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Keyswitches, like anything else in life, can be an acquired taste.
I'm not a programmer. Despite the Unix beard.
I just liked the Egyptian vibe of a dead language.
For someone who's never lived through the IBM PC era though and had an experience working on one of those keyboards, I can understand them perhaps not liking buckling spring keyboards at first.
I just liked the Egyptian vibe of a dead language.Only three years ago, I had a job interview for a position as a programmer on a company's flagship product, which was written in APL. On the other hand, they had not asked specifically for a APL programmer, but had supposed that I would have learned it on the job.
It was just a standard full sized APL Model M that I swapped to a mini.
Ripster,
Do you actually ever use it as an APL keyboard? I recall a very long time ago, while in university, I wrote some APL programs as part of a class project. But there wasn't any APL keyboard around, so it was a major pain using the workaround. I thought APL was a lovely language, but unfortunately not very practical for most applications.
I suppose I ought to buy an APL keyboard one of these days just for a reminder of my past efforts.
I started out on computers who's keyboard was a front-panel of toggle switches and lights (DEC PDP and Altairs). It certainly wasn't any acquired taste when I moved from that to a terminal. Even with it's horrible keys, it was heaven compared to the tedious job of entering code via toggle switches.Perhaps "acquired taste" may not have been the right phrase to use, but switching to anything else generally requires some adaptation.
Then onto some of the original Commodore, Apple, and Atari computers. Again, nothing special about those keyboards that I could remember.
My next computer was an original IBM PC with the Model F keyboard. I can't say that there was any acquired taste involved there. I was in heaven the moment I laid fingers on that keyboard. Although I'd learned to touch-type on an IBM Selectric years prior, so that could have influenced my instant love for that keyboard.
If anything, for me lesser keyboards are an acquired taste, or more appropriately a resistance to the shock of having to type on something less than Model F switches. I've learned to accept typing on rubber dome keyboards without having to say "yuck" outloud each and every time.
For someone who's never lived through the IBM PC era though and had an experience working on one of those keyboards, I can understand them perhaps not liking buckling spring keyboards at first.