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From: REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Keyboards
Message-ID: <1793@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-Jun-83 00:39:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1793
Posted: Sun Jun 12 00:39:00 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jun-83 15:06:07 EDT
Lines: 32

From:  Robert Elton Maas 

How about flushing some of the lesser-used letters (ZXQ) and special
characters (@&#%`_) from their normal places, letting [control] [meta]
[shift] [shiftlock] [top] [untop] and ESC take their places, requiring
extra keystrokes for those rare characters but in exchange you can
type 20% faster because you never have to reach waaaaaay over there
for CTRL or META or anything else?

Shift: Gives upper case of letters, second character for numbers
Top: Gives second character above letters, third character above numbers
Untop:Gives third character below letters, fourth character below numbers
Control:gives ASCII control meaning, or 8th bit, depending on mode
Meta:gives 8th bit, or 9th bit, depending on mode
Keys whose direct representation isn't used by you personally could be
reprogrammed to be others you do need directly, like when typing stuff
with lots of leftarrows, the ! key (shift-1) could be made into a leftarrow.

It seems a more compact keyboard, programmable so that the thirty most
often needed keys (including shift-like ones) would always be in easy
reach where qwertyuiop asdfghjkl; zxcvbnm,./ are normally, and the next
ten where 0123456789 are normally, and all the rest via combinations
instead of frantic reaching, would yield easier typing once you get
used to it. I suggest *nothing* outside that basic 40-key (4 rows of
10 keys each) at all, thus if your hand is out of position your little
fingers fall off the edge or your thumbs bump, you don't accidently
rest on alpha-lock or del or whatever is to the left or right of the
basic-40 keys, thus it's virtually impossible to accidently type out
of reegistry, and it's unnecessary to look at the keyboard to put
hands back into registry.

Comments?