jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) (03/10/91)
>And I also think that the new ANSI keyboards are typical of the weak-spined >compromise that international standards always require, and there is almost >nothing so important as the keyboard to a real computer user. etc > etc... What I can't understand is why does practically every computer manufacturer think that he has to reinvent the keyboard everytime they design a new computer? For example, look at what happened when Sun Microsystems came out with, I think it was the Sun 4 or the SPARCstations. Remember that infamous single quote? What's wrong with the good old IBM Selectric layout that EVERYONE IS FAMILIAR WITH? I'm tired of going from computer to computer and finding that single quote has moved to where an angle bracket should be or even worse finding the square brackets or angle brackets mapped to the SAME KEY forcing me to use shift to select one of them (the DEC VT220 among others does this). Here's another example... the Symbolics 3670. Their keyboard was one of the best if not THE best I've ever used, yet their new low-profile keyboard got rid of the nice big function keys and the palm rest. The action of the keys became much softer too. Blech. What goes on inside a designer's head when he does this? "I'm going to redo the entire layout of this keyboard so that you'll have to learn how to type all over again and then you'll never be able to use our competitor's keyboards!" Arrrrgghghh... if it ain't broken DON'T FIX IT GUYS! User's aren't beating a path to your door because you decided to set a "new standard in computing"... they're beating your door down to get at your throats! Harumph! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dark Hacker The Mythos of Dark Hacker: "Controlled by the sinister and shadowy "suits" Dark Hacker now employs the tools of computer science to free himself from the suit's will. By day he is a lackey... but at night when the city sleeps he becomes.... DARK HACKER!" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=