Review of IBM AT keyboard

In Short

Standard keyboard with clicky, tactile keys.

In Depth

The key click is real. The keys have a snap-action that provides a mechanical hysteresis effect. Reducing the key pressure, or wiggling a pressed key can't cause extra key closures. The key must travel upward to release the key closure, and then travel back down to make another key closure. The mechanical clicker is also the switch actuator. On any other keyboard, the tactile/audible click is mechanically separate from the switch actuator, and only coincidentally connected to key closure. The best of the rest are fakes. The IBM keys work right. Yeah, it's loud.

This is the standard 84-key keyboard layout. After using a 101-key standard keyboard on the job for two years, re-learning this layout was a snap. With the F keys on the left, only one hand is needed for any combination of Ctrl/Shift/Alt/F1-F10 while the right hand is free to run the mouse. The CapsLock doesn't get bumped accidently.

This layout is similar to the XT, minus the XT features that seemed radical relative to the IBM Selectric typewriter. This was a unique moment in computer history: a new version that actually had less useless crap than the previous version.

The original purpose of the 101-key layout was to make more room for the plastic cards fit over the F keys for MultiMate (the 'Microsoft Office' of the time). The extra key on the Win95 keyboard may eventually work like the apple key for ported Mac applications, if anyone still cares to do such things.

Price: Flea market Special