Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request
From: gildea@bbn.com (Stephen Gildea)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: new Sun type-4 keyboards
Keywords: Hardware
Message-ID: <8905051752.AA03538@rice.edu>
Date: 10 May 89 11:17:33 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: BBN Communications Corp, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Lines: 19
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: Fri, 05 May 89 13:50:40 -0400
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 280, message 18 of 18

The keyboard that Sun started shipping with the 386i and now ships with
all machines, the type-4 keyboard, is a step backwards for an engineering
workstation.  The Delete key, which I use constantly, is way out in right
field, where only the longest of pinkys can reach it.  The Meta key,
another one that gets full-time use, has shrunk.  The | and \ key has also
been moved to an unreachable position.  A bit of good news: the Caps Lock
is still out of the way so you are unlikely to hit it by accident.

I recognize that good keyboard layout is difficult.  Look at the mess DEC
made of the VT220, for example.  However, the desirable features have been
understood for a long time.  Symbolics has had a very nice design for
about eight years.

Why did Sun do this?  If it wants to woo the IBM PC market by making a
PC-style keyboard, Sun should offer a choice of keyboards (say, "IBM PC
layout" and "engineering style") so as not to alienate the engineers,
their existing user base.

 < Stephen