Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack From: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: one-finger keyboard Message-ID: <3623@midway.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 23 Oct 89 13:04:26 GMT References: <1989Oct6.221013.8269@agate.berkeley.edu> <1259@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> <783@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> Reply-To: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie, Unthank Lines: 21 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: I've seen a typewriter with a one-key keyboard, in a museum or antique shop in Pittsburgh. It was one of the first typewriters ever made. The print head was a cylinder whose position was controlled by a larger cylinder you moved with your left hand till the character you wanted was under a pointer; you then pressed a lever with your right hand to make the head strike the ribbon and paper. It didn't look like it had any click-stops, so the resulting text must have been both ripply and randomly spaced in the hands of a novice typist. This is rather like the "slider" idea someone suggested on misc.handicap, only two-dimensional. I have no idea what wpm you could reach with this contraption; it seemed to have about the same designed-in speed limit as a braillewriter. -- Jack Campin * Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND. 041 339 8855 x6045 wk 041 556 1878 ho INTERNET: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk USENET: jack@glasgow.uucp JANET: jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs PLINGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack