Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a218
From: a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Caps Lock Position
Message-ID: <470@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 31 Aug 89 20:51:40 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 64

(Another fussy keyboard user speaks...)

     The CAPS LOCK key is where it is because IBM said so.  That's
the way it is in their latest revision of the PC keyboard, and few
other manufacturers of 80x86-based machines have the guts to go
against it.  (One who does is Zenith, who were making nicely laid-
out keyboards long before IBM brought their original (!) views to
keyboard design.  Fortunately, Zenith saw no reason to stop doing
it right.)

     After 8 years of keyboard design and re-design, IBM has just
about got it right.  I've heard of clone keyboards that let you
flip a switch and swap keycaps between CAPS LOCK and Control -
this would give a quite nice keyboard layout.

     The Mac has a nice big Control key back where it belongs.

     Personally, I can live with CAPS LOCK and Control sharing the
position to the left of the A key, although I'd really prefer
putting CAPS LOCK far enough away that I'll hit it only when I
want to.  The free space could then be taken up by a wide Control
key that will be easy to hit.


*** FLAME ON ***

     As a person who makes his living through a keyboard, I'm
disgusted with the games being played by major manufacturers over
their keyboards.  I'll provide my own keyboard, at my own expense,
rather than use some of the garbage that's out there.  "Oh, you'll
get used to the layout," people say.  Sure.  Try getting used to a
layout when you're using four radically different keyboards every
day.

     If standardization is so unimportant, why don't some car
manufacturers swap the gas and brake pedals for variety's sake?
Say it's unimportant to a taxi driver who, at the end of the day,
gets into his own car, hits the wrong pedal, and runs into a tree
before he gets a chance to re-adapt.

     I can see two reasons for keyboard manufacturers moving keys
all over the place.  First of all, the people who design these key-
boards might really not know what they're doing.  It's easy to
design trash if you don't have to use it day in and day out; this
is as true with hardware as it is with software.

     The second reason is a bit sinister.  Perhaps a vendor wants
users to become accustomed to a peculiar layout that nobody else
makes.  This gives that vendor a subtle psychological lock-in which
would work in his favour if a user ever tried out someone else's
equipment; nobody else's keyboards would feel right.

*** FLAME OFF ***


     There.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.  BTW I find Amiga
keyboards to be among the better ones.  I like the 1000's keyboard
a bit more than the 2000's because of the large backspace key -
it's easier to hit when I make mistakes.  The 1000's keyboard also
has a nicer touch (more tactile feedback) than the 2000's keyboard.


Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
"This is my new .signature," Tom concluded.