[Info-vax] PC/VT Keyboarrd Mapping

[David Froble]

Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> Den 2016-06-23 kl. 05:09, skrev Robert A. Brooks:
>> On 6/22/2016 7:24 PM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>>
>>> Any truly professional would quickly adopt to whatever new/modern
>>> hardware there is. Asking for old discontinued keyboards will probably
>>> only be an disservice to VMS, making it look even worse.
>>
>> Perhaps.
>>
>> I've been using the same LK461 for over 16 years to develop our
>> beloved operating system.  I've got a stock of them; they connect to
>> various Windows
>> systems using PowerTerm and a PS/2-to-USB adapter.
>>
>> Works quite well.
>>
> 
> Perhaps. Perhaps at VSI. But not at some place where VMS is
> already at stake and every additional little "thing" that make
> VMS stand out as "troublesome" will push it closer to the door.
> 
> We, who manage VMS in these environments must make watever we
> can to play along in the IT mainstream.
> 
> Pointing at VSI and claimning that a 16 year old LK461 works
> well *there*, doesn't help much.
> 
> 
> 
>> Yes, I'm a traditionalist.
>>
> 

So, yeah, some of us old fossils remember a few "better" things from the past. 
The question is, why have they not endured?  Simple answer, volume.  Oh, yeah, 
and "cheap".

Most people don't want an IBM et-al mainframe ...

Most people don't want a really great VMS system ...

Most people don't want a PC ...

(and so the cheapest KB available didn't bother them, and that's what we all got)

Most people don't want a notebook ...

(which has even worse KB)

Most people now got their tablets and smart phones, and nobody wants to mfg for 
the few fossils using any and all of the above ....

This LK411 could be mfg just as easily as the junk.  The junk mfgs just don't 
want to be bothered.