wapd@houxj.UUCP (05/27/83)
I just had an idle thought, prompted by all of the articles I have seen about new terminals and PC's. Every time a new product comes out, at least one person says : "totally great product, except that the X key is in the wrong place", where X is shift, or control, or break or something. Does anyone make a user-configurable keyboard ? One where the keyboard comes as a foundation with rows of holes in it, and a bagfull of keys that you can plug in in any holes that you want ? I suppose there are a dozen other ways to do it. Bill Dietrich houxj!wapd
tjt@masscomp.UUCP (05/28/83)
Probably the major difficulty with rearranging the keycaps (assuming the software problem was solved) is the placement of oversize keys: My h19 has 4: two shift keys (1 1/2 x the width of a normal key), one tab key (1 1/2x) and a return key (2x). Some other problems include keys next to the space bar (Televideo 950's have these) and extra-large or funny shaped return keys (again, Televideo 950's). While double-width keycaps could be stuck over one key, the mechanical difficulties of fractional width keycaps determines enough of the keyboard layout so that many keyboards could not be salvaged. Another mechanical problem is locking and/or indicating keys: e.g. the caps-lock and the off-line keys on an h19. Tom Teixeira Massachusetts Computer Corporation (MASSCOMP) ...!decvax!genrad!masscom!tjt
tay@ssc-vax.UUCP (06/09/83)
In response to the 'Dreamer' of reconfigurable keyboards: I have seen small keyboards, hand held types, that are reconfigurable. Each key as a matrix of leds for the user to define the symbol. Actually, I 'reconfigure' our terminal keyboards at work by popping off the keys and swapping them, just for laughs with some of my colleagues. Okay, so it was a dirty trick! Tom Yap