Adept at touch typing? Want to go insane? Try the latest toggle switch "keyboard."
71 comments
@markarayner Finally, modifier keys not limited by fingers. Just be sure to have some diodes in the matrix to avoid ghosting/blocking. @edward @markarayner @foone If it were a true Foone keyboard, they'd all be triple-throw switches and you'd get upper or lower-case by toggling the switch up or down. @becomethewaifu @edward @markarayner I don't have the pictures or links handy but I have worked on a keyboard which just had a big lever switch for a capslock, instead of shift keys @azonenberg @becomethewaifu @edward @markarayner I think it was actually a red flip lever itself, like the ones used on old S-100 systems and the original IBM PC power supply, the klunky one @becomethewaifu @edward @markarayner @foone But seriously: I had a coworker where each finger sat in a little cup, with up/down/left/right switches around the edges. Hit keys by moving finger side-to-side instead of up and down. I don't know the name of the keyboard though! @foone @cceckman @becomethewaifu @edward Wild! I'm not about to retrain my hands and brain, but this looks less damaging in terms of carpal tunnel. @markarayner This is something I would have built a decade ago if I had even less sense. @MichaelPorter @markarayner Yes! Caps Lock too, connected to a big red ENGAGED beacon when, er, engaged. :-) @MichaelPorter @eichin @markarayner Yeah, the 20-minute workout as you typed an essay on a manual typewriter 😄 (I still think Grade 9 Typing was the most useful course I ever took in my life 👍🏻) @MichaelPorter @markarayner I hope that plays the opening bars to Beethoven's 5th when closed @MichaelPorter @markarayner someone's gotta make a custom keycap for that @markarayner @markarayner @wakame Hm, the wear on those will be quite harsh.
How do you handle key up/down event emission? @angelastella I once had a job at CBC Radio with VERY OLD manual typewriters. The greens we had to use for shows (three sheets at once, one for the producer, one for the host, and one for the archive) made it impossible to touch type. I had to use my thumbs. I imagine my speed would be about the same on this nightmare contraption. Wow. Flashback to cop taking my statement back in the nineties. Index fingers, but still. This would make for a very interesting "stream of consciousness" exercise... while high of course. I kind of want to try it... @markarayner going insane was not on my list of things I wanted to get done today, so I'll pass @BalooUriza @markarayner And switches that spring back to off mode (like some light switches) rather than toggle switches.
@markarayner @markarayner How many curses per minute would we get from a chyrosran22 video reviewing this? :D @markarayner I used to write programs with toggle switches, but I only had 16 address lines, 8 data lines, and a "Deposit" switch to deal with. Oh, and the address lines would auto-increment for me, so really it was flipping 8 switches and hitting "Deposit". Then set the addr lines to the start of my program, and hit "Run". I did this up through the end of the 90's, on a *very* high-tech, expensive, and widely known US DoD project... |
@markarayner :ablobscream: