5 ms·

> something we've never felt Speak for yourself; I had an IBM 5150 (with an external CDROM and the original Encarta disc) and it was lovely. The junk we type o

> something we've never felt Speak for yourself; I had an IBM 5150 (with an external CDROM and the original Encarta disc) and it was lovely. The junk we type on today is lousy.

ndiddy 2y ago
You can use a 5150 keyboard on a modern computer fairly easily, all you need is a relatively inexpensive adapter like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/385607912016 https://www.ebay.com/itm/385607912016 . Overall I think the 5150 keyboard feels a lot better to type on than the Cherry switches and Chinese clones that the article covers.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- myth_drannon 2y ago
  Adding adapters increases the delay, it won't feel the same
  - ndiddy 2y ago
    The Soarer's converter has a 1000Hz polling rate, the same as most modern high-end gaming keyboards. I imagine any additional delay you would feel over using the keyboard on a 5150 is more likely caused by the added latency inherent to modern OS's, triple buffering, compositing, etc. compared to DOS programs.
  - AlgorithmicTime 2y ago
    [dead]
- singleshot_ 2y ago
  But then what would I use on my IBM 5150?
singleshot_ 2y ago
I just remembered that it was actually a Collier's encyclopedia that we had, for full historical accuracy.
bpye 2y ago
I’ve ended up settling on an old Apple Extended Keyboard II. I’ve had several modern keyboards end up dying - failing to register some keystrokes, whilst this thing has has been working for longer than my lifetime…
- musicale 2y ago
  It's amazing how good true vintage ALPS keyboards are. I have a keyboard with Matias (ALPS clone) switches and they are great to type on, but the switches seem unreliable and I got tired of replacing them. Inconveniently, vintage Apple keyboards require ADB to USB converters which aren't readily available. I wish Apple would apply their design expertise to making a modern, reliable(!), electromechanical keyboard that replicated the feel and performance of classic ALPS keyboards.
  - bpye 2y ago
    I ended up making my own adapter based on a cheap CH32X035 dev board [0] - largely as an excuse to also write an 'RTOS' for RISC-V. The code is available on GitHub [1] though I haven't really documented it. [0] - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005718558442.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005718558442.html [1] - https://github.com/benpye/rtos https://github.com/benpye/rtos

> something we've never felt Speak for yourself; I had an IBM 5150 (with an external CDROM and the original Encarta disc) and it was lovely. The junk we type on today is lousy.

ndiddy 2y ago

You can use a 5150 keyboard on a modern computer fairly easily, all you need is a relatively inexpensive adapter like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/385607912016 https://www.ebay.com/itm/385607912016 . Overall I think the 5150 keyboard feels a lot better to type on than the Cherry switches and Chinese clones that the article covers.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
myth_drannon 2y ago
Adding adapters increases the delay, it won't feel the same
- ndiddy 2y ago
  The Soarer's converter has a 1000Hz polling rate, the same as most modern high-end gaming keyboards. I imagine any additional delay you would feel over using the keyboard on a 5150 is more likely caused by the added latency inherent to modern OS's, triple buffering, compositing, etc. compared to DOS programs.
- AlgorithmicTime 2y ago
  [dead]
singleshot_ 2y ago
But then what would I use on my IBM 5150?

singleshot_ 2y ago

I just remembered that it was actually a Collier's encyclopedia that we had, for full historical accuracy.

bpye 2y ago

I’ve ended up settling on an old Apple Extended Keyboard II. I’ve had several modern keyboards end up dying - failing to register some keystrokes, whilst this thing has has been working for longer than my lifetime…

musicale 2y ago
It's amazing how good true vintage ALPS keyboards are. I have a keyboard with Matias (ALPS clone) switches and they are great to type on, but the switches seem unreliable and I got tired of replacing them. Inconveniently, vintage Apple keyboards require ADB to USB converters which aren't readily available. I wish Apple would apply their design expertise to making a modern, reliable(!), electromechanical keyboard that replicated the feel and performance of classic ALPS keyboards.
- bpye 2y ago
  I ended up making my own adapter based on a cheap CH32X035 dev board [0] - largely as an excuse to also write an 'RTOS' for RISC-V. The code is available on GitHub [1] though I haven't really documented it. [0] - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005718558442.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005718558442.html [1] - https://github.com/benpye/rtos https://github.com/benpye/rtos