Posted by
chrisd
on from the click-smack-click-smack dept.
graymalkn writes "My wife has repetitive stress problems and prefers typing on old-fashioned mechanical typewriters. For Christmas, I converted a mechanical typewriter to work as a computer keyboard. My favorite feature: slap the carriage return for Enter."
There's different kinds of RSI
by
JaredOfEuropa
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Some people will feel pain in their fingertips when striking the keys because of the hard stop. Using a clickety IBM keyboard doesn't help and in some cases makes it worse. The impact on the fingers on a mechanical typewriter is much more gradual, with a soft stop at the end of the key travel.
You're right though that the keys on such a typewriter are harder to press, possibly leading to a different kind of RSI, which can be alleviated by switching from a typewriter to a regular keyboard, as some people working in a typing pool have found in the past.
The typewriter is an interesting solution, but I wonder if this woman might be off just as well with one of those rubber keyboards like the ones that came with those IBM PS/1 systems.
-- If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Re:Obligatory
by
stevejsmith
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Uh, I hope that you were kidding, but I can't help but fear that you weren't. Keyboards are operating system agnostic. You can use the same keyboard (with some different connectors for the older and more obscure, of course) with DOS, Windows XP, TiVo Linux, RedHat 8, OS/2, BeOS, a $100,000 IBM mainframe, a Sun SmartCard terminal, or anythign else that you use a keyboard to interact with. There is no need (and none that emplow it, to my knowledge) for a CPU, much a less an operating system, for a keyboard. It's simply circuitry.
The human side of it
by
andyring
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
All technobabble and RSI talk aside, everyone seems to have overlooked a big part of this. Be honest, people. How many of you would be willing to put this much time and effort into a project simply for the purpose of making your wife/husband/boy/girlfriend happy? I read the article (yes, I'm actually a/.er who reads the articles, a shock I know) and while I found it interesting and intuitive, the thought at the back of my mind was, "Dang, this guy must really love his wife to undertake a project like this just for her."
Way to go, sir! You sound like a great husband, a guy your wife was lucky to snag!
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Some people will feel pain in their fingertips when striking the keys because of the hard stop. Using a clickety IBM keyboard doesn't help and in some cases makes it worse. The impact on the fingers on a mechanical typewriter is much more gradual, with a soft stop at the end of the key travel.
You're right though that the keys on such a typewriter are harder to press, possibly leading to a different kind of RSI, which can be alleviated by switching from a typewriter to a regular keyboard, as some people working in a typing pool have found in the past.
The typewriter is an interesting solution, but I wonder if this woman might be off just as well with one of those rubber keyboards like the ones that came with those IBM PS/1 systems.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Uh, I hope that you were kidding, but I can't help but fear that you weren't. Keyboards are operating system agnostic. You can use the same keyboard (with some different connectors for the older and more obscure, of course) with DOS, Windows XP, TiVo Linux, RedHat 8, OS/2, BeOS, a $100,000 IBM mainframe, a Sun SmartCard terminal, or anythign else that you use a keyboard to interact with. There is no need (and none that emplow it, to my knowledge) for a CPU, much a less an operating system, for a keyboard. It's simply circuitry.
Way to go, sir! You sound like a great husband, a guy your wife was lucky to snag!