This Is The Keyboard The World Needs

[quadibloc]

While a $5 or $20 Topre is an unrealistic thing to hope for, perhaps it wouldn't be too outrageous to hope for a buckling-spring keyboard like this for around $150:

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 17542[/ATTACH]

The default setting would be that Esc, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause would be left alone, but F1 through F12 would be replaced by 11 multimedia keys - and the one extra key from the 105-key keyboard used for European layouts.

There would be one or more additional buttons added to the keyboard to control how the sixteen keys stretching from Esc to Pause were used. What they were used for would appear in the LCD display stretching above those keys.

Other alternate settings:

Esc/F1-F12/PrtSc,Sc Lk,Pause
Esc/F13-F24/PrtSc,Sc Lk,Pause
Esc/(the ten keys on the left on a 122-key keyboard)(the key in the middle of the cursor cluster)(the numpad Esc, to the left of Num Lock)/PrtSc,Sc Lk,Pause

... allowing normal use of the function keys, and the use of all the extra keys on the 122-key keyboard (so the extra buttons would also allow a shift into 122-key mode)

and the entire Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane, sixteen characters at a time (or 32, since there is a shift key...) - the keyboard would generate the Alt+numpad combinations for Windows, to avoid the need for special software; the extra buttons would be such as to provide "ease" of navigation through such an enormous amount of characters...

and the keyboard would need to be only with a USB interface, in order to have the power to make the display light up.

So, for example, one could have a "<" and a ">" key to choose between multimedia, F1-F12, F13-F24, 122-key, and special character modes - and a separate key that, together with the numpad, chooses which group of special characters is used (and that wouldn't change while you went back to multimedia or F1-F12 modes, for example).

So you could, for example, have accented letters available as:

Code: [Select]

ð ñòóô õö÷ø ùúûü ýþÿ
à áâãä åæçè éêëì íîï

E FFFF FFFF FFFF PSP
s 1234 5678 9111 rca
c            012 SLu

or mathematical symbols available as:



and so on. It wouldn't take the place of, say, a good Chinese IME, but it would be impressive and convenient.

[noodles256]

I must have been blissfully unaware that most of the world likes Buckling Springs. However, this is an interesting idea for a board. From what I see around here, a majority of people also prefer tenkeyless. What world are we talking about exactly? Wally's world?

[quadibloc]

I must have been blissfully unaware that most of the world likes Buckling Springs. However, this is an interesting idea for a board. From what I see around here, a majority of people also prefer tenkeyless. What world are we talking about exactly? Wally's world?

Now, this is true enough.

I'm just thinking in terms of the good people at Unicomp, who seem reluctant to tool up even for a tenkeyless - they could give the Optimus a run for its money with a keyboard like this.

However, the primary application of the Optimus Maximus seems to be as a gaming keyboard, and I haven't addressed the user-programmability that would be needed to provide the special keys required for playing any specific game. (And, of course, buckling springs are great for typing, but like other keyboards with strong tactile feel, not so great for gaming.)

[False_Dmitry_II]

I have never used wanted or needed media keys on a regular keyboard. So I would want it to default to the standard things for quick saving, etc. in games.

[quadibloc]

I have never used wanted or needed media keys on a regular keyboard.

Neither do I, but I cannot expect to be able to afford the keyboard if it does not appeal to the mass market, which apparently does want them.

[Superfluous Parentheses]

Not a bad idea per se, but....

Get rid of the numeric key pad (or make it optional).

Get rid of CAPS LOCK altogether (or make it some kind of fn+... combination). Replace the caps lock position with control - you can replace the existing controls with something else; see below.

Also give me at least: alt/meta, alt gr/compose and super/windows and two fn keys all in positions close enough to be useful.

[calavera]

Sounds more like a keyboard that YOU want.

[Superfluous Parentheses]

I AM part of the world. Usually.

[BucklingSpring]

Hey, I have one with funny symbols!
FREE EGYPT!

LoL, is it for science teachers who do a lot of redaction with Math equations?

[BucklingSpring]

Common language accents must be accessible using standard touch type method.
I wouldn't be able to accuratly hit any keys right to the spacebar under the RIGHT-SHIFT key without leaving the F-J nipples.

[Findecanor]

No. What the world needs is a capacitative buckling spring keyboard in a Maltron 3D-layout ... Do I need to say more?

LoL, is it for science teachers who do a lot of redaction with Math equations?

APL

[quadibloc]

Sounds more like a keyboard that YOU want.

Well, there was another recent thread saying that the world needed a $5 Topre. I was paying homage to that thread's title, more than accurately assessing the kind of keyboard the computer-using community as a whole is genuinely in need of.

People here certainly are looking for a tenkeyless keyboard.

The feature of 122-key emulation would not be needed by many people, although I can see that as a rationale for business purchases of the keyboard - and corporate sales are Unicomp's bread and butter.

The version of the keyboard that I, personally, would want, though, would be based on the 101-key keyboard instead of the 104-key keyboard - and dump the two Windows keys and the Windows Menu key among the multimedia keys. So I did avoid self-indulgence in one area.

Common language accents must be accessible using standard touch type method.
I wouldn't be able to accuratly hit any keys right to the spacebar under the RIGHT-SHIFT key without leaving the F-J nipples.

Oh, I don't deny that.

Elsewhere, I provided a link to this page, on which keyboard layouts for the old version of ISO 9995-3 and the Macintosh layout, usable under Windows XP and later, are provided for download. This keyboard would still be able to work with alternate keyboard layouts selected in Windows just like any normal keyboard, but it would provide an additional way to do what can also be done with Character Map for the more exotic symbols.

... as one of the things it can do, in addition to allowing itself to be set up, through special driver software, for 12 or 16 key combinations that are used with different games, with icons on the display panel, which would be the main selling point - a keyboard with a single display panel, instead of a keypad with 16 keys each with their own tiny little OLED displays on them.

The intention is to be cut-price competition for one of the small-sized Optimus keyboards.