Introducing the new IBM PC Keyboard

[Tempest790]

This was taken from a Byte Magazine page from their 1986 issue.  I found many old magazines archived which is really cool.






Or...you can trade the old IBM keyboard up for $50.

[tricheboars]

whoa this is awesome.

was this keyboard layout revolutionary? i had figured that IBM took the ANSI typewriter layout and planted it on a computer keyboard.  didnt large backspace keys exist before the model m? numpads and F keys? did IBM really invent that?

[daerid]

IBM pretty much solidified the current ANSI layout. They're PC keyboard huuugely popular when introduced.

[tricheboars]

but didnt typewriters have ansi before IBM?  IBM was started in the early 1900's and I remember seeing photos of people rocking typewriters during America's reconstruction time period.  i have a degree in history.

did typewriters have modifiers beyond 1 before the PC?  return or enter?

and who the **** at IBM thought it was a good idea to give the caps lock such a large chunk of valuable real estate. what a ****ing idiot. ctrl should be there. what a jerk.

[daerid]

In older Terminal keyboards it was. I have no idea why IBM thought moving Control to the most un-ergonomic position on the board was somehow justified. As far as the qwerty layout of ANSI, yes typewriters had that long before. I meant the current standard ANSI layout including the 6 pack, arrow keys, and number pad layouts.

[fohat.digs]

And there were conceptual differences - before the electric typewriter (yes, I learned on a manual in the late 1960s) "carriage return" was a foot-long sweeping motion with your right hand several inches above the keyboard that did not rate a key at all.

There were no Controls, Alts, or Escapes, among others. The Backslash/Pipe certainly has no reason to be more than 1x, but I think that the large Backspace was a stroke of genius (pun intended). Tabs were more important then than now, since there were no spreadsheets.

I always figured that the Caps Lock and Backslash ended up as they did to mirror Tab and Enter, to balance the board. Caps Lock on a typewriter had to be beside Shift for mechanical reasons.

Control and Alt got relegated to the bottom, out of the way, because they were perceived to be "lesser-used" and odd at the time.

These are my thoughts, anyway.

[berserkfan]

Actually I would consider Control a good position. It isn't often used, but can be used by pinky.

It is backspace that annoys me. I use backspace a lot (to correct typos) and since I can't easily reach it with a little finger I need to use my fourth.

And why is there only 1 backspace? If we can have 2 of each modifier including the rarely-used window modifiers, we can jolly well ahve 2 backsapce! (see? I need backspace!)

In older Terminal keyboards it was. I have no idea why IBM thought moving Control to the most un-ergonomic position on the board was somehow justified. As far as the qwerty layout of ANSI, yes typewriters had that long before. I meant the current standard ANSI layout including the 6 pack, arrow keys, and number pad layouts.

[fohat.digs]

Not currently, but I have often re-mapped Caps Lock to be another Backspace.

And I like Control and Alt where they are.

[Findecanor]

Lots of typewriters had Caps Lock in that position. It was often a physically latching key -- latching on to the Shift key in front of it. You pressed Shift to exit Caps mode.
Caps mode was used more on typewriters than on computers today. Typewriters could have only one font at a time (if the font could be changed at all), so the convention was to type headings in caps and to underline for emphasis.

The most influential keyboard layouts before the IBM Enhanced Keyboard (Model M) were those on Digital Equipment's (DEC) terminals. The DEC LK201 keyboard was the first with the inverse-T cursor layout, and it also had both Caps Lock and Ctrl to the left of 'A' like the Key Tronic keyboard in the OP.