Re: [9fans] dvorak

[Rob Pike <rob@mightycheese.com>]

> i've always thought a great keyboard would have lcd's on each key
> rather than a printed letter.  switch from dvorak to qwerty to
> whatever at a command and the keyboard still reads correctly.  you
> could show which greek letter or funny math symbol a key would
> generate when appropriate (alt, shift, special mode of software or
> whatever)

many years ago, ken knowlton had a paper in the bell labs technical
journal about a keyboard under a 45 degree-tilted half-silvered mirror.
in front of the operator was a tv screen.  when the operator looked
down,
images from the screen appeared virtually (nice to use that word
correctly for a change) projected onto the keyboard, and even on top
of the operator's hands.   when i say operator i'm using that word
correctly too: this was used to present varying keyboard layouts
to phone operators.

-rob