4 ms·

The 8bit Keyboard

81 points by zdw 4y ago

d4a 4y ago
It's useless and I love it
- dgan 4y ago
  it's pointless and I don't see what to love about it
  - ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
    It's whimsical and reminds us what computer input used to be.
    - eschneider 4y ago
      Ooof, yeah. I'm old enough to have done time inputting programs on a PDP-11 front panel this way. O_O
      - ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
        Nevermind assembly, you guys were literally writing the bits by hand.
        eschneider 4y ago
        We'd write assembly, hand assemble it to binary, then toggle it in, whee!
  - robterrell 4y ago
    It's nostalgic in the best/worst way! Anyone old enough to remember the start of the 8-bit era (not the Apple ][+ and the Commodore Pet and the SOL, but before those, the Altair and IMSAI and the Byte-8) will have memories of using these switches to input a bootloader-type program that would let you load a stored program from an optical paper tape reader or a magnetic cassette tape. Set all the bits for a byte & store it, set all the bits for the next byte & store it...
  - moron4hire 4y ago
    People are allowed to screw around and do not owe you a justification for how they use their time. You don't like the thing they made? It's not for you. You aren't the center of the universe. Not everything is about you.
  - loudthing 4y ago
    It demonstrates how technology we take for granted obfuscates how complex basic tasks can be.
beaker52 4y ago
I must confess, that when I first saw it, there was a flicker of the sadistic part in me that hoped the creator had already learnt to type at 120wpm with it.
ahmadmijot 4y ago
I misread it as 8byte but it really is 8bit! Now that I'm in the stage of learning low level computer, I really like this kind of project.
denton-scratch 4y ago
I don't think that counts either as 8-bit or as a keyboard. Sure, it outputs 8-bit key codes, but the input is binary. And it has no keys. It's more like an old-fashioned mainframe console. Pretty, though!
- benj111 4y ago
  It is 8bit. It takes 8bits of input at a time, and then outputs an 8bit byte (well depends on what the protocol is) It is more of a switch board though
adamgordonbell 4y ago
This is awesome. It's like inputting in punch card style, but one column at a time.
- tyingq 4y ago
  Very similar to the front panel controls on a Dec PDP-11, Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080, etc. Or, I guess, the Kenbak-1 is closest in form factor to this thing.
Eji1700 4y ago
I am unreasonably upset at how large it is. You've got a golden opportunity to make the crkbd and other mini boards look massive.
kragen 4y ago
Note that Engelbart's chording keyset was 8 bits: five bits on the keyset itself and three more on the mouse. Unfortunately it wasn't even as fast as a regular keyboard, let alone Plover or its proprietary antecedents.
VLM 4y ago
For ASCII encoding the MSB isn't going to get much action so technically they could have gotten away with 7 bits/switches instead of 8 bits/switches. Although with 8 bits they could input UTF-8 unicode which is nice. "Back in the day" large (formerly automotive-style) paddle switches were far nicer on the fingertips than submini toggles.
- IHLayman 4y ago
  But it’s probably not ASCII but rather scancodes, which definitely use the MSB for special keys such as function keys, scroll lock, caps lock, and other chorded combinations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scancode https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scancode
  - tyingq 4y ago
    It would also be faster to send a lot of punctuation characters, math operators, etc. Since the keypad area scancodes have those available without setting shift first.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- grishka 4y ago
  There are many 8-bit encodings that use the 8th bit for non-Latin characters, like Windows-1251 for Cyrillic. Imagine not having to switch your keyboard layout, ever!
carapace 4y ago
Step one, take this and substitute sensors on the fingers of gloves (the actual sensors don't matter so long as they can record a bit from each finger. You could used MEMS IMUs these days, eh?) You have "key button" sensor on a thumb. Step two, learn self-hypnosis. Step three, using hypnosis give yourself the ability to use the "keyboard" automatically without conscious thought. That is, you think a sentence and your fingers & thumb "type" it into the computer. It's like touch-typing but much easier if you use hypnosis.
keybored 4y ago
Could also make an eight-key keyboard with chorded input. Hold down the bits you want to set and then release. Once all have been released then you send the byte.
thederf 4y ago
These "because why not" projects are my favorite sort. I'd love to build something like this with four keys representing bit pairs (00, 01, 10, 11) where you could type bytes by repeatedly pressing keys. Bonus points for mounting it on the back of a phone for one handed typing.
amelius 4y ago
Now they should make a MIDI keyboard and give a live performance.
loudthing 4y ago
Reminds me of the 8-bit guy's device he created for manually programming character lcd displays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRL8luuPb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRL8luuPb8
a9h74j 4y ago
Someone is aiming to claim disability via carpel tunnel of every finger.
todd8 4y ago
This keyboard may seem extreme, but in my first decade as a programmer I had to load instructions or data into around a dozen different different computers through front panel switches. On most computers before 1980's there would be a row of switches with accompanying lights numbering one switch for each bit in a word (which might be 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, or even 60 bits wide). Setting the switches could be used to load an address into the machines address register with the press of another button and then setting the switches with the desired data bits a different button would load the data at the previously entered address. Interacting with the switches was often needed to boot the machine or to single step the machine and debug where some code wasn't working by loading the values on the switches into the program counter (address of the next instruction for the computer to execute). These early computers didn't have anything like a BIOS that could boot the machine into a usable state. The boot sequence would often look something like this: (1) enter a few instructions into low memory, perhaps 3 or 4 instructions would be enough, this would be done with the front panel switches (2) start the computer running these instructions (might require loading the program counter with the first instruction's memory location (3) these instructions would issue a low level hardware operation by storing a value into a hardware I/O control register that would cause a card reader to read one 80 character card; this card would be the first of a small stack of cards always stored next to the card reader (4) reading this card would load 80 characters into a consecutive memory locations, again somewhere in low memory this card's instructions would be a very primitive boot loader (5) the last instruction from step (1) would be a jump to the instructions read off of the first card and this would start the boot loader; the boot loader would issue additional hardware instructions to read the rest of the small stack of cards; these additional cards would be a full blown loader capable of loading and linking the program to be run (6) after the boot loader on the first card read in the full loader from the remaining cards the boot loader would jump to the beginning of the full loader and the full loader would run, the full loader would read in the users program and then execute it (7) usually, the program to be run along with its input data would be cards stacked in the card reader following the small stack comprising the boot loader and the full loader Naturally, each manufacturer did things a bit differently. Sometimes punched paper tape might be used to hold the boot loader and the programs would be stored on reels of magnetic tape and sometimes no instructions had to be input at the front panel if defaults were suitable. Back then, understanding machine code in binary was necessary.

