In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes > > >On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Al Feng wrote: > >> The significant problem [which *I* found] is the SHAPE of the top of the >> QL's tiles ... if you are a moderately fast typist, you are not looking >> at the tiles AND your fingers are not locked onto the tiles, either; so, >> you will inevitably be striking the top edges of the cupped portion ... >> or, at least, I was doing so. > >It's understandable. We are all individuals. > >SRL did not design the keyboard. Absolutely not. The key-caps are, in >fact, part of a standard system which existed from ~1975 for making short >run keyboards. I certainly used an ICL minicomputer with the same style >and construction keyboard, in around 1981-2. I also used a late Datacom >terminal with exactly the same kbd construction.
I've got the catalogue, somewhere, of the manufacturer who was commissioned by Sinclair for the QL keyboards. They are just a custom version - to suit the QL layout of functions - of a standard range of keyboards at the time. Widely used in many other applications, not necessarily just personal computers. This being the case, Sinclair was able to get a good price per unit as the mouldings already existed. -- Malcolm Cadman
