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From: dyer@atari.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Flat Displays and Portable Computers
Message-ID: <540@atari.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Jan-87 22:30:12 EST
Article-I.D.: atari.540
Posted: Fri Jan 23 22:30:12 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Jan-87 16:10:01 EST
References: <275@netxcom.UUCP>
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 37

> If you need a keyboard, then use the touch sensitive screen to create one.
> I seem to remember that with the resolution given in the original design, and
> with the room available on the surface of the screen, you could have a full
> 80x24 character screen, and still have enough room for a keypad.  The key
> layout would be entirely programable, since it is displayed on the screen!
> This would allow everyone to customize the keypad into a form that they want,
> instead of being stuck with whatever the manufacturer wanted to give them.

Take a piece of paper and draw a keyboard on it.  Tape it to a formica
table top.  Now try typing on it.  If you enjoy it, I invite you to
replace your present terminal with an Atari 400 (it has membrane keys;
at least the speaker goes "click!" when you make contact....)


IBM has some patents on a rather spiffy chord keyboard.  You can type
words like "THE" and "AND" (with appropriate case-shifting) in a
single stroke.  They tried it on some rather bright MIT students and
found that after three or four weeks the subjects were typing as fast
as (or faster than) they were on normal keyboards.

IBM's chord keyboard had 14 keys.  It left one hand free for
schlepping a mouse around, shuffling papers, or fondling members of
the opposite sex.

Because of the learning-curve, it would probably be a dismal failure
in today's marketplace.  Besides, IBM has the patents.


The keyboard on an electronic notebook *has* to be silent, or you
can't use it in a classroom.  How do court stenographer keyboards
solve this, with thick pads of felt?

-- 
-Landon Dyer, Atari Corp.	    {sun,lll-lcc,imagen}!atari!dyer

The views expressed here do not not
necessarily reflect those of Atari Corp.	Point and Click.  ->BOOM<-