jcb@frisbee.Sun.COM (Jim Becker) (07/19/89)
news@ism780c.isc.com (News system) writes: -->In article <1989Jul15.034605.28654@cs.rochester.edu> quiroz@cs.rochester.edu (Cesar Quiroz) writes: -->> -->>In <29607@ism780c.isc.com>, marv@ism780.UUCP (Marvin Rubenstein) wrote: -->>| The Feb. 1868 issue of CACM, page 126, has an article titled "Proposed USA -->> ???? -->>| Standard, General Purpose Alphanumeric Keyboard Arrangement for Information -->[the rest of my original posting deleted] The issue that I was attempting to bring up is a bit different than this. My concern is *not* that all keyboards are the same, I don't think that they should be the same. All cars are not the same, all pants are not the same. I see the issue as a personal taste of the highest concern. All cars and pants have similiar properties (steering wheel, gas, inseam, waist size) but there is variety in the offerings. All cars don't fit all people, I'm 6'9" and I certainly don't fit in many cars! I don't want a defined size for a car, just to have some people create a car that I can fit in and let me decide. With a 40" inseam I'm limited in the types of pants that are available to me, but I look a lot better in a few types of pants than I would with many pairs of inseam 36" pants! In the same way, if the _interconnect_hardware_ and the _software_keycodes_ in keyboards were standardized upon then many different types of keyboards could be plugged into the system. The hardware isn't that big of a problem; the software may require the keyboard to download an image of itself and it's translation tables though (smart, self-defining keyboards). We should not be thinking of adopting any specific keyboard or layout. There are international concerns as well as physical taste issues that any singular design or set of designs would constrict. We *should* think about making a standard whereby there could be off-the-shelf compatible keyboards that the user could plug into PC's, Macs, Suns, DECs and all other brands of computers. Then the user could find a keyboard that is comfortable (in my case XLARGE) and carry that keyboard around as needed to interface with any desired computer. There are groups that are interested in standardizing the workplace to someone's defined ergonomically correct work environment. These groups are talking about defining what everyone should be using, because there are increasing numbers of victims from poorly designed workplaces. They are talking LAWS here about sizes a shapes of things. If the industry simply increases the options for the end user there could be a compromise solution before the issue ever comes to a head. Past history of industry isn't a model of this type of activity, but it would be nice if manufacturers would at least think about a proposal such as this when they are scratching their heads over design issues. --> [ standards for hand coding ] The standard was proposed so that -->readers could tell the difference between the letter, oh, and the numeral, -->zero. (No, this is not a joke) A long time ago I had a Calculus class where I put slashes thru my zeros to distinguish them from the letter O... they almost took off credit!! --> Marv Rubinstein I missed responding to other comments; the above is a simpler restate of my concern and reason for bringing up the issue. -Jim Becker + disclaimer: These are my views alone, crazy as they may be! +