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From: maj1@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Major Robinson jr.)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: New keyboard references
Message-ID: <476@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-Aug-86 01:39:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: sphinx.476
Posted: Sat Aug  9 01:39:25 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Aug-86 19:44:02 EDT
References: <771@navajo.STANFORD.EDU> <643@sdcc12.UUCP> <1467@amiga.amiga.UUCP> <474@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Reply-To: maj1@sphinx.UUCP (Major Robinson jr.)
Organization: U. Chicago - Computation Center
Lines: 37

This may be a second posting for some.  Sorry.

In article <1467@amiga.amiga.UUCP> mitch@horse.UUCP (Mitchell R. Gass) writes:
>>> keyboards on .. new Amiga...
>>> ... have the keyboard references (those little pimples) 
>>> on the D and the K, rather than the F and the J.  These are the first
>>> keyboards like this I have seen....
>>
>>I know Macintosh is a dirty word, but just for intellectual interest, the
>>Mac Plust keyboard also has the pimples on the D & K. Hmm.
>>
>>Wade
>
>The D and K keys are under your longest fingers.  These fingers 
>usually touch the keyboard first, thus you get feedback
>about your hand position sooner with marks on the D and K. 
>You have an extra instant to decide where you are before you 
>type that first wrong letter.
>
>There is also a Jovian keyboard with dots on the Z and \ keys,
>but it isn't currently sold in the U.S. 
>
>Mitchell Gass
>{decwrl,hplabs}!pyramid!amiga!mitch

It doesn't matter that the D and K are under your longest fingers
because those fingers are not the ones that you're trained to use as
reference.  In typing class they teach you to home your fingers by
starting at either end of your hands.  I.e., with either the A and '
keys (working inward), or the F and J keys (working outward).  Thus it
is quite natural to use the pimples on the F and J keys; especially
given that it's a natural instinct to point with the index fingers.
The pimples are at a beginning, not in the middle somewhere.  And
honestly, it doesn't speed up the time used to home the fingers
because it's still disorienting and hard to get used to when it's the
only keyboard (of all that I use) which have the pimples on the K and
D keys.