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Date:      Thu, 5 Oct 2000 16:57:05 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
To:        Manuel Enrique Garcia Cuesta <megarcia@intercom.es>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: OT: Keyboard feel (was: internet keyboards)
Message-ID:  <14812.63793.816138.593388@guru.mired.org>
In-Reply-To: <20001005214142.A329@ilex.kicelo.org>
References:  <84610204@toto.iv> <14811.59658.911452.775656@guru.mired.org> <20001005214142.A329@ilex.kicelo.org>

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Manuel Enrique Garcia Cuesta writes:
> === Mike Meyer escribia
> (Wed, Oct 04, 2000 at 09:35:54PM -0500):
> > Manuel Enrique Garcia Cuesta writes:
> > > I was rather thinking of how dull and uncomfortable PC keyboards
> > > "feel" nowadays, ...
> > I thimk that's a cost thing. The current cheap technology for
> > keyboards just results in mushy keyboards. They also tend not to deal
> > with n-key rollover very well. I understand you can still get the
> > older tech keyboars new, but the price has reason from the $100 range
> > to over $200/keyboard.  Last time I bought a keyboard, I chose a
> > Logitech Deluxe 104, and picked up a no-name clone for $3 as a
> > spare. It's hard to justify $200 for keyboard under those conditions.
> 	I suppose it depends on what you use your keyboard for,
> but I don't think I would shell that much out for a keyboard, 
> either. Pardon me while I rant on :)  , but the spree of
> a-mouse-is-all-you-need mottoes seems to have damaged a
> standard of quality that used to be much higher, even for
> rubber dome keyboards. After all, who is going to manufacture
> a decent keyboard for the (seemingly ) few people who really
> use it ?  And, I suppose, those who do make them have to
> charge accordingly so to make up for the lack of demand. 

That may well be why people put up with it. But I think it's got more
to do with clone makers putting the cheapest keyboard (modem/etc.) on
the things they can - so the demand for those goes up, meaning the
price for one aftermarket is still cheap compared to what the older
keyboards were. Which drives the price of those up.

> 	While we are at it, would you oblige and educate me
> with the meaning of "n-key rollover" ?

Rollover is the term used to describe striking more than one key at a
time. It's a problem for fast typists - they're hitting the next
key(s) before the keyboard registers the release of the previous
ones. 2-key rollover means you can hit any arbitrary key on the
keyboard, hold it down, and then hit another one and the second
registers. A good keyboard will handle arbitrary mush that way. N-key
rollover is handling larger numbers of keys. The cheaper one I would
handle all the 2-key rollover cases, but had trouble with some 3-key
ones.

	<mike



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