Robert Moskowitz wrote: >> what ever became of solid IBM clicky keyboards? :) ToddAndMargo: > https://www.pckeyboard.com > > They emulate an IBM Selectric typewriter. I > ABORE these keyboards. I bet they don't... The Selectric typewriter had a unique feel to it, no click as the key was pressed down, you just pressed the key down to the end-stop with a bit of a clack, and the spring resistance was matched so that didn't hurt your fingers. You could type really fast and easily on them. The sproingy IBM (and others) computer keyboard, which makes a hell of a racket as a spring suddenly bends part way through the key being depressed, is an entirely different affair. And nowhere as good for fast typing. As someone who's used both, they are nothing like each other. Some of the early dumb terminals had great keyboards, somewhat like the feel of using a Selectric kind of keyboard (tensioned hold-up springs behind the buttons, actual switches but silent). If you want a lasts-forever keyboard, you've got about two choices. One that no-longer exists, its keys dipped pins into pools of mercury (silent, and bounce free), or a hall-effect system where the keys whiz a magnet past a sensor (again, silent and bounce free). The cheap ones use that plastic/silicon-rubber dome bubbles to hold the keys up, which suddenly dimples in when pressed. The feel of that action is often terrible, but occasionally okay. Underneath them there's two common ways of doing the electrical switch: Pressing two flexible plastic circuit boards together so there's a capacitive change under the key press. As grot gets in, or the conductors get ground, they start to fail, and you have to hit some keys harder and harder for them to work. You might also get multiple key presses believed by the keyboard encoder. Rarer and older, a conductive carbon pad on the key dome was pressed across two circuit board traces when you hit the key. As grot gets in, or the carbon pad crumbles or gets contaminated with air polution, they go unreliable. Though some of that can be cleaned off by disassembling the keyboard (not a fun task, with a gazillion springs everywhere, often not actually attached to anything). I've done that on custom keyboards which can't actually be replaced any more. -- uname -rsvp Linux 3.10.0-1160.49.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Nov 30 15:51:32 UTC 2021 x86_64 Boilerplate: All unexpected mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted. I will only get to see the messages that are posted to the mailing list. _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure
