more about keyboards

Getting back to the theme that this page was started with, lets talk about keyboards. This time I would like to take a look at the PC's keyboard, but if you don't have a PC, read on, because there is more to it than that.

Back when IBM designed the PC, they also designed a keyboard for it. This was nothing unusual, because at the time there was no standard keyboard, and every type of computer had its own slightly different style. Of course, they were all QWERTY keyboards, the power of old standards had just as strong a hold then as it does now. However, the QWERTY design was old, and didn't specify where all those "newfangled" keys that IBM (and many other computer manufactures) wanted to put on their keyboards.

So IBM came up with it's keyboard, with it's own placement for the keys like Esc, or Print Screen. I suspect that the keyboard designers at IBM were over exuberant upon being given this "demanding" task, because they came up with 2 keys that are never used. The Print Screen key has written on its lower side the letters SysRq. This key had no purpose when the PC was released, and never has. Yet almost all PC keyboards still have it. I can't even imagine what they thought it was going to be used for when they put it there.

Even better is the Scroll Lock key. This is a real key, not just some writing on the side of some other key, and also didn't have any function on the IBM PC's. The first known app to ever use the key was MS Flight Simulator. It was also the last. However, I was able to put my Scroll Lock key to some use, when my B key started to fail, I swapped the switch with the one under the Scroll Lock key, thereby extending the life of my keyboard.

Ok, so the PC keyboard has 2 extra keys. Interesting, but not that much you say? Well it gets better! The PC was such a hit back when it was introduced, that the IBM keyboard layout has become a standard, and even non PC type computer have these keys. I have seen several MACs with the extra keys, and even some workstations with the unwanted keys! And on all, just like the on the PC, they have no function. Yet another standard that carried on for no reason, for years and years. We may never see the day when most keyboards don't come with the Scroll Lock and SysRq keys.