Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboards Rock/Suck (the "no good Perl jobs"/"ergo keyboards" myth)

[Nicholas Clark]

On Wed, Aug 09, 2006 at 10:57:43AM +0200, Rafael Garcia-Suarez wrote:
> On 09/08/06, Andy Wardley <abw at wardley.org> wrote:
> >Not sure I buy this line:
> >
> >   "Like on a piano, since there are no keys to look at when
> >    typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key
> >    positions."
> >
> >I've been playing piano (badly) since a kid and I still keep hitting the
> >  wrong keys.  Also, it's a bit of a duff argument because people rarely
> >sit down and play the piano all day, every day for a week.
> 
> As another piano player, I don't buy it either. On a piano there are
> only twelve keys (modulo repeating it at several heights/eights) so
> the layout is much easier to memorize than on a 105-key PC keyboard.
> Oh, and you never play chords on a PC keyboard (unless you're using
> emacs of course :)

I don't buy it either. I don't understand why. But I can move my hands around
on a piano without looking and still get the intended key. Computer keyboards
just don't work like that.

Although it is important that every keyboard instrument has the same key
pitch, else I get confused.

Nicholas Clark