TRX says:
February 26, 2014 at 5:43 am

Right now, I'm using an IBM PC/AT-339 keyboard. The sticker underneath says it was made in 1985. It weighs as much as a modern laptop computer, has long springy mechanical key travel, and sends the keycodes before the keys snap over-center.

Until a few years ago I used a 1982 IBM PC 84 key keyboard. I finally had to give it up because I got tired of reprogramming X configuration files that didn't understand it didn't have that nasty inverted-T arrow pad, too many applications that differentiated between left and right ctrl and alt keys, and BIOSes that wanted F12 keys.

The AT-339 board was the best of a bad lot, but that doesn't mean it is good. Not much uses function keys any more, which is good because they've been exiled way up into the Arctic, with a whole blank row between them and the number keys, putting them too far from the home rows to reach easily. I can hit numlock and enable the arrow pad on the right so I can have arrow keys that make sense, but the pad is way over there on the right, so I have to move my whole hand over there instead of just my little finger. In fact, the whole keyboard is ridiculously lopsided and right-handed, extending [gets ruler] a full *seven inches* past the Enter key - which has been downsized and turned horizontal.

Furthermore, the AT-339 keyboard is highly curved - the wrong way. It was evidently made for typists with the board positioned on their lap, typing down at it. I type with the board up on a desk, like most people do, which means I want a board that curves the other way; domed instead of dished.

I don't care about the "click" at all, but that's all some people seem to notice. Back in the '80s, there were foam-pad mushboards that actually had little speakers in them to make a "click" noise. Bizarre.

Foam-button and rubber-membrane boards have uncertain triggering; using one, I can look up and see characters missing. No way to tell if a keystroke went through without watching the screen. With my antique IBM board, I *know* without having to look; when the key goes over-center, it has already happened. I can rest my fingers lightly on the board while thinking, and not look up to see a screen full of "rrrrrrr" or "yyyyyyyyy" scrolling because a finger had juuuuust a little too much pressure on one of the wobbly keys.

I use the keyboard a *lot*. Since the mid '90s, I've saved outgoing email - not counting header information, I send 512 to 1024Kb per month, the equivalent of a large novel. That's not counting real work. I understand that most people just use the board to type an occasional password or credit card number, but when you're hammering out text, a keyboard that feels like poking a puppy in the eye just doesn't hack it.