From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 11:11:18 -0400 From: Pete Fenelon pete.fenelon@minster.york.ac.uk Subject: question about PC's (keyboards ...) Topicbox-Message-UUID: 0b15e484-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Message-ID: <19950406151118.N3gR5zsaRL2tveavLLv44m5Ey0H9mr4xfT14ydkRxd4@z> >Steve Kotsopoulos writes: >> >> Byron Rakitzis wrote: >> > Additionally, does anyone have any pointers towards a supplier of a >> > high-quality keyboard? >> >> I've never had a better keyboard than the NCD "Unix style" keyboard. >> It is similar to what the MIPS Magnum 3000's came with. > >I've tried many keyboards (though not the one mentioned above) but I >am a strong convert to the new Microsoft keyboard. My past favourite >was the Sun Mark 4 Keyboard, which is difficult to get now because >they always ship the shitty PC keyboards with the new Suns, sigh. >Anyway, the Microsoft keyboard is made by Keytronic, has an excellent >feel, and the split in the keys is great if you're a touchtypist (if >not, forget about the keyboard, it'll drive you nuts). > I've used several makes of keyboard extensively over the last few years. The worst of them, barely acceptable by any standards, is Chicony. Their keyboards feel OK when new, but the feel rapidly deteriorates and keys start sticking (this seems to be purely due to bad manufacturing and poor tolerances). Depending on what ``feel'' you like, Alps or Cherry are fine -- the Alps is a rather clicky keyboard (a little like a real IBM unit, but with slightly shorter travel and less "clonk"). I find that I can achieve excellent typing speeds in comfort on this, though it's quite mechanically noisy as my office-mates will no doubt confirm. It's nice and heavy so it doesn't slide around your desk and the feet at the back raise it to just the right angle for me. Cherry supply a couple of different keyboards, the best of which has a light touch and nice action, and is quiet, though it's not as robust as the Alps. The downside is that it's a membrane-based keyboard and its durability might not be of the highest, though I've had no problems using them heavily. Maybe not suitable for public-access machines... pete (actually, the nicest keyboards of recent years are on TI laptops, but we're heading off-topic at a rate of knots -- or should that be gnots ). pete -- Peter Fenelon - Research Associate - High Integrity Systems Engineering Group, Dep't of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO1 5DD (+44 1904 433388) pete.fenelon@minster.york.ac.uk http://dcpu1.cs.york.ac.uk:6666/pete/pete.html