Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucrmath!alchemy!hzink
From: hzink@alchemy.UUCP (Harry K. Zink)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: New Macintosh LC & Classic keyboards...
Message-ID: <246@alchemy.UUCP>
Date: 17 Dec 90 06:42:55 GMT
Reply-To: hzink@alchemy.UUCP (Harry K. Zink)
Organization: Alchemy Software Designs
Lines: 35

I would really like to know who at Apple is responsible for the new keyboard 
layout of the LC and Classic keyboards?  I have never seen a more useless and 
in my opinion utterly stupid act.

From the talks I had with several Apple people at the recent Mac LC it seems 
that no one is really happy with this 'new' layout either.  

I fail to see th reason behind it.  It sure is not for the all powerful excuse 
of saving manufacturing costs.  It obviously wasn't to adhere to some strange 
IBM specified standard, as happened with the extended keyboard (which has the 
ctrl and shft-lock keys in the 'wrong' places).  Now the caps-lock/ctrl 
problem wasn't that big a deal since the caps can always be rewired and Apple 
obviously took the idea from the PC style keyboards.

Where does the idea for these news things come from.  Of all possible layouts, 
I have never seen the ESC anywhere but where we are used to it (of course, I 
also do not claim to know all standards).  Yet, what I afil to see is why would
apple deliberately chnage the keyboard when the entire line finally had some 
sort of homogenous layout?  This way it will be an additional obstavle for 
users that have tos witch between the LC, Classic and the rest of the line 
(granted, the ESC and tilde keys do not get too much traffic, but that is just 
one more reason why I don't see why they had to switch them.)

Of course, the sensible thing is to just get a standard keyboard and toss the 
new one out - even though it has a nicer feeling and look to it in my opinion.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to this?

Harry

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