29 May
1998
29 May
'98
6:28 p.m.
On Sat, 30 May 1998, Hotze wrote:
Check out the Twiddler:
http://www.handykey.com/
I don't like the idea of a handheld keyboard as much as I like the idea of
a chorded keyboard. I often chord my keys by mistake, so it seems natural
to both increase the speed of input and reduce the size of a keyboard by
using chorded key combinations. You, Tim, are one of the few on the list
with neurons still flexible enough to rewire your brain for a new kind of
keyboard, so this would be a good invention for you to foist upon the next
generation of geeks.
-- Doug
Doug Engelbart
designed a five-key keyboard that would do most of seven-bit
ASCII by accepting chording combinations. His idea was that you'd always
run the keyboard with one hand and the mouse with the other.
I recently saw a one-handed keyboard, which looked kinda like a MS
Natural Keyboard, with the right hand sawed off, and the numeric keypad next
to the left. It looked like there were a few extra keys, but you had a key
that you held down, kinda like shift, and it would make the oposite
character (like A for H, S for J, etc.)