The 8bit Keyboard

81 points by zdw 4y ago

d4a 4y ago

It's useless and I love it

dgan 4y ago
it's pointless and I don't see what to love about it
- ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
  It's whimsical and reminds us what computer input used to be.
  - eschneider 4y ago
    Ooof, yeah. I'm old enough to have done time inputting programs on a PDP-11 front panel this way. O_O
    - ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
      Nevermind assembly, you guys were literally writing the bits by hand.
      - eschneider 4y ago
        We'd write assembly, hand assemble it to binary, then toggle it in, whee!
- robterrell 4y ago
  It's nostalgic in the best/worst way! Anyone old enough to remember the start of the 8-bit era (not the Apple ][+ and the Commodore Pet and the SOL, but before those, the Altair and IMSAI and the Byte-8) will have memories of using these switches to input a bootloader-type program that would let you load a stored program from an optical paper tape reader or a magnetic cassette tape. Set all the bits for a byte & store it, set all the bits for the next byte & store it...
- moron4hire 4y ago
  People are allowed to screw around and do not owe you a justification for how they use their time. You don't like the thing they made? It's not for you. You aren't the center of the universe. Not everything is about you.
- loudthing 4y ago
  It demonstrates how technology we take for granted obfuscates how complex basic tasks can be.

beaker52 4y ago

I must confess, that when I first saw it, there was a flicker of the sadistic part in me that hoped the creator had already learnt to type at 120wpm with it.

ahmadmijot 4y ago

I misread it as 8byte but it really is 8bit! Now that I'm in the stage of learning low level computer, I really like this kind of project.

denton-scratch 4y ago

I don't think that counts either as 8-bit or as a keyboard. Sure, it outputs 8-bit key codes, but the input is binary. And it has no keys. It's more like an old-fashioned mainframe console. Pretty, though!

benj111 4y ago
It is 8bit. It takes 8bits of input at a time, and then outputs an 8bit byte (well depends on what the protocol is) It is more of a switch board though

adamgordonbell 4y ago

This is awesome. It's like inputting in punch card style, but one column at a time.

tyingq 4y ago
Very similar to the front panel controls on a Dec PDP-11, Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080, etc. Or, I guess, the Kenbak-1 is closest in form factor to this thing.

