The Curmudgeon Contemplates Keyboards

[mdlbear]

For the last week or two my external keyboard has been flaking out -- dropping keystrokes, and occasionally barfing out a string of repeats. The cats, of course, know nothing about this. Or will admit to nothing, in any case. So yesterday, after determining that a blast of canned difluoroethane wasn't going to fix it, I finally started to think seriously about replacing it.

The keyboard has only a limited set of plausible replacements, because there are only two types of external keyboard that I can stand: the Model M and the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard. The Model M and the oldest of the Thinkpad keyboards (the marvelous SK-8845 Ultranav) can be dismissed out of hand because they lack a logo key, which I've gotten used to using as Xmonad's Mod key. Most Model Ms lack a trackpoint, although I have one that has it -- and two PS-2 connectors on the cable. Besices, I'm not positive that I can find my Model M at this point, and it takes up a lot of desk space that I don't have anymore.

The second generation of Thinkpad keyboards -- the SK-8855 -- have a logo key, and an attached USB cable that stows into a recess on the back, but have the page-up and page-down keys on the right-hand edge, in what has become, for me, the wrong place. That makes them just enough different from the keyboards on the newer Thinkpads that it's annoying. I have one that I'd consider using anyway, but it's broken; my second one is out on loan.

(You might well ask why, since both of the laptops I'm using -- Sable and Raven -- are Thinkpads with the right keyboard, I would be looking at external keyboards. I blame the cats. If I have an external keyboard and an external monitor on my desk, I can close the lid and let Desti sit on it. Come to think of it, that may be why I need a replacement keyboard in the first place.)

There are three Thinkpad keyboards with the new layout -- the KU-1255, which is what I'm looking to replace, the Bluetooth version, and the shiny new ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II. The Bluetooth version has gotten poor reviews -- apparently it tends to be laggy -- and in any case one of the laptops it needs to go with doesn't have Bluetooth. (I know -- dongles. I'm also running out of USB ports.) The Keyboard II has both Bluetooth and a wireless USB dongle. (It would, of course, be ideal if it were compatible with Logitech's, but of course it wouldn't be.)

I was just about to order one when I saw this line on Lenovo's website:

Ships in more than 5 weeks.

So it looks as though I get to spend $60 on a KU-1255 to use while I'm waiting. Or instead. Or maybe an SK-8855, because they have an attached USB cable instead of requiring a (fragile) micro-USB, except that those appear to be made of unobtainium today. And I can get the KU-1255 from Amazon and have it delivered tomorrow.

Just for the record, here's what I like (and some reviewers detest, of course) about the newer Thinkpad keyboards:

• Page-up and page-down keys. (Many -- perhaps most -- newer compact keyboards require using the function key on the up and down arrows, which makes it hard to hit one-handed. Because cat.)
• The cursor keys are all in one place on the lower right: the arrows in an inverted-T arrangement, with the page-up and page-down on either side of the up-arrow in what practically every other keyboard leaves as empty space. Huh?
• Trackpoint -- the little red pointing stick between the G, H, and B keys. I don't always use it, but it's there when I need it. And you can scroll with it.
• Along with the trackpoint, there are three buttons directly under the space bar. The middle one is what you hold down to scroll with the trackpoint; on Linux it's also "paste selection" in most places, and "download" in browsers.
• The classic Thinkpad key-feel. A lot like a Model M clicky-key only silent. Less travel than the mechanical keys on the Model M, but I've come to prefer that.

I'm still waffling over the II. It's hard to justify, now that I have a 1255 on order. But not impossible. Meanwhile I'll just sit here listening to The Typewriter (a concerto for orchestra and solo typewriter) by Leroy Anderson). (There's a version that includes a repeat performance using an IBM Selectric, but I can't seem to find it now. It would have been perfect for this post.)

Another fine post from The Computer Curmudgeon (also at computer-curmudgeon.com).
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Comments

[jesse_the_k]

My favorite keyboard was the Compugraphic EditWriter 7500. In addition to ASCII, it had two subsidiary key clusters for file management and type-specific functions. Good keytravel yet silent (the machine itself made a ton of noise).

Another take on the typewriter song: https://youtu.be/J3zZmwwfz4I is a lovely scene from BETTER THINGS, a sit-trag we enjoyed on HULU.

[mdlbear]

That's an impressive bit of mime. Thanks!

I can't say it was a favorite, but I still have a soft spot for the Friden Flexowriter, which was the console on the first computer I actually got my hands on, the Bendix G-15. (Also see icon -- you really have to have some respect for a digital computer with analog meters on its front panel.)

[jesse_the_k]

That's a heavy duty keyboard. The first one looks like I'd get my fingers stuck in between the keys.

The Bendix weighed almost 1000 pounds! Instead of transistors it ran on black holes?

(What I know about that era is mainly from Turing's Cathedral, so may be completely wrong.)

Ooopss

[jesse_the_k]

Memory failed me again.

Turns out there were four subsidiary key clusters functions dissolved in the fixer stage.

[billroper]

I'm using one of the DAS Keyboards with the clicky Cherry keys. It's not a Model M, but it's not bad. :)

[mdlbear]

We sometimes called it hollow-state logic. Little holes in the air surrounded by glass.

I saw one in a surplus joint ten years or so later, listed for $1k. I was tempted.

[mdlbear]

I've used Cherry keyboards in the (rather distant) past; I remember them as being very nice.

[spiffyvoxel]

My current keyboard - the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 - is still chugging along happily, although a couple of the most-used keys are losing their markings. Sadly, it looks like that model is unavailable now, which is a shame because it's very comfy. There are some more recent models from Microsoft that I've bookmarked in case this keyboard ever goes kaput on me. (And I still have my old Apple Wired Extended keyboard as a fall-back, although it'd be a pain going back to shallow keys and a low profile with no rest for my wrists.)