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From: mrl@oddjob.UUCP (Scott R. Anderson)
Newsgroups: net.info-terms,net.internat
Subject: Re: In search of a sane keyboard standard
Message-ID: <1314@oddjob.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-May-86 12:40:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: oddjob.1314
Posted: Sat May  3 12:40:03 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 08:11:37 EDT
References: <2071@cbosgd.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrl@oddjob.UUCP (Scott R. Anderson)
Organization: University of Chicago, Department of Physics
Lines: 101
Keywords: keyboard, standard, ANSI
Xref: linus net.info-terms:450 net.internat:15

In article <2071@cbosgd.UUCP> mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) writes:
>Are you tired of incompatible keyboards that require you to stand
>on your head to type, or to use two hands to type Control S?  I am.

Me too!

> [The Concept 100 ] puts the CTRL key to the left of CAPS LOCK.  The more
> recent Concept AVT swapped CTRL and CAPS LOCK, so it doesn't conform
> any more.

Our Concept AVT does conform, so it's either been changed for the
better or the worse, depending on which of ours is more recent.

> (6) The strange ASCII punctuation ( [] {} \| `~ ) varies so much

I strongly object to the practice of pairing [] and {}, as opposed
to [{ and ]}, which is something that I have never quite gotten used
to.  The latter follows in a long tradition of parentheses () being
on the same keyboard level.

> Some examples of widespread keyboards and why they are insane:

On the Macintosh, DEL is SHIFT-BS.  The CTRL key (referred to as
COMMAND) is directly to the left of the space bar.  The `~ key is
to the left of 1, and the ESC key is nonexistant (some programs,
such as terminal emulators, will map `~ into ESC).  Yecch.  And
on the new (Mac Plus) keyboard, the right shift key is small and
hard to hit.  However, the Mac does have an OPTION (i.e. META) key,
which I believe is an up-and-coming feature (it is placed to the
left of CTRL).

The vt200 has a ",," and ".." key, as on many typewriters, and
puts <> on a key between Z and SHIFT; as you might expect, this
is a real pain, and no one around here likes it.  Also, ESC, BS,
and LF only exist when the vt200 is in vt100 mode, and then they
are up amongst the function keys (`~ is again where ESC should
be).

>Comments and suggested improvements are welcome.

In the best tradition of ANSI standards, I would like to include
in my preferred keyboard a feature that is not now available in
any keyboard that I know of.  What I think would really be nice is
if there were an additional CTRL key on the *right* side of the
keyboard, for the same reason that there are two SHIFT keys.  This
would be a boon to people who use Emacs and other editors that make
great use of control sequences.  However, this would necessitate
moving the RETURN key, in spite of Mark's requirement:

> (3) The return key should be as large as possible, with exactly two
> keys between it and L.

It couldn't be moved too far, so the keyboard might look something like this:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
| ESC| !  | @  | #  | $  | %  | ^  | &  | *  | (  | )  | _  | +  | |  |BACK|BRK>
|    | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  | 0  | -  | =  | \  |SPAC|   >
------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
|  TAB  | Q  | W  | E  | R  | T  | Y  | U  | I  | O  | P  | {  | }  | DEL|  R  >
|       |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | [  | ]  |    |  E  >
-------------------------------------------------------------------------|  T  >
<CTRL| ~  | A  | S  | D  | F  | G  | H  | J  | K  | L  | :  | "  | CTRL  |  R  >
<    | `  | @@ | @@ | @@ | @@ |    |    | @@ | @@ | @@ | ;@@| '  |       |  N  >
<------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
<CAP| SHIFT  | Z  | X  | C  | V  | B  | N  | M  | <  | >  | ?  | SHIFT  | LF |
<LCK|        |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ,  | .  | /  |        |    |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      | META  |                   SPACE                   | META  |
      |       |                                           |       |
      -------------------------------------------------------------

I don't think that the RETURN is much more difficult to reach here
than it is in the standard position.  This is the same position it
has on the vt200 keyboard, and is similar to the position on the
Sun and Concept AVT.  It also can be as large as a 2x2 square, as
Mark suggested and as I have indicated.

The BS key has ended back where it usually is; an alternative is to
rotate BS, DEL and LF by one key in a counter clockwise direction.
This would put DEL close to where it is on Televideo keyboards and
make LF less accessible (I don't think it is used too much anyway).

I moved the `~ key between CTRL and A; this is the image of '" on
the opposite side, and fills the standard CAPS LOCK position.  This
key is probably the most likely of any to float around, so this
should not be a major change, even though I have never seen it in
this position.

I also included the META key in a position that is close to where
it is often put (Sun, Macintosh, etc.).  Again, there are two for
both left- and right-handed use.

So, are you listening, ANSI?
-- 
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