13 Apr
2012
13 Apr
'12
9:06 a.m.
This doesn't really have anything to do with identifying this terminal, but more of a
general observation I've made about these old CDC terminals...
The keyboards are staggered weird. Look at a normal keyboard, and the keys in the home row
are offset 2/3rds off the keys above it. Look at a CDC keyboard from this era, and the
keys are offset one HALF. So, the E key is *directly* lined up straight with X key, and so
on. Similarly, the 2 key is lined up with the A key.
After spending a few hours typing on one of those CDC keyboards, it feels a bit odd to go
back to a normal one. With practice, you eventually don't notice any more, but still.
It's amazing how much that little shift affects typing until you get used to it. I
don't know why they chose to do the layout like this, and I'm not aware of any
other manufacturer that did this. Most everyone else used the same typewriter styled
staggering.
-Ian