WHY? (Was: What's the point of USB keyboards+mice = Re: EPROM

It isn't on some of my machines. Not all the world is an IBM PC :-) Actually, having the keyboard conenctor on the front can be a pain if you have that stretchy helicaly-would cable (you know what I mean, like a telephone handset cable). WIth hte keyboard socket round the back, the ration of lengths from the keybaord right in front of the machine to elsewhere o nthe disk is less than it woudl be if the socket was at the front. So with the socket at the front, the cable gets stretched more and you move the keyboard aroudn and the plug is more likely to get pulled out accidentally. Anyoen else remeber the CBM PET 032SK, It has a separate keyboard conencred by such a cble to a DB25 socket o nthe front of the machine. Thing is, if you move the keybaord even a short distance from the machine, the plug pulls out... HAving the swich contacts at the back meant they could be put inisde the PSU case, so there was no mains conenctions or wiring outside the PSU. As a counterexample the HP9100 and HP9800 calculators put the mains swtich on the keybaord assembly, you have to be careful not to touch the exposed mains connections (or worse, let them come into contact with a logic signa) when working on the machine. On the HP9800s, I normally dismantle the keybaord and remove the switch so I can put it in an insulated baggie to keep it out of the way when debuggign the rest of the mahcine And the reason to put the swtich lever on the back is to simplify the mechancial side... But you should have a DC37 connecrtor on the 'front' where you can connect a coupld mopre drives, pointing whichever way you want them -tony