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From: stephenw@murdu.OZ (Stephen Withers)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Keyboard Layout
Message-ID: <1179@murdu.OZ>
Date: Wed, 15-Oct-86 22:55:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: murdu.1179
Posted: Wed Oct 15 22:55:50 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 22:43:39 EDT
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Reply-To: stephenw@murdu.UUCP (Stephen Withers)
Distribution: net
Organization: University Computing Services, The University of Melbourne
Lines: 31

In article <8235@lanl.ARPA> dlc@lanl.ARPA (Dale Carstensen) writes:
>I wonder what a keyboard such as the ones court reporters use could do for
>productivity, when used with a computer?

Sounds rather like the Microwriter, a 6 button keyboard (I think the thumb
controls 2 buttons) with some inbuilt intelligence.  It was invented by the
producer of the film 'Zulu' (Cy Enderfield, if my memory is correct), and
has been selling steadily, if unspectacularly, for at least 5 years.  The
Microwriter is a chord keyboard, and the finger patterns have some relationship
to the shape of the character you want.

I've never used one, but from what I've heard it's a case of love it or hate
it (like the Mac??).  Apparently it is used by senior civil servants in 
Britain to prepare documents that are too secret to be typed by their
secretaries.  The claim is that virtually anyone can learn to Microwrite at
a useful speed without too much practice, certainly less than would be needed
to reach the same speed on a conventional keyboard.

Now, if you could build one with an integral mouse....

Stephen Withers, 
Manager, Microcomputer Support Group, University Computing Services,
The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.

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