3 ms·

What is this abomination with no space bar but instead a space button in the bottom right.

by _8j50 3y ago

rgoulter 3y ago
Seems like it's nostalgia based on what the ZX81. Sure, having the space button be on the bottom right seems silly, because you'd have to use your pinky finger instead of your thumb; and the thumb is much stronger than the pinky finger. Typical keyboards these days have spacebars that are 5-7x the size of usual keys. This faces a similar problem: Instead of your thumbs being able to press useful keys, the thumb can only really press spacebar (without moving from home row); and the pinky fingers get used for all the other stuff.
swetland 3y ago
It's replicating the ZX81 keyboard, including all the quirks except for the horrific membrane keys. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Sinclair-ZX81.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Sinclair...
- RachelF 3y ago
  keys which Microsoft decided to bring back in their original Surface line.
  - bemusedthrow75 3y ago
    Not the same! :-) The ZX81 keyboard really was objectively difficult, even for the time. In terms of their feel, the MS keys (and e.g. the iPad Keyboard Cover keys) are rather more like the (still IMO wonderful, and pioneering) keys of the Cambridge Computers Z88 (also a Clive Sinclair product). Raised keycaps with a larger volume of air to move the membrane. Quiet and mostly usable at a reasonable pace. The ZX80/81 membrane keyboard was entirely flat except for the tiniest hint of membrane bubble, with a uniform textured matt finish. Not even textured outlines around the keys. Surprisingly robust; maybe more so than the membrane keyboard of the Atari 400 (which is also a classic of visual design), or, say, that of the BigTrak.
shever73 3y ago
Typing on a ZX family machine was different. The keys look busy because you didn’t type out the keywords like you did on most other machines. Instead, a variety of keyboard modes inserted them - along with the required spaces - for you. To load a program from tape on a ZX Spectrum you simply pressed J, which would insert the keyword LOAD along with a trailing space, and then hold Symbol Shift and press P twice to get “”. The space button was only needed when writing regular text, which was much less common on these machines.
- bemusedthrow75 3y ago
  Right -- and there is a hugely important consequence of this design for people learning to program: It was almost impossible to enter a syntactically incorrect program. Because the keyboard routines were doing the work of what would now be a lexer and parser. The keyboard would only let you enter syntactically valid code. One other nostalgia side-effect; where many games for eight bit computers used Q-A-O-P-<Space> for directional controls plus action, Sinclair games typically defaulted to Q-A-O-P-M, as a result.
  - shever73 3y ago
    Yes, there were occasional instances of "C Nonsense in BASIC" errors, but that was for very specific cases. Mostly, the cursor would change to a flashing question mark if you tried to enter something syntactically incorrect.

What is this abomination with no space bar but instead a space button in the bottom right.

by _8j50 3y ago

What is this abomination with no space bar but instead a space button in the bottom right.

Seems like it's nostalgia based on what the ZX81. Sure, having the space button be on the bottom right seems silly, because you'd have to use your pinky finger instead of your thumb; and the thumb is much stronger than the pinky finger. Typical keyboards these days have spacebars that are 5-7x the size of usual keys. This faces a similar problem: Instead of your thumbs being able to press useful keys, the thumb can only really press spacebar (without moving from home row); and the pinky fingers get used for all the other stuff.

swetland 3y ago

It's replicating the ZX81 keyboard, including all the quirks except for the horrific membrane keys. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Sinclair-ZX81.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Sinclair...

RachelF 3y ago
keys which Microsoft decided to bring back in their original Surface line.
- bemusedthrow75 3y ago
  Not the same! :-) The ZX81 keyboard really was objectively difficult, even for the time. In terms of their feel, the MS keys (and e.g. the iPad Keyboard Cover keys) are rather more like the (still IMO wonderful, and pioneering) keys of the Cambridge Computers Z88 (also a Clive Sinclair product). Raised keycaps with a larger volume of air to move the membrane. Quiet and mostly usable at a reasonable pace. The ZX80/81 membrane keyboard was entirely flat except for the tiniest hint of membrane bubble, with a uniform textured matt finish. Not even textured outlines around the keys. Surprisingly robust; maybe more so than the membrane keyboard of the Atari 400 (which is also a classic of visual design), or, say, that of the BigTrak.

shever73 3y ago

Typing on a ZX family machine was different. The keys look busy because you didn’t type out the keywords like you did on most other machines. Instead, a variety of keyboard modes inserted them - along with the required spaces - for you. To load a program from tape on a ZX Spectrum you simply pressed J, which would insert the keyword LOAD along with a trailing space, and then hold Symbol Shift and press P twice to get “”. The space button was only needed when writing regular text, which was much less common on these machines.

bemusedthrow75 3y ago
Right -- and there is a hugely important consequence of this design for people learning to program: It was almost impossible to enter a syntactically incorrect program. Because the keyboard routines were doing the work of what would now be a lexer and parser. The keyboard would only let you enter syntactically valid code. One other nostalgia side-effect; where many games for eight bit computers used Q-A-O-P-<Space> for directional controls plus action, Sinclair games typically defaulted to Q-A-O-P-M, as a result.
- shever73 3y ago
  Yes, there were occasional instances of "C Nonsense in BASIC" errors, but that was for very specific cases. Mostly, the cursor would change to a flashing question mark if you tried to enter something syntactically incorrect.