key differences and [then West] Germany?

[Wordhopscotch]

So I was looking at Maltron's website and found a paper by Stephen Hobday from 1988 describing the keyboard design process. This sentence caught my eye: "Pressure from West Germany a few years ago  for keyboards with home row heights not more than 30mm above the table, made keyboard manufacturers design short key modules. As these became available, it was decided to redesign the Maltron..."

So I guess it's possible that ATs made before the redesign would have a softer feel than the new PS/2s. But what did West Germany have to do with it; did they have that big a share of the keyboard market to prompt a mass redesign? (Also, what difference do a few millimeters make?) Just curious.

[lowpoly]

After googling that a bit I think the 30mm might be defined in ISO9241-4. I couldn't find it online and thus couldn't confirm. ISO9241 might be newer than late eighties.

Ergonomic recommendations seem to be:

- home row < 30mm
- slant 5-15°
- pressure 50-80 grams

If you want to sell for ex. to authorities this might be enforced. Which could be the 'pressure' he's talking of. But that's pure speculation on my part. Better email them.