Command Classic

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Tsundoku's keyboard concept. Concept, goals, etc. here.

Concept

The Tsundoku Keyboard is intended for a range of GUI environments that follow the general principles established by the Apple Macintosh. This broadly includes:

  • Mac OS
  • BeOS and Haiku
  • NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, Mac OS X (macOS)
  • tsundoku's custom X11 environment

Prior Art

The keyboard design mostly derives from Apple layouts of the 1980s through the mid-1990s, before the AppleDesign keyboard made Apple's variant of the IBM AT Enhanced layout a de facto standard on the Mac platform.

  • Escape on number row, left of 1 key
  • R2 1.75U Control (left of A)
  • Arrow keys on right side of bottom row - left, right, down, up
  • No function keys
    • Not expected to be used often
    • Fn layer on number row enables them to be used when necessary
  • Number pad that is always a number pad (no Num Lock)
  • Large Command and Option keys

Compromises

  • (JIS only) No 英数 key left of spacebar
    • 3.5U spacebars unavailable. Would need to be custom made
    • Use slightly more common 4.5U spacebar
  • IBM style number pad operator keys
    • Mac-style operators would require custom keycaps
    • IBM style operator keys are not particularly objectionable


Variants

Design Goals

    • Large Command and Option keys for people who use them often
  • Not minimalist
    • Dedicated arrow keys
    • Coincidentally smaller than 101/104 keyboards, but compactness itself is not a goal
  • No IBM-style nav cluster
    • Arrow keys can go on the bottom row as on many Apple keyboards
    • Home/End/PageUp/PageDown on Fn layer of arrow keys
  • Has a tenkey
    • No Num Lock (no modes!). Always numbers

Problems with existing PCBs

Reasons why the Tsundoku Keyboard must be designed from scratch.

  • No JIS Right Shift support
  • Layouts all referenced from AT101/Windows 104
    • 75%, 60%, etc... all expressed as reductions of AT101
    • No consideration for different combinations of elements. Tenkeyless? 75% 60%? What about a tenkey but no IBM nav cluster?