Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpdslab!hpdsla!garye
From: garye@hpdsla.HP.COM (Gary Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Alternative Keyboards
Message-ID: <400012@hpdsla.HP.COM>
Date: 20 Jan 89 21:09:36 GMT
References: <2717@ficc.uu.net>
Organization: HP - Pacific Technology Park
Lines: 19

> How about software down-loadable keyboards with keytop displays? Your
> startup file downloads QUERTY or Dvorak or whatever software into the
> keyboard and the keytops assume the correct characters. 
> 
> John Sloan  +1 513 259 1384  ...!ucsd!ncr-sd!ncrlnk!ncrpcd!wright!jsloan
> ----------

This has been talked about before and I've usually been hesitant about the
idea.  The advantage would be that I can transform the keyboard into the 
format I am familiar with (assuming the physical layout of keys is identical 
[size of keys and general location]).  But if the keys below my fingers can 
change function depending on the context and I have to look at the keytops to 
figure out which keys to hit, then it destroys my touch-typing and I'd
rather write things longhand with some handwriting recognition software (I
haven't experimented with this, but I'm pretty sure writing by hand would
be faster than hunting-and-pecking on a keyboard).  

Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Technology Division
               phone: (408)746-5098  mailstop: 101N  email: gary@hpdsla9.hp.com