bryan@ihuxf.UUCP (06/16/83)
Advantage of dumb keyboard. The following may not be completely correct but I will try to explain how Atari uses a dumb keyboard to give it a big advantage over other types. On the Atari the keyboard does not produce the ASCII code, rather it is just a matrix of switches. The symbols are generated by the GTIA/ANTIC chips with the use of a character table located in ROM. This table is indexed into by the value of the switch added to the contents of the memory location pointed to by the Character base address register. This means by changing the value of the character base address register to point to RAM and then loading in your own Character set you can have any thing you want generated on the screen or be sent to a host. In other words a completely redefinable character set to meet any particular system or use. Also if you don't like the keyboard or the placement of any key, you can buy the keyboard you like and wire it in at very low cost ($10 to $30). Or put tape over the original keyboard. One of the terminal emulator programs for the atari does a real good job of emulating an VT-52 or ADM3a, and was written by the author to work well with UN*X. You can actually play rogue, or use EMACS or VI. Bryan K. DeLaney BTL Naperville IL ihuxf!bryan