phipps@fortune.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (03/02/84)
I'm not a typist in the sense of "touch-typing", but over the years,
I've developed a fairly-fast Chico Marx-like hunt-and-peck style.
I can understand how people can be partial to some particular layout
if they are touch-typists who don't ever look at keys,
but for the rest of us (well over half, I suspect),
don't we have to look at the keyboard anyhow ?
If so, does it matter exactly where a key is as long as it's placed
somewhere within reason ? Obviously, the notion of "within reason"
can lead to many arguments.
Having been forced to use some keyboards with really lousy feel,
I consider the feel of the keyboard much more important to me
than whether some new key ("\|") is placed between "shift" and "Z".
I'd rather have that key there, where I can reach it easily,
than off to the side outside "tab" or "return".
I have an IBM PC, and I like its keyboard, mostly because of its feel.
My main objection, and it's a major one, is the combining
of the numeric keypad with the arrow (i.e., cursor control) keys.
That makes it a real pain to use my LogiTech mouse (which moves the cursor
by simulating arrow key hits) with the numeric keypad.
But the number row (above the "qwerty" row) works, regardless.
I don't know why IBM hasn't designed an optional "genuine IBM Selectric"
keyboard for the PC; it sure seems that it would be a winner for them.
-- Clay Phipps
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