dedina@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (04/27/87)
I have been holding off buying an Amiga until the A500 comes out because 1) I'm cheap, and 2) I prefer the new keyboard layout. Also I've heard that the new keyboard eliminates a "ghosting" problem which plagues the A1000. However, the prices on the A1000 have dropped so low that its hard to wait any longer. My question is: Would it be possible to get an A2000 keyboard and plug it into the A1000? Any other thoughts on A500 vs A1000? --------------------------------------------- Mike Dedina Indiana University Speech Research Laboratory dedina@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (04/27/87)
In article <18700002@silver> dedina@silver.bacs.indiana.edu writes: > >I have been holding off buying an Amiga until the A500 comes out because >1) I'm cheap, and 2) I prefer the new keyboard layout. Also I've heard that >the new keyboard eliminates a "ghosting" problem which plagues the A1000. There is an optional fix for the A1000 keyboard ghosting problem, however I'm waiting for the parts to be available thru service channels before posting the details. A1000's with euro-keyboards shouldn't have this problem. >However, the prices on the A1000 have dropped so low that its hard to wait >any longer. My question is: Would it be possible to get an A2000 keyboard >and plug it into the A1000? Any other thoughts on A500 vs A1000? If you don't mind a little chopping and soldering, the A2000 keyboard will work on an A1000. As to which machine you should buy, this depends on the state of your finances and your immediate expansion plans. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (04/29/87)
I've seen a couple of different versions of the A1000 keyboards. Someone said that the "problem" was fixed a while back. The ROM kernel manual discusses ghosting. You'd have to hit pretty weird combinations of keys-- something like d-f-j-k all simultaneously to cause a ghost character. I've never seen it on my machine at home, which dates from October 1985. I suppose there is an outside possibility that you could see a glitch on a game that used the keyboard for motion control... but we all only use our machines for serious C hacking, don't we? :-) OK, here's my $.02 worth. Everybody is talking about fixing up the video. How about some niftier sound while we're at it? I'd be kind of neat to have 12 bit resolution with a 30KHz sampling rate on the DMA channel. (I know, 3 bytes/stereo pair is kinda weird, but hey... I thought 16 bits just isn't practical in a consumer oriented machine, as 16 bits would require much fancier power supply bypassing, laser trimmed chips, etc.). By the way, the current DMA sound channels on the A1000 are really nifty-- much easier to deal with than the Ensoniq chip in the Apple II/gs or the more primitive Mac technique. You definitely did this one right for a starter C-A. --Bill (wtm@neoucom.UUCP)
page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (04/30/87)
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) wrote in article <559@neoucom.UUCP>: >The ROM kernel manual discusses ghosting. You'd have to hit pretty weird >combinations of keys-- something like d-f-j-k all simultaneously to >cause a ghost character. Well, you should have read the RKM, and you would have known what you were talking about. You DON'T have to hit strange combinations of keys - and d-f-j-k would not trigger the bug. The bug (often called the "from" or "frlom" bug) occurs when you type and hold three keys that form three corners of a parallelogram. If you type two keys in any "column" (a column is like 2wsx or 7ujm) AND type a key in the same "row" as one of the keys that is already pressed, the fourth "ghost" key will appear -- the fourth corner in the parallelogram. I'd draw a picture, but you can just look at your keyboard. To illustrate: type F, R and O. The fourth 'corner' is L, and that gets sent by the keyboard scanner, along with the O that you pressed. > I've never seen it on my machine at home, which dates from October 1985. Some typists will not see it because they don't have 'heavy' fingers that stay on the keys long enough, or because they type correctly and use the same finger for F and R. I see it all the time. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}