bruner@sp15.csrd.uiuc.edu (John Bruner) (07/13/90)
I'm starting to look at my options for replacing my aging Mac. (It
was purchased as a 512k and upgraded to a 512ke and later a 2048ke.)
Disclaimer: I am about to express personal opinions. I want to find
something that satisfies my preferences, and I am not implying that my
preferences are the only "right" ones.
I am disappointed with the layout of both of Apple's ADB keyboards.
(I was disappointed with the MacPlus layout as well, so I've kept my
original keyboard.) Basically, what I want is a keyboard with
A wide space bar: The standard keyboard's space bar is too small
for me. Also, I really hate having other keys (e.g. backslash)
down there. It is too easy to hit them when I don't want to
and too hard to find them when I do.
Control to the left of A: The extended keyboard puts the Caps Lock
key there. Everything else that I use has a Control key
there. It is too far away on the extended keyboard for me.
No extra keys to the left of Z or right of /: I've had to use
keyboards like these and they cause me no end of trouble.
Are there any third-party keyboards which meet these requirements?
I've seen ads for the Datadesk user configurable keyboard, but it has
the Control key in the wrong place for me. Is this fairly easy to
change, or is there a physical locking mechanism in there?
My fallback position is to buy the Apple Extended keyboard, remove the
physical latching mechanism on the Caps Lock key (is there one?), and
modify the translation tables so that the meanings of Caps Lock and
Control are reversed. (I long ago removed the latch on my Mac's
Caps Lock key.) I would like to avoid doing this if possible, though.
--
John Bruner Center for Supercomputing R&D, University of Illinois
bruner@csrd.uiuc.edu (217) 244-4476 tmhoff@uokmax.uucp (Thomas Milton Hoff) (07/14/90)
Speaking of keyboards, Does anyone have any suggestions for non Apple ADB keyboards? Price is a major concern here, but not the only one. If you email a reply, please send to kmiller@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu as this is my friends account. Kent Miller