[ale] Lighted keyboards

[Ben Coleman]

On 6/14/2020 5:05 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> I was going to mention that. Last century, and the first four or five
> years of this century, I used genuine IBM clickety clack keyboards,
> which at the time could be bought used for five bucks at computer shows
> and garage sales. The "falling through the ice" feel was definitely
> reassuring: You *knew* you'd hit the key --- you couldn't miss.

I think that feel dates back to the era of 80-column computer cards.
The original keypunches for the cards punched a column at a time, so
each time you hit a key, the whole punch shook(e.g. the IBM 029
keypunch).  This produced great tactile feedback, but of course, if you
mis-keyed, you had to re-do the card you were on (though some had a way
of reading the card up to a user-selected column, and punching the same
thing on the next card, so you didn't have to retype everything).  Next
came buffered keypunches, where the card was punched all-at-once after
completing the line.  I remember the IBM buffered keypunches I used (the
129 keypunch, and the 5496 keypunch (this used the smaller, 96-column
cards.  I don't think they ever had a non-buffered 96-column keypunch,
as the cards were set up as 3 tiers of 32 columns, making
column-at-a-time punching more problematic)), they similated the feel of
the unbuffered punches by having a solenoid that was fired off against
the metal walls of the punch with each keypress.  I'm not sure if they
ever did the same for terminal keyboards, but I think this shows they
were aware of tactile feedback issues.

Ben "clackety-clack" Coleman
-- 
Ben Coleman oloryn at benshome.net | For the wise man, doing right trumps
http://oloryn.benshome.net/     | looking right.  For the fool, looking
Amateur Radio NJ8J              | right trumps doing right.

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