Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!microsof!fluke!kurt From: kurt@fluke.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: brain damaged (?) keyboards Message-ID: <584@vax2.UUCP> Date: Mon, 27-Jun-83 08:34:00 EDT Article-I.D.: vax2.584 Posted: Mon Jun 27 08:34:00 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 08:25:57 EDT Lines: 26 Nobody said the HASCII keyboard was a step toward good human interface. I said good human interface design evolves toward fewer controls. If all those keys need reprogramming, then they are not the last word in human interface are they? Have a look at your automobile, and then at everybody elses car. You can get into a car anywhere and reasonably expect to drive off. That is because the controls have been evolving for 50 or 60 years down to what is actually needed for driving. You can easily remember cars that had such things as a choke, which cars no longer have in general. If you are old you can remember cars with a spark advance, several pedals for shifting gears, transmissions that had to be double-clutched and so forth. Now all these controls are gone. Even the number of dials are decreasing. When was the last time you saw an oil pressure GUAGE on a new car? You can argue that these changes were made because it is cheaper to not put in a guage when an idiot light will do, but if the guage were necessary, it would still be there. Computers will follow the same path. Wait and see if in 10 years there are still all those keys on a keyboard. If the Japaneese have their way, you'll talk to your computer and use no keys at all. Right now you can buy a voice controlled editor for the TI Professional so you only need keys for typing text (voice commands move the cursor and set other parameters).