[TUHS] Typing tutors

[Erik E. Fair]

The first Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) keyboard was for the Apple IIgs:

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Apple_Desktop_Bus_Keyboard

and that lead to the same keyboard layout for the Mac II ADB keyboards (the Mac 128K, Fat Mac, and Mac Plus did not use ADB for their keyboards):

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Apple_M0116

That was the last Apple keyboard with the Control and Escape keys in the correct positions, particularly for those of us using Macs as terminals to Unix systems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Keyboard (a reasonably full history).

I took a typing class in 7th grade (early 1970s) on heavy, manual Smith-Corona typewriters, more or less contemporaneously with learning to program in BASIC on a DG Nova batch system, using non-punched Hollerith cards - we marked them with #2 pencils, and woe is you if you didn't fill in the dots well enough
for your cards to be read by the card reader: correct your cards, and back of the batch queue for you!

After that, it was years pounding TTY ASR-33s (interactive BASIC, rather than batch), Hazeltine h1500, LSI ADM-3a, Heathkit h19, HP 2621, the occasional DEC VT100 or VT102 ... after being hired in July 1988 by Apple, I've typed on basically nothing but Apple keyboards, with very occasional flirtations with third-party ADB or USB keyboards.

I had a bad bout of repetitive strain injury (specifically, ulnar nerve syndrome - a cousin of carpal tunnel syndrome) in my left hand in the early 1990s, partly from pounding keyboards too hard for too long, and partly (I think) from wearing a Casio digital watch with the watchband cinched too tight (I hate floppy watch). I made three changes, after a month of PT and silly amounts of ibuprofen: velcro watch band/strap for near-infinite fine adjustment of fit (so as not to constrict my wrist), neoprene wrist rests in front of my keyboards, and training myself not to pound the keys so hard.

I still have a small stock of Apple M0116 keyboards, though I've capitulated to the IBM PC "typist" keyboard layout with Control in the incorrect position; I've been using the Apple A1243 (US) Aluminum USB extended keyboard (with some replacement stock) since its introduction in 2007, and I'm moderately happy with it: thin keyboard, no wrist rest required, light touch - no key pounding required. The A1843 (optionally wireless USB keyboard with "lightning" port and no USB hub) is an OK replacement, but I use it strictly wired. Laptop keyboards also want a lighter touch these days.

I'm glad I took the typing course, but I'm hardly a full touch typist. However, I'm fast enough that I prefer vi to emacs, as I've previously described. I'm not perfect, but that's what the backspace or DEL key is for (and, with a properly programmed tty line discipline: ^W (word erase)). Very glad I was already conversant with computers when it came time to write essays for UCB freshman English classes. That was also impetus to learn nroff.

	Erik