Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!stl!dsr
From: dsr@stl.stc.co.uk (D.S.Riches)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Anybody remember the DVORAK keyboard layout?
Keywords: keyboard, speed, typewriter, human factors, ergonomic, Dvorak, Sholes, software, carpal tunnel, Maltron, ANSI, Navy, Kermit, Ralph Nader
Message-ID: <4485@stl.stc.co.uk>
Date: 30 May 91 08:08:02 GMT
References: <1991May17.065559.10421@uublip.uucp> <1991Apr2.224343.1@hulaw1.harvard.edu> <1991May29.172841.25136@cs.utk.edu>
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Reply-To: "D.S.Riches" <dsr@stl.stc.co.uk>
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In the referenced article shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford) writes:
%
%  In <1991Apr2.224343.1@hulaw1.harvard.edu>, James Peregrino
%   <jperegrino@hbsstg.harvard.edu,PEREGRIN@HULAW1.BITNET> writes:
%> 
%> Subject: Radically Designed Keyboards
%>
%> I have a friend who is...just now learning to type...and is
%> interested in using any of those funky, strange...keyboards...
%> shaped like a V or like a hemisphere.
%> I'm interested in hardware, not software (e.g. Dvorak) solutions.
%
%"To boldly type where no one has typed before..."
%
%Every few years somebody invents a key-input device that is completely
%different from prior art. One such device was the Maltron keyboard,
%from a British inventor, which appeared in the late 1970s.  This
%design had separate keypads for each hand mounted on a V-shaped
%sloping console.  I have also seen a device called the Write-Hander,
%which was a hemispherical substrate with pushbutton switches for the
%fingers of the right hand.  If I recall correctly, ts output was
%ASCII, as was its input.  You had to searn the ASCII codes for each
%character, and you pressed down fingers in specified combinations to
%encode the 0 and 1 bits of the ASCII representation.

There was a small machine that someone in my old company in Guernsey
used to use.  I think it was called Micro-Writer.  That also was
hemispherical and had 5 buttons laid out so that there was one button
under each finger (including thumb).  Pressing combinations gave the
required letters (and perhaps even phonemes).  Once learned it was
very easy to type quickly.

I have just seen an electronic filofax called Microwrite which has a
similar style input on it.  This retails at around #200.

   Dave Riches
   PSS:    David.S.Riches@stl.stc.co.uk (or dsr@stl.stc.co.uk)
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