[GRLUG] typewriter keyboard hack

[Michael Mol]

On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 7:47 PM, John J. Foerch<jjfoerch at earthlink.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 05:58:35PM -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
>> So my family got my grandmother a laptop so she can get email, etc
>> from the kitchen table, and she remarked that the keyboard is
>> unfamiliar to her; Her professional life revolved around the
>> mechanical and electrical typewriters from the 50s through the
>> eighties.
>>
>> Is anyone familiar with a hardware hack that converted such a
>> typewriter to work either as a PS/2 keyboard or USB HID device?
>
> Perhaps a Model M keyboard would be more to her liking.  There is a
> company in Pennsylvania called Unicomp that still makes them.

If the buckling keyboard mechanism would make her happy, I can try
borrowing one of my parents' Das Keyboards and put stickers on them to
identify the keys for her.

I think the bigger problem is the moving and change of behavior of
keys like caps and shift, and the addition of meta and navigation
keys.  And I suspect the angle of the board layout (flat rather than
inclined) could be part of the problem.


-- 
:wq