26 Jan
2023
26 Jan
'23
7:15 p.m.
On Jan 26, 2023, at 1:34 PM, Steve Lewis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Sounds like what Apple came up with for its laptops a while ago, though in the most
recent generation they dumped the idea.
A somewhat similar but more primitive thing is found in the DEC VT71/t typesetting
terminal, which has a row of 16 "User Defined Keys" at the top. These have
double keycaps, an outer transparent plastic shell that snaps over a smaller ordinary
keycap with no label. The idea is that you could make your own labels and insert them
under the clear shell. Then again, a lot of users simply laid a cardboard strip with
legends just above the top row: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt71t/vt71t.jpg
paul
Changing keys would be rather hard on a touch
typist, don't you think?
As for what I said of morphing shape of keycaps: I think I recall a
MacBook circa 2018 having something like this - at least one special row
near the top? It had programmatically controlled colorized symbols, and was
a small touch screen. 