On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 10:18:55AM -0800, David Brodbeck wrote: > > On Dec 7, 2007, at 10:27 PM, Nate Duehr wrote: >> Humbug. If you learned hot to type *properly* on a real IBM Selectric >> (hint: you never pushed the key down past the "click", certainly never to >> the stops), using a clicky keyboard today won't cause you carpal tunnel >> any faster than a squish-box typed on improperly will. The click was >> meant to simulate the action of the typewriter ball smacking the paper for >> those of us who learned how to type on typewriters. > > Right, that's the real trick. The "click" is supposed to cue your brain to > stop increasing pressure on that key and start pressing the next one. All > good keyboards have some kind of tactile feedback before the key hits its > stop; the IBM "clicky" keyboards have a sharper and more defined version of > this than most. and the click *exactly* coincides with the letter being recognised by the machine. There is no need to bottom out one of this keyboards. On a modern keyboard, try *very* slowly pressing a key while watching the screen. You can get the key to "click" without causing an event. That means that it you are touch typing, you are relying on the letter showing on the screen to determine when to stop pressing the key instead of relying on the tactile feedback. > > I noticed the importance of this pretty early when I realized how much > faster I could type on an IBM keyboard than on a Apple or Commodore. The > keyboards on the latter two machines had no tactile feedback -- the keys > just bottomed out. (Although neither was as bad as the rubber "chiclet" > keys on the PC Jr. ;) ) The commodore keyboard pretty much sucked, I'm sad to admit as I still love my old commodore... :( How about the Atari 800 (or was it the 400?) that had the bare membrane. ugh. now that was crap! A
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