Eji1700 4y ago

I am unreasonably upset at how large it is. You've got a golden opportunity to make the crkbd and other mini boards look massive.

kragen 4y ago

Note that Engelbart's chording keyset was 8 bits: five bits on the keyset itself and three more on the mouse. Unfortunately it wasn't even as fast as a regular keyboard, let alone Plover or its proprietary antecedents.

VLM 4y ago

For ASCII encoding the MSB isn't going to get much action so technically they could have gotten away with 7 bits/switches instead of 8 bits/switches. Although with 8 bits they could input UTF-8 unicode which is nice. "Back in the day" large (formerly automotive-style) paddle switches were far nicer on the fingertips than submini toggles.

IHLayman 4y ago
But it’s probably not ASCII but rather scancodes, which definitely use the MSB for special keys such as function keys, scroll lock, caps lock, and other chorded combinations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scancode https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scancode
- tyingq 4y ago
  It would also be faster to send a lot of punctuation characters, math operators, etc. Since the keypad area scancodes have those available without setting shift first.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
grishka 4y ago
There are many 8-bit encodings that use the 8th bit for non-Latin characters, like Windows-1251 for Cyrillic. Imagine not having to switch your keyboard layout, ever!

carapace 4y ago

Step one, take this and substitute sensors on the fingers of gloves (the actual sensors don't matter so long as they can record a bit from each finger. You could used MEMS IMUs these days, eh?) You have "key button" sensor on a thumb. Step two, learn self-hypnosis. Step three, using hypnosis give yourself the ability to use the "keyboard" automatically without conscious thought. That is, you think a sentence and your fingers & thumb "type" it into the computer. It's like touch-typing but much easier if you use hypnosis.

keybored 4y ago

Could also make an eight-key keyboard with chorded input. Hold down the bits you want to set and then release. Once all have been released then you send the byte.

thederf 4y ago

These "because why not" projects are my favorite sort. I'd love to build something like this with four keys representing bit pairs (00, 01, 10, 11) where you could type bytes by repeatedly pressing keys. Bonus points for mounting it on the back of a phone for one handed typing.

amelius 4y ago

Now they should make a MIDI keyboard and give a live performance.

loudthing 4y ago

Reminds me of the 8-bit guy's device he created for manually programming character lcd displays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRL8luuPb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZRL8luuPb8

a9h74j 4y ago

Someone is aiming to claim disability via carpel tunnel of every finger.

todd8 4y ago

This keyboard may seem extreme, but in my first decade as a programmer I had to load instructions or data into around a dozen different different computers through front panel switches. On most computers before 1980's there would be a row of switches with accompanying lights numbering one switch for each bit in a word (which might be 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, or even 60 bits wide). Setting the switches could be used to load an address into the machines address register with the press of another button and then setting the switches with the desired data bits a different button would load the data at the previously entered address. Interacting with the switches was often needed to boot the machine or to single step the machine and debug where some code wasn't working by loading the values on the switches into the program counter (address of the next instruction for the computer to execute). These early computers didn't have anything like a BIOS that could boot the machine into a usable state. The boot sequence would often look something like this: (1) enter a few instructions into low memory, perhaps 3 or 4 instructions would be enough, this would be done with the front panel switches (2) start the computer running these instructions (might require loading the program counter with the first instruction's memory location (3) these instructions would issue a low level hardware operation by storing a value into a hardware I/O control register that would cause a card reader to read one 80 character card; this card would be the first of a small stack of cards always stored next to the card reader (4) reading this card would load 80 characters into a consecutive memory locations, again somewhere in low memory this card's instructions would be a very primitive boot loader (5) the last instruction from step (1) would be a jump to the instructions read off of the first card and this would start the boot loader; the boot loader would issue additional hardware instructions to read the rest of the small stack of cards; these additional cards would be a full blown loader capable of loading and linking the program to be run (6) after the boot loader on the first card read in the full loader from the remaining cards the boot loader would jump to the beginning of the full loader and the full loader would run, the full loader would read in the users program and then execute it (7) usually, the program to be run along with its input data would be cards stacked in the card reader following the small stack comprising the boot loader and the full loader Naturally, each manufacturer did things a bit differently. Sometimes punched paper tape might be used to hold the boot loader and the programs would be stored on reels of magnetic tape and sometimes no instructions had to be input at the front panel if defaults were suitable. Back then, understanding machine code in binary was necessary.