Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!haven!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!jmb
From: jmb@beach.cis.ufl.edu (John M Boof)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Keyboards - input devices
Summary: Some ideas
Message-ID: <19626@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 12 Jan 89 08:43:18 GMT
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: jmb@beach.cis.ufl.edu ()
Organization: UF CIS Department
Lines: 43


Although I've just read this group for 3 days, it seems a suggested topic of
changes to keyboards is an appropriate topic.  Much on this group doesn't
seem to fit the group though...   Anyway,

One thing that bothers me about keyboards is having to move my hands from
their base points (heels).  Why can't the keyboard fit my fingers so that I
don't have to move my hand around and lose its orientation?  The shift key
particularly bothers me.  Why do I have to occupy half (for me) of one hand
just to shift the letters typed in my other hand?  It seems a miracle to me
that someone had the sense to make the space bar easily accessable.  The
shift (bar) should be just as easily accessable.

The keyboard would fit my fingers' reach better by being concave instead of
flat.  And why do I have to push down to hit the keys?  Shouldn't any
direction of movement on the key cause it to register?  And why can't joy-stick
or thumb-wheel ideas be applied to the cursor controls on the keyboard itself?

Why do we still have this awkward and difficult interface to deal with?
This type of input device should be archaic by now.  I deal with keyboards
and terminals when I deal with computers, and I hate both!
Who decided that 22 lines was the best amount of text to look at at one time??
And who decided that a mouse should travel accross my pads of paper, or 
require a "mouse pad" to use?  I can hardly believe it is almost 1990 and we
are still dealing with these pitifully unefficient and difficult devices.

Ideas on gloves and all and its application to virtual keyboards is all very
interesting.  But what I want to see is something I can use (& afford) today,
tomorrow, next summer, next year.  When is the last time a major computer
release included any major changes to the input devices or the screens?

The engineering behind these changes would be relatively simple, but it seems
nobody has taken the time to design better ones or the faith to put it on the
market with their major products.

Perhaps we could, as a group, describe the upgraded keyboard, design the
best compromise of all suggestions, and ask some of the major computer
companies to listen to what we want.  At least I would like to see what the
keyboard (if it even would look like a keyboard still) would be like.

...JMBoof
(no cute signatures)
jmb@beach.cis.ufl.edu, boof@ufpine.bitnet, uucp: let's play Marco-Polo!