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Comment by sprynr | Hacker News Reader

The Symbolics Lisp keyboards are also such amazing inputs devices!(Like the Space Cadet Keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard) They had a button or meta key combination for what seems like thousands of characters or functions. I actually netted an old Symbolics 364000 keyboard from my university and I love the design of it, makes me wish we had kept some of that design language in our modern day languages.

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They are just not. The Honeywell switches feel like crap IMO. There are no cursor keys. A 104 key Unicomp has better switches and better ergonomics, and just as many function keys - the only thing missing is a 5th (Symbol) modifier key. All you need is the proper key mapping. A 109 key Japanese keyboard is going to have more modifier keys available, and you can get them in your choice of switches.

Please don't part out keyboards from old computer systems so you can use them with your Macbook. Give them to people who are actually working on collecting and preserving the old systems.

> Please don't part out keyboards from old computer systems so you can use them with your Macbook. Give them to people who are actually working on collecting and preserving the old systems.

...Or do with them as you please, so that they may continue pushing the world forward instead of uselessly sitting around in a museum corner collecting dust.

100% agree, we have full documentation of the board schematics and have photos from full teardowns, along with examples already stored in museums. Storing becomes hoarding after a point.

I am not talking about hypotheticals or museums, I am talking about actual running systems. I know the most active restorer of Symbolics systems in the US. His biggest problem is finding enough consoles and keyboards.

Why don't you try to actually build a reproduction Symbolics keyboard (I did), and see how much time and money it is going to cost you.

Perhaps you could connect OP to your friend and see if they would be willing to make a trade!

Sure. My email address is in my profile: vsedach@oneofus.la

They aren't tactile, but they weren't meant to be, they were utilitarian. Under normal conditions hall-effect switches could last up to 30 billion operations (From Honeywell's own documentation https://sensing.honeywell.com/hallbook.pdf). They are designed to last and be used for the entire life of a machine, through all its upgrades. The lack of cursor keys was normal for the time, just look at the IBM Model F. As for Unicomp, they are based off of the IBM Model M (Which I have a few of and love the buckling spring mechanism) but they were designed to have feedback (auditory and tactile) built in. For sure a good design, but that doesn't make it the only good design.

>Please don't part out keyboards from old computer systems so you can use them with your Macbook. Give them to people who are actually working on collecting and preserving the old systems. I never said I did or would? Hall effect sensors are still available if someone wanted some they have much cheaper and easier options than tracking down an old keyboard. Also who ever implied that I'm not collecting and preserving old systems?

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