🚀 go-pugleaf

     The following article appeared  in the  Wall Street Journal,
6/6/86, pg. 25: (reprinted without permission):

[BEGINNING OF ARTICLE]

     IBM'S IMPROVED PC KEYBOARD IS SETBACK FOR SOME SOFTWARE
     
     For years, users have complained about the awkward keyboards
in the IBM Personal Computer family.   Now International Business
Machines Corp.  has  introduced  a  new  keyboard  aimed  at such
complaints-only to spur a new round of gripes.
     The problem: Some software programs won't operate on the new
device,  now sold as an option with the PC XT and AT models.  The
snag illustrates a sort  of  high-tech Murphy's  Law: As computer
makers try to make things ever easier for customers, the internal
workings  of  the  machines  get  ever  more  complex,  sometimes
defeating the effort.
     The new keyboard simplifies things by  separating the cursor
keys  that  had doubled as  number  keys;  marking  the enter key
"enter" instead of using only a broken arrow, and placing special
"function  keys"   horizontally  for  easier  access.   But  such
programs   as   Ashton-Tate   Inc.'s    Framework   and   Borland
International Inc.'s  SuperKey  won't work  with  the new layout.
Indeed, even a version of IBM's own "windowing" program, Topview,
won't  run on  the new IBM keyboard;  buyers  must  avoid version
"1.01" in favor of "1.10."
     IBM says any problems  are the fault of  software developers
that  violate  IBM's  technical  guidelines.   "There's  no story
here,"  a company spokeswoman says.   But software makers say IBM
is  unrealistic.   A  cardinal  IBM rule  dictates  that software
should "talk" only to the PC's internal coding, known as the BIOS
(basic input-output system);  then the BIOS acts  as a translator
and tells the machine's chips  what  to  do.   But  many programs
violate this rule,  bypassing the translator and talking directly
to the chips to let screen images show up more quickly and to add
special commands.
     Software makers gamble that the rules they break  won't work
against them  when  IBM  later  changes  hardware  features.  "In
certain  products  we  have  to  depart  from  them  to  get  the
performance we need," says Roy Folk, Ashton-Tate's executive vice
president.   With Framework,  Ashton-Tate gambled and  lost.  The
program uses unusual key combinations to move rapidly  across the
screen, but the new keyboard doesn't recognize them.  Ashton-Tate
is writing new software to fix the problem.
     IBM says it tested 200  programs and only a half dozen or so
didn't work on the new keyboard,  which most XT and  AT customers
are buying instead of the original device.   But the snags may be
more widespread than the IBM sample indicates.   After all, there
are  some 10,000  IBM PC-compatible software programs  now on the
market.
     
     [END OF ARTICLE]
     
     Why, why, why, why, why does ANYONE patronize IBM??????
     

-- 

Gary Friedman
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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