Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Northgate keyboards do not have N-key rollover
Message-ID: <1968@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 29 Sep 90 21:49:57 GMT
References: <39363@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 36

In article <39363@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) writes:
| Anyone who can type fast should be aware that Northgate's OmniKey line
| of keyboards do =not= have N-key rollover.

  I don't know what you mean by "N key rollover," but all the Northgates
I have certainly have what I think of as N key rollover. I have two at
home, and three at work, use two others at other sites, and they're all
ages from a week after they announced the keyboard (original 102), 1st
revised layout, 2nd revised layout, and Omnikey.

  As I sit here I press *and hold* successive keys on this early 102
"asdf" and all the keys come out. If you don't have rollover you either
get only one key or "aaaa."

  I certainly believe that someone at Northgate might have told you they
didn't have it, or might have been thinking of something else, but
that's what I think of a "N key rollover" and it works. You can even
press *and hold* down one key while typing others, and the original key
will not repeat "aghjklkjhghjkl" (I held the 'a' key down through typing
all the other keys. Finally, if you press and hold a key and type and
release any other key, the original key will not repeat (no doubling) as
"al" (I held the 'a' down after I typed it and for ten secs after I
typed the 'l').

  If it seems pedantic, I have been recommending the Northgate since it
came out, even when I had to supply my own for machines I use but don't
own. I would like to know if you have a bum keyboard, if Northgate has
changed their ROMs, or if you mean something else by the term than I do.

  Incidently, I described the tests I was making, so people can try them
on any given keyboard.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me