Re: OT: computer keyboard advertisement mentions Quenya

On 29/02/08 05:52:48, Rick Harrison wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:08:36 -0500, Abel Chiaro
> <pchavesjr+conlang@...>
> wrote:
>
> >Hmm, something like this? :-)
> >
> >http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/
> >
> >- Abel.
>
> Ooooh, pretty keyboard! (boing boing boing)
>
> That is a _very_ attractive concept. If your language needs more or
> fewer keys than
> English, or you want to make the most frequently used keys bigger
> than
> the seldom used
> ones -- sweet!
This would be hell to type on. Try drawing a keyboard on a piece of
paper and putting it on your desk --- it'd feel something like that.
Now imagine doing it for more than about ten minutes and I think it
would be a recipe for RSI. Bascially, the problem is you don't won't be
using your muscles to stop your finger, you say "start moving nice and
fast" and have them stop when they reach something hard. In the case of
a regular keyboard, there's plenty of reaction time for us to stop them
with our muscles after we touch and activate the key. In the case of a
touchscreen keyboard, you'd touch and activate the key at the same time
as motion is stopped --- there's simply no way to know when to stop the
movement! (A lot of people even find laptop keyboards bad for extensive
use because they have a lot less travel. I personally don't have a
problem with them in that regard.)

It's an attractive concept, sure, but if you use it extensively you'll
prefer a real keyboard even if it's imperfect.

--
Tristan.

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