IBM Model M Keyboard

For a while I tried a US keyboard an i couldn't use it the @ an " are in different positions like terry said an there was the whole comfort factor of not being able to look at the screen an not the keyboard ect.

Terry thats a weird typing system you got there, how can you use a computer for so long an not get used to not looking at the keyboard an doing it from memory.
 
I never learned to touchtype ..... I always have to look at the keyboard as I type, and I tend to use only 2 or 3 fingers per hand, and though I can work up a reasonable speed, I couldn't look away and continue to type.
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Me too Terry, so you aren't alone. Coincidentally I was browsing through eBay today. I came across typewriters as old as 1914...! There were quite a few Selectrics too, I loved my Selectric at the office.
Believe it or not, despite my/our typing shortcomings I could manage a respectable 130 wpm.
For years I used to use a word processing typewriter here at home, great for correspondence.
 
"how can you use a computer for so long and not get used to not looking at the keyboard ? "

Saxon,
It's just a learned behaviour I guess. A bad habit once acquired is difficult to shake off, especially without a powerful incentive to change.
When I first started pounding IBM keyboards, there was no internet, no email and the sort of thing I'd be typing would be commands to mainframe OSs from the operator console like
r 00,'i $3p'
s rdr
r 00,'i $3d'
s wtr2

progressing to keypunching cards like
a la 4,24(3)
b sr 3,2
c mvc 16(4,2),(8,3)

whilst writing assembler code.

It was only towards the end of my 20 years that an online internal mail system came to pass and I started to write in real English, and I didn't write anything long enough to warrant the effort of learning to touch-type.
In the interim years, when I wrote technical newsletters, they'd be typed on a golfball by the dept secretary and sent to the print room for duplication.

My brain is just programmed that way permanently now. If you try too hard to think consciously about how you do something which has become automatic, it throws a real spanner in the works.

I spent 2 months in New York driving a rented automatic and when I was in the last week and about to return to driving my MGB in the UK, I tried to remember how to change gear with an imaginary clutch and gear lever, and began to panic as I couldn't quite get it.
As soon as I was home, of course I drove away flawlessly, without even thinking about it.
Once these things are hardwired inside the skull, it takes a lot to shift them.
 
Terry60 said:
How weird is that, I was actually "touch typing" i.e. from an automatic brain-nerve-muscle program, but it required optical feeedback reassurance.
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Not alone there, Terry. Till this day, that is how I type on QWERTY. It's almost as fast as I type on DVORAK (which I can do while reading a book), but fast nevertheless though it requires the "optical feedback" you're referring to for some odd reason :S
 
That was fun to read, Terry :smile:

Wish they'd thrown in a reference to Unicom and their remakes, let people know they needn't despair if they hadn't already purchased a Model M back in the day.
 
i must admit i know were all the keys are well almost all of them maybe the z isn't exactly very much in practice but yet i still have to look at the keyboard while typing this post thew problem is that the keyboard I'm using takes some pressure to press the keys and therefore it takes a while to click down i end up hitting five keys at the same time

big question in the following sentence:
the little boy was rumming up the hill with his cousin
say you had just finished typing cousin would you delete everything and go back and correct running or would you place the cursor there and just click then fix it

p.s. when i go into advanced settings the colors for the font aren't working all it shows instead of the fifty or so color squares is one white square?
 
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Yea, I noticed the colour thing some time ago too, but forgot to mention. (workaround is to finish in advanced then edit colours afterwards in quick)
In the example you gave Ali, I'd click and drag over the mm and retype, then click back to the line end, but if it were only 5 or 6 characters back I'd just backspace and retype the lot.
 
Personally, I'd ctrl+bkspc everything, faster than having to switch to the mouse, and then back to the keyboard.
 
oh thats a nice way (cg's) pretty useful thanks for the tip
I'm probably gonna start using it all the time so don;t worry ----------(deleted word using ctrl+backspace) my sentences are incomplete

Addendum:

okay very useful way cg thanks for the tip
which brings me to my next question
your top three most used shortcuts: mine are:
1-ctrl+c (copy;obviously)
2-ctrl+v (paste also obvious)
3-ctrl*a (select all)
 
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Hi John, welcome to NST.
Thanks for the links, I'm sure Guru and Saxon will be going through them.
 
Computer Guru said:
Personally, I'd ctrl+bkspc everything, faster than having to switch to the mouse, and then back to the keyboard.
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Speaking of ctrl+backspace, did you know in Visual Studio it'll automatically take out the line of code your curser is on in the code window? Pretty quick way to zap undeeded stuff indeed.
 
How do you mean, Justin? I use ctrl+bkspc in VS all the time to delete the last word, just like here in Opera.... Have you configured it differently?
 
Maybe i'm mixing it up with ctrl+delete then, that must be it. Only tried it in VS 2008. But anyway, it is a quick way to take out lines you are currently on that you no longer need :smile:
 
I think that most of them are silly (unless you're in contact with a few Klingons of course), but the virtual one has a great future potential as devices get ever smaller. Carry your PC with its 10gHz processor, 1Tb solid-state storage and 16Gb RAM in your top pocket, click the button on top and write with it, but how do you input data in a device the size of a pen ?
Click the button again and stand the device upright, then type away on the virtual, full-size, keyboard projected onto the surface in front of you.
I bet we'll see something like it within a decade or two.
 
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