but then you have other problems...)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Besides which, I am sure that the reason that IBM included control keys on its keyboards is because they were standard in the mainframe and Unix world. The fact that they weren't used directly in DOS programs doesn't really prove anything.
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