From: utzoo!decvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!kline
Newsgroups: net.micro
Title: Re: Jerry Pournelle's Disappointment - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.344
Posted: Fri Aug  6 07:31:15 1982
Received: Sun Aug  8 09:15:04 1982

#R:sri-unix:-226500:uicsovax:3700026:000:2143
uicsovax!kline    Jul 30 08:56:00 1982

	
   Here it is: I've got the June, 1982 issue of BYTE in front of
me; page 288.

	``. . .Only IBM has RUINED the keyboard! What ought to be its
	strongest point, the thing IBM always excelled at, is its worst
	mistake.
	   What IBM did was to put extra keys between the space bar and
	the Shift key. Why, I don't know. The result is that when you 
	think you've typed, say, a capital T, you get instead /t, which 
	isn't useful at all.
	   There is also no line-feed key; instead IBM seems to have
	manipulated the Carriage Return key to give both carriage return
	and line feed when struck. . .I suppose there's a way to filter
	that madness; but there's no help for the Shift key being
	mislocated, nor for the egregious amount of space between the home
	keys and the Return key.
	   I may one day buy an IBM--but not until I get over the shock
	of that ruined keyboard. I've never been so disappointed in my
	life.''

   There was no mention of the feel of the IBM PC keyboard anywhere in
the column. I'm not sure what he means by "extra characters between the
space bar and the Shift key;" the shift keys and the space bar are not
adjacent on any keyboard I've ever seen. I think what he really means
is the \ key, between the Z and the left shift key. Thus the "/t" he
mentions should really be "\t", which is what you'd get from not reaching
far enough for the left shift.

   My own personal comment, if I may: Right now I'm typing on an IBM 3101
terminal, which has the "<" key placed between the Z and the left shift,
and the return key is exactly the same distance from the ";" key (and thus
the rest of the home row for touch-typists) as on the IBM PC keyboard.
I find the 3101 a joy to use; the keyboard has an excellent feel and none
of the above complaints ever get in MY way. This opinion is shared by
many of the other users here at CSO--I'll take this over a VT100 any day.
I've only had a few minutes at an IBM PC, but from what I experienced, I'd
be quite happy with that, too. The keyboard remains the strong point of
IBM's design, despite what Jerry Pournelle says.


	Charley Kline
	decvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!kline