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From: gnu@sun.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: Microwriter Chord Keyboard
Message-ID: <448@sun.uucp>
Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 22:08:55 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.448
Posted: Wed Feb 15 22:08:55 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 03:24:05 EST
References: <16491@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 31

I've recently acquired a chord keyboard called a "Microwriter".  It's
not as pleasant as an IBM Chord Keyboard, but you can exchange
money ($450) for one and it talks ascii RS232.  It has six keys on a
hand-shaped keyboard about the size of a paperback book.  Five are for
letters and an extra thumb key is for case shifting, commands, etc.

The interesting part is the key layout.  The five "usual" keys are
diagrammed like this: 		    *		middle
			index	  *   *		ring
		       Thumb	 *     *	pinky
and many of the letters are just "drawn" on this grid for mnemonic
value.  Thus "I" is the leftmost two (a vertical stroke), "L" is those
plus the pinky (ell-shaped), "r" is the leftmost plus the ring finger
(vertical plus bar at the top), etc.  I learned all the letters in about
an hour, and learned the useful commands over the weekend.  It's a lot
more mnemonic than the binary encoding of ASCII.

It is actually a portable word processor, with 8KB of text memory, a
CMOS procesor, nicads & charger, and a 16-char LCD display.  You can
carry it around in its little leatherette case and type whenever the
fancy strikes you, uploading or printing later.  It could be used as a
portable terminal except for the garbagey way they implemented
receiving from the RS232 port (for power-saving considerations).  I'm
currently working on interfacing it as the keyboard of my Sun Workstation.
I hear they have a cheaper version, just a keyboard, in the works.

I first found it in the Whole Earth Software Review.

Reply with a USPS address and I'll send you some of their literature.

		John Gilmore, {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!sun!gnu