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tommygunes | 3 Jan 2005 21:12
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My new site has a forum for alternative keyboards


I just put up a new site, http://www.spikedskull.com -- it's basically a 
group of all my other sites.  It has a forum, and I made one of the forums 
just for Keyboards:
http://spikedskull.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6

You do NOT need to register in order to post, you can post as a guest.  
If you do register, you can have the board email you when new replies 
have been posted (but you still have to visit the forum to read them).  I 
don't know if any of you are interested in posting there, but you can if 
you want.  It's not (directly) affiliated with TypeMatrix in any way, it's my 
personal forum, so it's totally free-speech.

I like the way forums are setup better than I like mailing list type 
discussions, but I know some of you feel the opposite.  So, I just thought 
I'd let you all know about it in case you're interested.

--Tommy Gun

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Magnus Engström | 4 Jan 2005 00:45

Re: My new site has a forum for alternative keyboards


On Mon, Jan 03, 2005 at 08:12:28PM -0000, tommygunes wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I just put up a new site, http://www.spikedskull.com -- it's basically a 
> group of all my other sites.  It has a forum, and I made one of the forums 
> just for Keyboards:
> http://spikedskull.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6
> 
> You do NOT need to register in order to post, you can post as a guest.  
> If you do register, you can have the board email you when new replies 
> have been posted (but you still have to visit the forum to read them).  I 
> don't know if any of you are interested in posting there, but you can if 
> you want.  It's not (directly) affiliated with TypeMatrix in any way, it's my 
> personal forum, so it's totally free-speech.
> 
> I like the way forums are setup better than I like mailing list type 
> discussions, but I know some of you feel the opposite.  So, I just thought 
> I'd let you all know about it in case you're interested.
> 
> --Tommy Gun

Definitely interesting. I'm running the Svorak/Dvorak forum at
http://forum.aoeu.info, although it's mostly populated with swedish
users. There has been some keyboard discussion, but most users are
mostly interested in keyboard layouts, not keyboard hardware. I'm
registering right now, as it would be great if your forum could attract
some more people in addition to this terrific mailing list.
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pbrun01 | 17 Jan 2005 08:37
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Pre-war (?) Royal typewriter with Dvorak keyboard


Hello everyone,
   I have created an album in the photos section of this group with 
some pics of my new Royal portable typewriter with the Dvorak pattern 
keyboard. I bought this unit on ebay. It bears serial number 
0-697729. I am not certain but I believe this is a pre-war machine 
from the late 1930s. This typewriter is in excellent condition and is 
fun to type on. Prior to getting this machine I had never typed on a 
manual typewriter. It's much, much harder than typing on a computer 
keyboard but I am going to keep practicing until I get the hang of it!
--Peter

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Ben Cohen | 20 Jan 2005 00:59

Peter's Oldie


At 1/17/05 01:37 AM, Peter wrote:
my new Royal portable typewriter with the Dvorak pattern
keyboard. I bought this unit on ebay. It bears serial number
0-697729. I am not certain but I believe this is a pre-war machine
from the late 1930s.

According to http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm, it was built in 1938 (a new 
model, compared to my Royal Standard, which was made in 1934!).

Ben Cohen
celebrating a half century of Dvorak typing!

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pbrun01 | 20 Jan 2005 16:05
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Re: Peter's Oldie


--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, Ben Cohen <BenC <at> L...> wrote:
> 
> According to http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm, it was built in 1938 
(a new 
> model, compared to my Royal Standard, which was made in 1934!).
> 
> Ben Cohen
> celebrating a half century of Dvorak typing!

Hey Ben, 
     I assume that your Royal Standard does not have the Dvorak 
pattern keyboard? (It's most likely too early for that). Are you one 
of those people who can type on both Dvorak and qwerty?
--Peter

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Ben Cohen | 20 Jan 2005 23:48

Re: Re: Peter's Oldie


Don't assume.  It's very Dvorak.  I have had no occasion to type on a 
non-Dvorak keyboard in the past twenty years.....
	Ben

At 1/20/05 09:05 AM, Peter wrote:
--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, Ben Cohen <BenC <at> L...> wrote:
 > According to http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm, it was built in 1938 (a new
 > model, compared to my Royal Standard, which was made in 1934!).
 > Ben Cohen
 > celebrating a half century of Dvorak typing!

