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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!mel
From: mel@houxm.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Why are micro keyboards braindamaged?
Message-ID: <434@houxm.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Jun-83 09:26:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxm.434
Posted: Sat Jun 11 09:26:13 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jun-83 04:51:32 EDT
References: ritcv.403
Lines: 21

It isn't just the "low end micros" that have braindamaged keyboards.  I sit
here pounding this out on a DEC Rainbow 100 keyboard that can't emit all
the ASCII control characters (How do you configure a SCRIBBLE printer if
your keyboard can't produce the GS and US needed to change pitch?).  Not only
does this monster (and it does take up a large fraction of the desk top) not
do what it must to be useful, it does other things that hurt.  It has a "<"
key right where the SHIFT key should be, an auto-repeat key  --  after 5 months
of using it, I still often produce strings of "<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<"s instead of
upper-case letters.  Then try to delete them by holding down "^H", hah!  That
doesn't work, since DEC in their superior wisdom decreed that control keys
(what few they provide) shouldn't auto-repeat.  Have you ever used a screen
editor where some of the controls (the un-control ones) repeat, and some don't?
It is an exercise in frustration that no amount of living-with moderates.
Then we have all the extra keys (more is better, right?) -- the CAPS-LOCK
and COMPOSE-CHARACTER keys right there where you hit them by mistake all the
time are easily disposed of -- literally - just rip them out and throw them
away.  But what do you do with ESC buryed up there 11th from the left (10th
from the right) ?  How do you move it down where it can be used?  I would dearly
love to replace this abortion with a VIC-20 (programmed to emit the proper
ASCII codes at the proper places).  Anybody know how ?
   Mel Haas  ,  houxm!mel