Originally posted by Fred Rosenberger:
...what would it look like?
My ideal keyboard would be basically flat and rectangular. The main portion (from ~ and ` in the upper left to the Ctrl key in the lower right) would be basically like it is now. However, the arrow keys, the Ins/Home/PgUp/Del/End/PgDn block, and the numeric key pad would be detachable. Those three blocks would be connectable in any order.
For most day to day editing, I'd want to keep the Arrow and Numeric pads where they usually are. For certain applications, I'd MUCH rather have the numeric keys over on the far left of the keyboard. The app that immediately springs to mind is a spreadsheet. One hand on the mouse and one on the numbers.
If I have to have a static design, I'd accept having the numeric keypad repeated on the left side of the main part.
Of course, while I'm at it, my numeric keypad would be extended two more rows of three to include hex digits. Between those two extra rows and shrinking the + key to regular size, I then have enough room for the three bit operator keys & | ^.
Hmmm... maybe my next project involves getting jiggy with a couple old keyboard, some solder and some epoxy. (Is it still ok to "get jiggy with" something?)
EDIT:
Wait... now that I think about it, I rarely use the numeric keypad with my right hand. Of the times I DO, it's rare that I couldn't just use such a pad on the left of the keyboard. So maybe I want just one numeric keypad on the left end. Yeah that'd be cool. BUT... when I'm arrow-ing around a document, I do still use the 1/End key but never any others from that area.
I'm all fired up to make one of these now.
--
Honey, where's my Dremel? --
[ November 21, 2007: Message edited by: Ryan McGuire ]