[tpm] [u-u] Return to the past. Re: Alarming Development

[David Gilbert]

Hugh Gamble wrote:

[concerning the horrors of modern keyboards...]
> Sorry to correct you,
> but the Return key  is one row above the home row,
> immediately to the right of the Line Feed key.
> The right end of the home row is for: Rub Out, Rept, Break.
>
> http://www.pdp8.net/asr33/pics/kbd_top.shtml?large
>   
Heh.  I had long considered Sun type 5  keyboards to be the pinnacle of 
workstation keyboard technology.  They often came with an optical mouse 
with a special pad --- ancient technology by today's standards, but 
useful for long periods of accurate graphic manipulation.

http://eintr.net/systems/sun/kbd-type5c-mouse-type5/pi/2.jpg

It had loads of extra keys ... and a full set of shifting keys that 
could be bound to the emacs-nirvana of shift alt meta and super.  It's 
only recently that modern keybards have started to grow extra keys that 
are useful --- finally acknowledging that keyboards are more useful and 
productive than mice.

Lately, however, I've been considering getting this beast:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3498&cl=ca,en

I already enjoy the built in screen because my laptop has one.  However, 
the G15 is one of the only modern keyboards to include extra keys for 
the user to assign.  In general, the logitech keyboards allow you to 
repurpose the "web" or "shopping" keys --- which makes them more useful, 
but the G15 goes that extra step.

As for the "enter" key, I re-learn keyboard key placements fairly 
easily.  Many laptop compressed keyboards put keys in annoying places.  
For a bit of history, the "L" of the Enter key was quite backwards on 
the Amiga 500 keybards and the control key was up with the caps lock.  
This was after sun had abandoned this key placement by several years...

http://www.remix64.com/images/r64/amiga_c64_ami_2.jpg