3 ms·

I wonder what the opposite of this would be. A piano keyboard with seven keys that you use to type ASCII? Two telegraph keys which represent high and low?

nerdponx 4y ago
These are known as "chorded" keyboards, and for most people are more of an esoteric curiosity than a practical tool, with the exception of stenographers and their special steno keyboards.
AlbertoGP 4y ago
Yes, that would be Douglas Engelbart’s “Keyset” from 1965: “In addition to inventing the computer mouse, Doug Engelbart and his research team at SRI adapted a five-key "keyset" for typing and entering commands with the left hand while pointing and clicking with the mouse. Reminiscent of equipment used by telegraph operators and stenographers, Engelbart was among the first circa 1965 to use a keyset with a computer, and definitely first to use on a display workstation in concert with a mouse or other pointing device to seamlessly and efficiently navigate the information space, without taking your eyes off the screen. Much like driving a car, you steer, press the pedals, and even shift gears without taking your eyes off the road.” “By pressing down the various keys on the keyset like keys on a piano – one at a time or in various combinations – you could type all the letters of the alphabet. In addition, they programmed the buttons on the mouse to work like shift keys and command keys for the keyset. So for example, pressing the middle mouse button while typing on the keyset produced uppercase letters, while pressing the left-most mouse button produced numbers and punctuation instead of letters. Other mouse buttons served as command or ctrl key. Thus with mouse and keyset working together, you could enter the equivalent of every key on the keyboard.” https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/273/ https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/273/

nerdponx 4y ago

These are known as "chorded" keyboards, and for most people are more of an esoteric curiosity than a practical tool, with the exception of stenographers and their special steno keyboards.

AlbertoGP 4y ago

Yes, that would be Douglas Engelbart’s “Keyset” from 1965: “In addition to inventing the computer mouse, Doug Engelbart and his research team at SRI adapted a five-key "keyset" for typing and entering commands with the left hand while pointing and clicking with the mouse. Reminiscent of equipment used by telegraph operators and stenographers, Engelbart was among the first circa 1965 to use a keyset with a computer, and definitely first to use on a display workstation in concert with a mouse or other pointing device to seamlessly and efficiently navigate the information space, without taking your eyes off the screen. Much like driving a car, you steer, press the pedals, and even shift gears without taking your eyes off the road.” “By pressing down the various keys on the keyset like keys on a piano – one at a time or in various combinations – you could type all the letters of the alphabet. In addition, they programmed the buttons on the mouse to work like shift keys and command keys for the keyset. So for example, pressing the middle mouse button while typing on the keyset produced uppercase letters, while pressing the left-most mouse button produced numbers and punctuation instead of letters. Other mouse buttons served as command or ctrl key. Thus with mouse and keyset working together, you could enter the equivalent of every key on the keyboard.” https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/273/ https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/273/