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From: sal@grasp.cis.upenn.edu (Marcos Salganicoff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: How to use an IBM compatible keyboard on a Mac+ (in theory)
Keywords: Mac+,IBM,Cheap Keyboard Upgrade
Message-ID: <27796@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 3 Aug 90 15:19:43 GMT
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: sal@grasp.cis.upenn.edu (Marcos Salganicoff)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
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I would like to connect an IBM compatible keyboard to a Mac+ since I
despise the Mac+ keyboard and do not want to pay $120 for a $30
keyboard from datadesk (Is that sooo wroooong!:-). 

Idea:

->Upon perusing _Inside Macintosh_ I see the mac+ keybord uses +5,gnd,
and a bidirectional serial protocol which is documented.

->Upon perusing the IBM technical reference manual I see that their
keyboard uses the same voltages and bidirectional serial line,
although with a different serial handshaking and number of bits
protocol. Both keyboard generate key up/down type of events.

Nevertheless, if one could modify the keyboard driver routinewhich interacts
with the mac+ keyboard then a "no interface hardware necessary"
solution to my problem could be found.  Unfortunately, _Inside
Macintosh_ is very terse about the keyboard interface for the plus.
Does anyone now how _low_level_ keyboard protocol routines can be
diddled on the plus??? If anyone has already solved this problem I
would appreciate hearing from you as well :-)

Any pointers would be appreciated!


Marcos

Graduate Student
GRASP Lab
Comp. and Inf. Sci.
Univ of Pennsylvania,
Phila., PA USA
(sal@grasp.cis.upenn.edu)


Marcos Salganicoff