Hey Ben,
      I assume that your Royal Standard does not have the Dvorak
pattern keyboard? (It's most likely too early for that). Are you one
of those people who can type on both Dvorak and qwerty?
--Peter

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pbrun01 | 21 Jan 2005 00:38
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Re: Peter's Oldie


How about a photo of this bad boy? 
--Peter

--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, Ben Cohen <BenC <at> L...> wrote:
> Don't assume.  It's very Dvorak.  I have had no occasion to type on 
a 
> non-Dvorak keyboard in the past twenty years.....
> 	Ben
> 
> At 1/20/05 09:05 AM, Peter wrote:
> --- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, Ben Cohen <BenC <at> L...> wrote:
>  > According to http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm, it was built in 
1938 (a new
>  > model, compared to my Royal Standard, which was made in 1934!).
>  > Ben Cohen
>  > celebrating a half century of Dvorak typing!
> 
> Hey Ben,
>       I assume that your Royal Standard does not have the Dvorak
> pattern keyboard? (It's most likely too early for that). Are you one
> of those people who can type on both Dvorak and qwerty?
> --Peter

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????NobukiSugita | 23 Jan 2005 15:31
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Introducing thumb-shift keyboard


Hi,

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this message but I
think it is of any interest to you.

Thumb-shift keyboard was invented by Fujitsu engineers about a quarter
century ago for its line of Japanese word processors in order to make
Japanese input by keyboard easier. (I am not affiliated with Fujitsu.)

Today its share is very small but there are still a sizable number of
very enthusiastic users, who claim that it is the best way available.

I have a brief explanation of the keyboard here.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/gicchon/sub144.htm
If you have any interest please take a look.

Nobuki Sugita

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jqquist | 23 Jan 2005 16:28
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Re: Introducing thumb-shift keyboard


Sugita-san,

> I am not sure if this is the right place to post this message but I
> think it is of any interest to you.

You've come to the right place. 

> Thumb-shift keyboard was invented by Fujitsu engineers about a quarter
> century ago for its line of Japanese word processors in order to make
> Japanese input by keyboard easier. (I am not affiliated with Fujitsu.)

Cool.

> Today its share is very small but there are still a sizable number of
> very enthusiastic users, who claim that it is the best way available.

Sounds like Dvorak and other alt-keyboard users.

> If you have any interest please take a look.

Thank you. By the way, this link appears broken,

http://www.seanspot.com/jwrite/MS-IME/UseIME/jwrite-ime-enter.htm

Regards,

Jim

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P Scott Horne | 23 Jan 2005 18:16
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The Russian keyboard


Does anyone here happen to know what motivated the design of the standard
Russian keyboard layout?  It seems to me to be singularly poor for
touch-typing, even worse than QWERTY in that regard, because the most
important letters are in the centre.  Was it perhaps designed for one-handed
typing, the one hand being in the middle of the keyboard?

Here, for reference, is the layout (in Latin transliteration, for the
benefit of those who cannot read or display Cyrillic).

J  C  U K | E N | G Sh Shch Z  X "
F  Y  V A | P R | O L  D    Zh E`
Ja Ch S M | I T | ' B  Ju   ,

And this is the list of Russian letters in decreasing order of frequency:

O E A I N T S V L R K D M P U Y ' Ja G B Z Ch J X Zh Sh Ju C Shch E` F "

(I have omitted the marginal letter _jo_ because it is outside the main part
of the keyboard layout.)  

Notice that the first six letters all require the index fingers.  Two of
them are directly underneath the index fingers; the other four are all in
the most awkward positions, those requiring a stretch both horizontally and
vertically.  A keyboard that so heavily taxes the index fingers is, of
course, very hard on the user, and one feels the gross imbalance after
typing on the Russian keyboard for even a few minutes.

Compare the Bulgarian layout.  Although not quite optimal, it is reminiscent
of Dvorak:
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Gmane