Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!b-tech!ais.org!danr
From: danr@ais.org (Daniel Romanchik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Keyboard mystery...
Message-ID: <_NL+N+*@irie.ais.org>
Date: 8 Jan 91 13:34:17 GMT
References: <1991Jan2.124323.1824@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
Sender: danr@ais.org
Distribution: comp
Organization: UMCC, Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 30

In article <1991Jan2.124323.1824@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> rev@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>Hi, folks -
>
>
>Here is my true brainteaser:
>The PC's numeric keypad looks like this:
>        7 8 9
>        4 5 6
>        1 2 3
>        0
>On the other hand the phone looks like this:
>
>        1 2 3
>        4 5 6
>        7 8 9
>          0
>
>
>Any idea why the difference:

What the other respondents say is true.  The computer keyboard is 
patterned on the adding machine keyboard.  The reason the phone pad
is different is that ATT didn't want adding machine wizards to be
able to dial a phone number as quickly as they could input numbers
to an adding machine.  Early TouchTone circuits could not recognize the
tones as quickly as they do now.
-- 
Dan Romanchik (danr@irie.ais.org, danr@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us, 313-930-6564)

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  -- Ancient Engineering Maxim