lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney) (01/29/84)
Ok, I've listened to net.cog-eng talk about keyboards, and people in
net.micro.* excoriate various keyboards all over the place (the favorite
whipping boy at the moment sems to be the IBM pc keyboard, but I'm sure
that something else will inevitably take its place). And I have to agree
(I have an IBM, and its not the best placement, but not completely beyond
the pale) that the manufacturers have gone out of their way to confuse
within the confines of the ANSI standard. What I want to do is find out
what is the best (favorite? most useful?) arrangement of keys.
Lets assume the ANSI standard to begin with (ANSI X4.14-1971). There are
actually two standards: a logical pairing (i.e., ! with 1, " with 2, only
one bit difference between cases) and the traditional typewriter pairing.
! " # $ % & ' ( ) = ~ |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - ^ \
Q W E R T Y U I O P ` { _
@ [ _
LK A S D F G H J K L + * ]
; : }
SH Z X C V B N M < > ? SH
, . /
SPACE
Logical Pairing
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + ~
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = `
Q W E R T Y U I O P ] |
[ \
LK A S D F G H J K L : " }
; ' {
SH Z X C V B N M < > ? SH
, . /
SPACE
Typewriter Pairing
(Note that the logical keyboard has an extra key - there is no defined
code for shift-0 and one key has underbar in both cases. The standard
allows that the shifted character might be DEL.) The ctrl key is to be
"outboard of the two shift keys". (!! The standard says that when using
the control key, the output code will be the same regardless of the use
of the shift keys - how many terminals handle that properly?) Undefined
are the positions of return, linefeed, tab, escape, ctrl, backspace, break,
and rubout. Lets leave function keys, the numeric cluster, and cursor
movement to some other time.
Well, then, what's your pleasure? I'm typing this on a Freedom 100, which
follows the typewriter arrangement (with one minor exception). The above
named keys are located as follows:
LE ! @ # _ + ~ bksp break
esc 1 2 3 - = `
bk tab Q W { } rub
tab [ ] n
. . . . . . . r/
ctrl SLock A S : " retu/ |
; ' \
Shift Z ? Shift lf
/
(LE is local escape)
I'd like to get some consensus-of-the-net (if possible). Reply to me via
mail, or if of general interest, to (hmmm.... let me see) net.cog-eng
(they seem to be slowing down now). I'm sending this to several groups
to catch everyone who may be interested...DON'T FOLLOWUP IN ANY OTHER
GROUP THAN NET.COG_ENG.
By the way, I pretty much like the arrangement on the freedom or vt100 -
except that I wish the ctrl key could replace the shift-lock. Never had
much use for shift-lock.
--
Lyle McElhaney
(hao,brl-bmd,nbires,csu-cs,scgvaxd)!denelcor!lmc