[clug] [OT] quest for keyboards (linux Digest, Vol 86, Issue 2, Message 4)

[Kevin Pulo]

On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 04:25:57PM +1100, Miles Goodhew wrote:

> 	My personal favourite for key-action is what I call a "Honeywell"
> 	keyboard.

+1 for these Honeywells - I won't use anything else for more than 5
minutes.  They occasionally show up on ebay.  Don't bother with the
Spacemate - the action isn't as good (too mushy), and the gap between
Backspace and Insert is infuriatingly too small.  I suspect the still
more recent Euro-something Honeywell is also not as good, although
I've not used one.

>   They usually have the massive AT-DIN plug and an annoyingly short,
>   coiled cable.

Yes, although some have the smaller PS2 version.  Either way, a
PS2-USB adaptor takes care of it, although I've had problems with some
of them resetting at random times and dropping key events (including
releases, causing repeats and/or shifts to get stuck).

>   One of my hobby projects is to add a USB keyboard
> 	adaptor and 3-port USB hub into one of these
> ...
> * Numeric keypad I almost never use the KP and really wish I can get
> a decent keyboard without one

The real problem with keypads is that they interfere with mouse space,
forcing you to extend your arm too far when mousing.  Because of
course keypads were added onto keyboards before mice were commonplace,
and on the right is the natural side to add them.

A project I've been wanting to do for ages is to hack up one of my
Honeywells and either ditch the keypad completely, or probably more
usefully, relocate it to the left (and then retrain myself to arrow
around, etc with my left hand, since I do occasionally use it).  I
suspect hacking two and keeping half of each would probably be easier
than trying to relocate half...

Kev.

-- 
.----------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Kevin Pulo                Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur. |
| kev at pulo.com.au               _ll l_ng__g_e_ _r_ hi__ly p__d_ct__le. |
| http://www.kev.pulo.com.au/         God casts the die, not the dice. |
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