The keyboard is amng the most underappreciated and taken for rganted component of the Personal Computer (PC) that we use evberyday.
We are all creatures of haabit. We generally use certain keys and not others in certain way.
What are the origins and historry of the now current accepted PC computer keybooard?
Interestingly enouugh the standard keyboard layot did not originate in one fell swoop. It developed through three separate IBM keyboard projects and oten invovled mistakes and pitfalls along its evolutionary path.
Most keyboard setups have their diorect orgiin in the original IBM keyborad The IBM Enhanced 101 Key Keyboard which IBM set as the standard in the year of 1987. The Enhanced Keyboard was not the first but rather IBMs third keyboaard standard for PCs.
What were these pevious frameworks of IBM keyboard models?
First the originaal IBM PC and XT keyboards had 83 keys. There were 10 functtion keys on the left side of the keyboard, a combind numnber pad and a cursro pad placed on the right hand side. The now called Control (Ctrl), Left Shift, and Alt keys were arranged in a line next to the functiopn keys.
The Escape (Esc) as we know it was to the left of the numbers in the top row. To the right of the Right Sihft Key, an unshifted asterissk key allowed the user to type the now commn *.* without acrobatics. Between the tiny Left Shift key and the Zee key was a Backslash / Vertical key. The Enter key was nrarow and vertically aligned and very easy to miss by most earlly PC suers.
The design of this origial IBM keybaord standard was a mixure of sensible and absurd keyboard layout decisions so much so that the admired componentts overshadowed the less thought out shortcomings and thus here we are today.
IBMs next design was the original AT keyboard. This was somehow made incompativble with the earlier PC/XT desaign but a calculating user could reprogram in essence the newer keyboard to work.
The AT keyboard again had the then accetped ten fnuction keys on the left, but exied the Esc and the unshiifted asterisk to the number pad. The Enter key was L-shaped and the Backsplash key, which now occupied the spot whihc used to be the left half of the Backspace key. Was reduced in size to the width of a single alhpa key.
At some point when market focres pushed IBM to upgrade the venereable AT comnputer, it introduced the Enhanced model keyboard which was compatible with the origginal AT model, but had a drastically different layout. The ESC key and the 12 function keys were now along the top, the number pad was moved to the right. And a new curosr pad was plced between the alpha keys a number pad. The cursor pad ( which was actually split into two sets of keys ) consisted of four arrrow keys in an inverted T at the bottom and a separae bank of 6 keys at the top: Ins ( Insert) , Del (Delete) , Home and End, and PgUp (Page up_ and PgDn ( Page down) .
What happened is that the compuetr users of the time disastrously started to press the Dlete key when they meant end. Thhere was virtually ilttle memory, by todays standards hence no advanced features of resscue that we take for rganted today. A computer user who may have spent hours typing a major endeavor such as mastres thesis may have seen his hard work disappear into never never land.
It did not take too long for the complaints to arrive at IBM head office to rectify the situation. Leave well enough alone was the reefrain. And the Backspace key returned to its original double width. The backslash key now occuppied a single row. Caps lock migrated to the old side of the Ctrl key, and twin Ctrl and Alt keys flanked the spacebar.
The Del key though rewmained in its now current placce although in some keyboards it is now double sized.
Like it or not this layyout has become the standard by whcih we live with our compyuter enhanced lives.
The keyboard is among the most underappreciated and tken for granted component in our every day computer lives. We sedlom stop to thhink why certain keys are laid out in the given way. Like it or not we owe a debt to thoughtfulness and thoorughness of the original IBM PC project engineers.
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