🚀 go-pugleaf

I usually don't do this, but I feel frotzed today. Please read the
entire posting before replying.

In article <742@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave P. Schaumann) writes:

>Arrrg!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
(scream from "Another Brick in the Wall part III")

Sorry about that. I feel a tiny small bit better. I really need some
cookies & warm milk right now.

>to, and generally use 3 different keyboards:
>	My Amiga at home, and the schools Wyse75's and Mac's.

I use 6-7 keyboards per week. HP, Sun, VT-100, H19, Decstation, 3b1,
Synertek KTM 2/80...yes, I really do use that many on a weekly basis.

>Each one has a different keyboard.  Of course, all the alpha-numeric keys
>are in the same place, but all the special keys: escape, control (on the
>Mac), delete, etc. are in a different place.  It's enough to drive me
>buggledy-boo.

None of the ones I listed have ESC, CTRL, SHIFTLOCK, DELETE, BACKSPACE
in the same places. None of them (except possibly the Synertek) have
them all in reasonable places.

Don't give me this shit about how "you just have to get used to it".
I've used computer keyboards for 10 years now, since I was 13. I've
found reasonable arrangements, and I've found stupid arrangements. HP,
PUTTING THE FUCKING ESCAPE KEY DOWN IN THE LOWER LEFT-HAND CORNER OF
THE KEYBOARD IS STUPID!! I just gave up on ESC entirely. Use CTRL-[.
At least [ is mostly in the same place.

ESC should be in the upper left hand key position next to the Q, but
it never is. (I use emacs, flames to /dev/null please.) A double-sized
control key needs to be next to the A. Caps lock should be way on the
right hand side of the keyboard where I'll never ever hit it for any
reason. Tab should be next to the 1, or I'll even settle for to the
left of the Esc. Backspace needs to be double size and next to the =
(top row, last key, I'm on an HP right now). As I recall, a Tektronix
4105 came reasonably close to these requirements...and the Synertek
keyboard is too. (Then again, the Synertek is missing some keys.
Notably, curly braces. So I wrote a C compiler once that used brackets
instead of braces....  :-)

Ok, so people will immediately argue with me. Don't bother, as I don't
care what keyboard arrangement you like, and you probably don't care
what keyboard arrangement I like. The point is, no two people can
agree on how a keyboard should be arranged. The solution: (well, I see
two): either a) provide several different keyboards for a machine
(gee, what a NOVEL idea! :-) or b) get smart and ue available
technology to give us a Keyboard Construction Kit.  It's actually
pretty feasable, and would make many of us very happy...just a blank
keyboard with billions of empty slots, a whole lot of keys, and some
sort of programming device. Wanna make some money? That'd be a great
way...

>Is anyone working on a standard keyboard layout?  Any such group is candidate
>for immediate saint-hood.  Especially if they are given heavy artillery to
>enforce usage.

There are about 15,000,000 "standard keyboard layouts". And they all
suck worse than HP's [which is probably a standard. BTW, HP's keyboard
also is known to cause CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) more often than
other keyboards]. Just ask a DEC salesperson, who will cheerfully tell
you that putting ESC as F12 (way up in BFE) is a standard.

Look, people, lose the god-dammed function keys. Nobody in their right
mind that uses more than one keyboard (most programmers) uses the
darned things. And the keypad. This HP thing (can you tell I hate HP?
Huh, huh? Shoot the bastards, I always say) has more keys on it than
all the other keyboards put together, but I only use the ones that God
intended you to use (with the exception of DEL/ESC, which is in such a
fucking brain-damaged position...right next to the left shift key. If
you like it there, good for you. I don't-I've used close to 20
keyboards, and the HP is the ONLY ONE with ESC there.)

Remapping the keys under X11 ain't a solution; I don't use X11 all, or
even most of the time. (Some of the machines I use don't run it
either). It just makes things worse-what happens when I'm not running
under X?

Who wants to make some money? Start a company making replacement
keyboards for HP, DEC, etc...nobody I know likes the HP keyboard, nor
the DEC.  Making a keyboard that wasn't designed to piss off everyone
would make you a messiah.

Whew. I feel a little better. I'll feel a lot better when I get a
decent keyboard. I pray mightly that someone is listening...but
I don't think so. I just saw an HP X terminal that had a control key
below the left shift key. Bastards.
							Bob
manson@cis.ohio-state.edu