[Info-vax] Keyboards

[Dave Froble]

On 12/28/2018 1:53 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2018-12-28 05:53:22 +0000, Dave Froble said:
>
>> The keyboards for the VT500 terminals, and USB based keyboards were
>> once produced.  I don't know by whom.  But I'd ask, do those entities
>> still exist, and perhaps they would have preserved the tooling.  Maybe
>> not. If so, then the design and tooling would be available, and from
>> that, how hard would it be, should a valid business case exist, to
>> start up the mfg of more keyboards?  I'd also wonder what would be
>> required for a valid business case?
>
> The last batch of then-HP OpenVMS USB LK-series keyboards were produced
> by Cherry, and the production tooling aged out, and is no longer
> available.   This per the person that acquired the last batch. Then-HP
> had declined to pay for replacement tooling.
>
> The only case for continuing that production has been around app
> software that's tied to the keyboard layout, and that cannot use an
> analogous and currently-available keyboard for whatever reason.
>
> There's the added complexity of having to work correctly with the client
> device, and which is not often OpenVMS.
>
> Folks still using EDT and the other LK-fond apps and the traditional
> OpenVMS command-line environment just aren't enough of a market, by all
> appearances.
>
> Could this be done?  Could USB LK keyboard production be restarted?
> Sure.  It's only money, after all.   Pragmatically?  Getting apps to
> work with a web browser and/or with a client app and the default client
> keyboard is where we're all headed.  Servers just don't include bespoke
> keyboards as dependencies and client prerequisites.
>
>

I've never used one of the latest (sic) USB LK keyboards.  So I'll ask, 
were they still as ergonomically user friendly as previous LK keyboards? 
  Back in the 1980s there was a significant push for such, with worries 
about carpel tunnel problems, and ease of use.  Frankly, it's not a 
"proper" keyboard that I'm as interested in as much as something that's 
easy to use.  When the cheap PCs with cheap keyboards came out, all 
those efforts for ergonomic keyboards seemed no longer important.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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