space-cadet keyboard

   A  now-legendary  device  used  on  MIT LISP machines, which inspired
   several  still-current  jargon  terms  and  influenced  the design of
   {EMACS}.  It  was  equipped with no fewer than seven shift keys: four
   keys  for  {bucky bits} (`control', `meta', `hyper', and `super') and
   three  regular  shift  keys, called `shift', `top', and `front'. Many
   keys had three symbols on them: a letter and a symbol on the top, and
   a  Greek letter on the front. For example, the `L' key had an `L' and
   a two-way arrow on the top, and the Greek letter lambda on the front.
   By pressing this key with the right hand while playing an appropriate
   `chord'  with  the  left  hand  on  the shift keys, you could get the
   following results:

   L             lowercase l
   shift-L       uppercase L
   front-L       l
   front-shift-L L
   top-L         <=> (front and shift are ignored)

   And  of course each of these might also be typed with any combination
   of  the  control,  meta, hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard, you
   could  type  over 8000 different characters! This allowed the user to
   type  very  complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands
   of  single-character  commands  at  his disposal. The keyboard of the
   Symbolics  Lisp  machine  was  a  simplified version, lacking Top and
   Front keys, that could only send about 2000 characters.

   Many  hackers  were actually willing to memorize the command meanings
   of  that  many  characters  if  it reduced typing time (this attitude
   obviously  shaped  the  interface  of EMACS). Other hackers, however,
   thought  having  that many bucky bits was overkill, and objected that
   such  a  keyboard  can  require  three  or four hands to operate. See
   {bucky  bits},  {cokebottle},  {double bucky}, {meta bit}, {quadruple
   bucky}.

   

   Simplified Symbolics version of the space-cadet keyboard

   (Some  relatively  bad  photographs  of  the  earlier, more elaborate
   version are available on the Web.).

   Note:  early  versions  of  this  entry  incorrectly  identified  the
   space-cadet  keyboard  with  the  Knight  keyboard.  Though both were
   designed  by Tom Knight, the latter term was properly applied only to
   a  keyboard  used  for  ITS on the PDP-10 and modeled on the Stanford
   keyboard  (as  described  under  {bucky  bits}). The true space-cadet
   keyboard evolved from the first Knight keyboard.

   

   An early {space-cadet keyboard}

   (The  next cartoon in the Crunchly saga is 73-05-20. The previous one
   is 73-05-18.)

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {bucky bits}{cokebottle}{double bucky}{hexit}{meta bit}{quadruple bucky}{QWERTY}{space-cadet keyboard}]