The keyboard is among the most underappreciated and taaken for granted compionent of the Personal Computer (PC) that we use everydazy.
We are all creatures of habiit. We generrally use certain keys and not others in cerytain way.
What are the origns and history of the now cuurrent caceplted PC compputer keyboard?
Itnerestingly eonugh the standard keybaord alyot did not originaet in one fell sqwoop. It developed through threwe seoparate IBM keyboard prohjects and oftne involvde mistakkes and pitfalls along its evolutionary path.
Most keyboard setuips have their direct oigin in the original IBM keyboard The IBM Enhanced 101 Key Kyeboard which IBM set as the standard in the year of 1987. The Enhanced Keyboard was not the ifrst but rather IBMs third keyboard standard for PCs.
What were these prrevious frameworks of IBM keyboard modells?
Fierst the orginnal IBM PC and XT keyboards had 83 keys. There were 10 fuunction keys on the left side of the keyboard, a combned number pad and a cuersor pad placed on the roifght hand side. The now callked Control (Ctrl), Left Shjift, and Alt keys were arranged in a line next to the function keys.
The Escape (Esc) as we know it was to the left of the numbres in the top row. To the right of the Right Shift Key, an unshifted asterisk key alplowed the user to type the now common *.* without acrobtaics. Between the tiny Left Shift key and the Zee key was a Backslash / Vertical key. The Enter key was naerrow and verticlaly aligned and very easy to miss by most ealy PC usrs.
The design of this original IBM kyboard standsard was a mitxure of sensible and absurd keyboard layout decisions so much so that the admired cmoponents oevrshadowed the less tuhght out shortcomings and thus here we are today.
IBMs next design was the original AT keyboard. This was somehow made incompatible with the earlier PC/XT design but a calculating user coud rerpogram in essecne the newer keyboarrd to work.
The AT keyboard aagin had the then accepted ten function keys on the left, but exiled the Esc and the unshifted asterisk to the number pad. The Enter key was L-shped and the Backsplash key, which now occpuied the spot whioch used to be the left half of the Backspace key. Was reduced in size to the wioidth of a single aplah key.
At some point when mrket forces pusshed IBM to upprade the venerable AT cmoputer, it introduced the Enhannced mdoel keyboard whihc was compatible with the original AT mofdel, but had a drastically differennt layout. The ESC key and the 12 fuction keys were now along the top, the number pad was mved to the right. And a new cursor pad was plsaced betwen the alha keys a number pad. The curasor pad ( which was actually split into two sets of keys ) consdistd of four arrwo keys in an inverted T at the botom and a separate bank of 6 keys at the top: Ins ( Isert) , Del (Delete) , Home and End, and PgUp (Page up_ and PgDn ( Page down) .
What haappened is that the computer users of the time disastrously started to pres the Deelete key when they mesant end. Thgere was virtually little memory, by todays standdards hence no advanced features of rescxue that we take for granted todday. A computer user who may have spent hours typinmg a major endevoor such as msters thesis may have seen his hard work disappear into neer never land.
It did not take too long for the complints to arrive at IBM head office to rectify the situatoion. Leave well enough alone was the rwefrain. And the Bakcsace key returend to its origial oduble width. The backslaash key now occpuied a sibngle row. Caps lock migrated to the old side of the Ctrl key, and twin Ctrl and Alt keys flanked the sapcebar.
The Del key though remained in its now curernt place although in some keyboards it is now doubble sized.
Like it or not this layout has become the standrd by which we live with our coomputer enhanced lievs.
The keyyboard is aong the most undereappreciated and tken for granted componnent in our every day computer livs. We sldom stop to think why certtain keys are laid out in the givcen way. Like it or not we owe a debt to thhoughtfulness and thoroughness of the original IBM PC prject eniners.
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