Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!pikes!aspen.craycos.com!pmk
From: pmk@craycos.com (Peter Klausler)
Newsgroups: comp.std.misc
Subject: Re: Standard keyboard
Keywords: Is there one?
Message-ID: <1991Jan28.195647.21789@craycos.com>
Date: 28 Jan 91 19:56:47 GMT
References: <742@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <87723@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Cray Computer Corporation
Lines: 39

In article <87723@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> manson@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Manson) writes:
>I use 6-7 keyboards per week. HP, Sun, VT-100, H19, Decstation, 3b1,
>Synertek KTM 2/80...yes, I really do use that many on a weekly basis.
>
> ...
>
>There are about 15,000,000 "standard keyboard layouts". And they all
>suck worse than HP's [which is probably a standard. BTW, HP's keyboard
>also is known to cause CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) more often than
>other keyboards]. Just ask a DEC salesperson, who will cheerfully tell
>you that putting ESC as F12 (way up in BFE) is a standard.
>
>Look, people, lose the god-dammed function keys. Nobody in their right
>mind that uses more than one keyboard (most programmers) uses the
>darned things. And the keypad. This HP thing (can you tell I hate HP?
>Huh, huh? Shoot the bastards, I always say) has more keys on it than
>all the other keyboards put together, but I only use the ones that God
>intended you to use (with the exception of DEL/ESC, which is in such a
>fucking brain-damaged position...right next to the left shift key. If
>you like it there, good for you. I don't-I've used close to 20
>keyboards, and the HP is the ONLY ONE with ESC there.)

I'm still trying, after eighteen months, to get used to this hideous Type-4`
keyboard from Sun. Whoever decided to put a tiny, misplaced RETURN key on this`
monstrosity to the right of a tilde/backquote key should be flogged into a`
uniform pile of offal and mercilessly flushed from the gene pool. The only`
thing that keeps a Type-4 victim sane is the ability to put`

	PS2='Sun SUCKS! Please type a backquote: '

in one's .profile, so that every time one ends a command with an inadvertent`
backquote, this twisted, bizarre machine will commisserate with you. This is`
usually sufficient to prevent me from lashing out and destroying my doomed`
workstation or commissioning terrible hate crimes against its designers.`

(I did have fun during a Sun salescritter presentation here at CCC, bringing`
my battered Type-4 keyboard to the meeting and raving like a madman about it.`
I liked their reaction to my asking "Did you consult any UNIX users when this`
keyboard was designed?")`