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The Lisperati1000 Computer

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108 pointslelf25 comments

Nice, but I've never understood the appeal of reduced keyboards such as this, where even the digits require a modifier key.

On the contrary, I would really like an XL version of the Lisperati with an enormous keyboard, space-cadet-like, that also includes unshifted parentheses.

The reason I use one like that: it's more comfortable and ergonomic, and I have the same typing speed but with higher accuracy because I don't need move my hands or wrists.

Can you reliably press F2 or ` without looking? I can, and always with the exact same finger movements because the hands don't move.

It seems to be a "love it or hate it" thing but I wouldn't go back to normal keyboards. They're fine, just like old touchpads are usable, it's just not a great experience.

Lisp machine keyboards had unshifted parenthesis keys so you could type s-expressions with one hand while holding a Hefty bag full of nitrous oxide in your other hand.

That was my first thought, too. Ideally there should be extra keys for the parens, e.g. a tenkeyless where [] are switched with ().

Edit: Oh, and slightly more controversial, ctrl and tab need to be switched, too.

The great thing about those custom-built keyboards is that they're freely programmable and you can put anything on any key. Finding keycaps that actually match the configuration is another issue...

If you buy DSA or XDA caps they are uniform and can be switched around.

Why not parentheses on foot pedals?

Because foot pedals are for double double bucky bits! ;)

    Double Bucky
    (C) 1978 by Guy L. Steele, Jr.
    (Sung to the tune of "Rubber Duckie")

    Double bucky, you're the one!
    You make my keyboard lots of fun
      Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
    (Vo-vo-de-o!)
    Control and Meta side by side,
    Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
      Double bucky, a half a thousand glyphs,
           plus a few!
        Oh,
        I sure wish that I
        Had a couple of
        bits more!
        Perhaps a
        Set of pedals to
        Make the number of
        Bits four:
        Double double bucky!
    Double bucky, left and right
    OR'd together, outta sight!
        Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
        Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
        Double bucky, I'd like a whole
        word of you!

(For those of you who are interested, the term "bucky bits" comes from Niklaus Wirth, known as "bucky" to friends, who suggested that an extra bit be added to terminal codes on 36 bit machines for use by screen editors.)

Speaking of, random advice: If you're doing remote meetings a $3 pedal for push-to-talk is awesome.

Where do you get such a $3 pedal? I only found ones starting at maybe $10, and they seem to be crap based on reviews.

I had a buddy once upon a time who wrote APL or some dialect of it in Emacs. He had two keyboards hooked up to one system and had two foot pedals. IIRC one was Meta and the other Super.

If you can touch type, they're faster to use because you spend less time moving your hands about between keypresses.

I really like this, it might actually be a cool machine to code a little text editor and use for drafting.

Anyone knows what that display is?

search 1920x480 on aliexpress etc - super-wide formats like that usually originate from automotive use cases and then trickle down into more easily accessible markets once they're made in large numbers, and that's what's happened for 8.8" 1920x480 recently.

We also use these displays in slot machines, where a long, skinny touch screen replaces the old physical button deck.

I've got a couple of AlphaSmarts (4x40 old school LCD character display) which I was thinking of retrofitting some ESP32 brains into. I'm not sure how snug a fit this screen would be, but it's got to be worth a go.

Thanks!

A screen that size seems to call out for an APL descendant.

I love this, time to make one for myself!

Any idea what are the specs?

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