Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!unmvax!nmt.edu!john
From: john@nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Optimal keyboards
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.204351.27673@nmt.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 20:43:51 GMT
References: <24190@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1990Aug25.015334.16702@nmt.edu> <1368@greek.csd.mot.com>
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 25

Lance Norskog (lance@motcsd.csd.mot.com) writes:
+--
| Where can I get a chord keyboard?  This is the one-handed
| keyboard; you hold down 2 or more keys at once for different
| character combinations.... This obviously superior system
| was ignored by certain micro-computer architects who have
| a habit of horribly mangling good ideas :-(
+--

Obviously superior?  For people who have only one hand,
perhaps (or for people who are doing something else with the
other hand).  But I really don't think it would be possible
to type very fast on a chord keyboard.  For applications
where the typist is mostly thinking and not typing, it may
be a win, but for volume entry, I doubt that it is superior.

A two-handed keyboard allows one to ``play for position,''
that is, when one finger is stroking, other fingers can be
moving into position.  Some Dvorak keyboard typists can do
consistently over 120 words per minute; I usually do over
70, but I seldom type more than an hour or so a day.  Does
anyone have any performance figures for chord keyboards?
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber