[Coco] PC World's 10 Worst PC Keyboards

[Joel Ewy]

Ries, Rich (S&FS) wrote:

>  

> Some of those keyboards looked ingenious (though I wouldn't want to use

> them!), but remember the driving force was (and is) P-R-I-C-E.

>

> My first computer was a TS-1000, and I think I spent more time trying to

> find a function key than I would have in typing the word. (FWIW, a BASIC

> was developed for the Timex to allow the user to type in the keywords.)

>

>   

I have a T/S-1000 that somebody put in an aftermarket case, along with a
custom full-stroke keyboard.  I bet that cost as much as the computer.

> On the "bright" side, all those poor designs led to a number of cottage

> industries to improve the 'puters, and all that fiddling we did gave us

> a love for the machines that the modern crop just can't meet.

>

>   

Very true.  The simplicity of those old machines was and remains a
virtue.  The fact that I had to upgrade my 4K CoCo in order to do much
of anything with it besides play "Quasar Commander" meant that I had to
learn something about how computers work, and that's a major factor in
why I work with computers today.  OTOH, there's simplicity and there's
perversity...  The CoCo's chicklet keyboard really wasn't that bad.  The
only reason I replaced mine with a spare CoCo 3 keyboard was that some
of the keys were starting to wear out (might have been fixed by cleaning
the contacts) and I had an available spare.  But some of the keyboards
mentioned in that article were real horrors that even price and
simplicity couldn't easily redeem.

JCE

> --Rich

>

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