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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.info-terms,net.internat
Subject: Re: In search of a sane keyboard standard
Message-ID: <6692@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-May-86 15:49:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6692
Posted: Tue May 13 15:49:44 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 13-May-86 15:49:44 EDT
References: <2071@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 41
Keywords: keyboard, standard, ANSI

The Ampex D175 terminal I use (some quirks, and no longer in production,
so I can't really recommend it in general) has an interesting keyboard
layout that I like so much I would copy it if I built or designed one.
Roughly like so:

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

This is pretty close to the Horton keyboard, with a few important changes.
BS is down where you can reach it, and sizeable, not a tiny key way up
in the top row.  DEL is easy to reach with a swipe of the right hand
(admittedly this is less than ideal if DEL is a heavily-used key).  While
BRK (break) may appear dangerously exposed, in fact it is safe:  to get
break you hit CTRL-BRK.  This is a better way of safeguarding dangerous
functions than trying to put them in inaccessible places.  The PROG keys
are shift keys that turn the numerics into function keys.  BRK and the
PROG keys do nothing if hit by themselves.  There is one omission:  no
LINEFEED.  How often does one use both CR and LF as distinct keys?

Actually, Ampex was not quite intelligent enough to do this right.  The
key I have labelled BACKSPACE actually sends a strange and seemingly-useless
code, which we have simply taken over as our erase character.  This is an
implementation botch rather than a fundamental flaw in the scheme.
-- 
Join STRAW: the Society To	Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
Revile Ada Wholeheartedly	{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry