🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm glad that someone has finally voiced the disgust I have felt
over the past few years.  In the last 6 months I have
continuously swapped between : an hp 2621, an Ann Arbor Ambassador,
an AT&T PC 6300, an IBM PC and an AT&T UNIX PC.
I used to consider myself a reasonably proficient touch typist
(approx. 80 wpm text) but recently my fingers have gotten so
confused that even my typing of basic text has slowed by at least
10 wpm.

The above degradation is probably not all due to "finger
confusion".  Like Mark Horton, I long for the feel of the old
Selectric keyboard.  The streamlined feel of the "new" electronic
keyboards just doesn't cut it.  Of the above, I found the hp 2621
keyboard the closest to the Selectric and the least tiring.

Alas, I am down to using only the IBM-PC and the AT&T UNIX PC.
This combination has only been made bearable by using Paul Fox's
installable device driver for swapping the ctrl and CAPS-LOCK
keys on the UNIX PC.  I loath the return keys on both, but the
placement of the Enter key on the UNIX PC definitely helps.

I join in Mark's plea for a sane keyboard arrangement and hope it
comes before my fingers are committed. (-:


Following are some additional comments on Mark's suggestions:

> 
> 		Horton's Minimum Sane Keyboard
>    ------------------------------------------------------------------
>    | ESC| !  | @  | #  | $  | %  | ^  | &  | *  | (  | )  | _  | +  |
>    |    | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  | 0  | -  | =  |
>  --------------------------------------------------------------------
>  |   TAB  | Q  | W  | E  | R  | T  | Y  | U  | I  | O  | P  |
>  |        |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>  --------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>  |CTRL| ** | A  | S  | D  | F  | G  | H  | J  | K  | L  | :  | "  | RETURN |
>  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ;  | '  |        |
>  --------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>  |   SHIFT   | Z  | X  | C  | V  | B  | N  | M  | <  | >  | ?  | SHIFT  |
>  |           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ,  | .  | /  |        |
>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------|
>              |                SPACE                       |
>              |                                            |
>              ----------------------------------------------
> ** This position may contain either CAPS LOCK or the right half of a
> wide CTRL key.
> 
> It is almost, but not quite, possible to conform to X4.14 and still have
> a sane keyboard.  The problems are the RETURN and BACKSPACE keys, which
> X4.14 would have you move one more space to the right.  To conform, a
> CAPS LOCK key must also go between CTRL and A.
> 

I prefer NOT to have the CAPS LOCK key between the 'A' and 'CTRL'
keys.  I rarely ever use the CAPS LOCK key (typical, as you
mentioned) and find it especially dangerous for vi users
(j to go down, J joins - multiple inadvertant J's cost dearly).

> 
> 			Horton's Standard Keyboard
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------++++++
> | ESC| !  | @  | #  | $  | %  | ^  | &  | *  | (  | )  | _  | +  | BACK + DEL+
> |    | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  | 0  | -  | =  | SPACE+    +
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------++++++
> | TAB  | Q  | W  | E  | R  | T  | Y  | U  | I  | O  | P  | {  | }  | |  | ~  |
> |      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | [  | ]  | \  | `  |
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------++++++
> | CTRL  | A  | S  | D  | F  | G  | H  | J  | K  | L  | :  | "  | RETURN +LINE+
> |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ;  | '  |        +FEED+
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------++++++
> | SHIFT   | Z  | X  | C  | V  | B  | N  | M  | <  | >  | ?  |    SHIFT  +BRK +
> |         |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | ,  | .  | /  |           +    +
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------++++++
>            |CAPS|                SPACE                 |
>            |LOCK|                                      |
>            ---------------------------------------------
> 
> This keyboard is sane, it uses the popular convention of [ ] unshifted and
> side-by-side, with { } shifted, and it's complete.  It puts CAPS LOCK out
> of the way, yet easily reachable.  (CAPS LOCK isn't a key that is used a
> lot, even by secretaries who make up the largest demand for IBM Selectric
> style keyboards.)
> 
> The only problem here is that I had to make up placements for the \ | and
> ` ~ keys, which seem to be different on every keyboard, and for DEL, LINE
> FEED, and BREAK, which are different or missing on every keyboard.  Perhaps
> one of the readers can do something better with these keys.  I've put the
> printing characters in the arrangement used by the AT&T/Teletype 4425/5425,
> which seems as good as any, and put the nonprinting ones in +'s to indicate
> that they are optional.
> 
> Comments and suggested improvements are welcome.  Vendors are especially
> encouraged to follow this discussion.  Input from international sources as
> to what can be done to easily internationalize this is welcome.  Many of
> the opinions in here represent my own experience, although I believe that
> much of it applies to the community at large.  I would like this to result
> in a standard layout which is useful to all of the community, of course, not
> just me.

I have no great feeling with the placement of the \ | ` ~ DEL
LINE FEED and BREAK keys.  Although, it seems to me that ~ gets a
lot more use than ` and might be better if unshifted (even though I
have never seen a single keyboard with ~ unshifted).
-- 

Lee Vallone		AT&T Information Systems	Merlin
{... ihnp4, mtuxo}!mtsbb!lav