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From: lum@osupyr.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Flat Portable (Re: Flat Displays and Portable Computers)
Message-ID: <197@osupyr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Jan-87 22:06:03 EST
Article-I.D.: osupyr.197
Posted: Wed Jan 28 22:06:03 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Jan-87 05:36:50 EST
References: <275@netxcom.UUCP> <1249@ucbcad.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: lum@osu-eddie.UUCP (Lum Johnson)
Lines: 22

In <1249@ucbcad.berkeley.edu> edjames@ic.Berkeley.EDU (Ed James) writes:
>In <275@netxcom.UUCP> ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles) writes:
>>If you need a keyboard, then use the touch sensitive screen to create one.
>
>No user feedback!  I hate membrane keyboards,....  [ The CPU, batteries,
>ROM_stuff and keyboard could fold up against screen when being carried.
>Keeping the folded package to around an inch or so thick is the trick. ]

Right!  Have you seen the HP-28C calculator?  There is an ad inside the
front cover of February's Scientific American.  It has a clamshell case,
with various keypads and displays inside both halves.

While we're wishing for stuff we probably won't get, how about fitting all
this into a notebook-size clamshell that unfolds both fully and partially,
and can be locked open at various angles.  The keys would still be cramped
or small in a 8 1/2" x 11" format, though, so I'd prefer 9 2/3" x 12 1/2".
We do have to lose the numeric keypad, or put it above the major keyboard
(rotated maybe?).  And while I'm at it, let's add a _real_ META (ie, 8th bit
set) key and CTRL-lock and META-lock keys, for Emacs, which would be _much_
more useful than a silly SHIFT-lock key.

Lum Johnson  lum@ohio-state.arpa  ..!cbosgd!osu-eddie{!osupyr}!lum