[Noisebridge-discuss] MIT AI Lab / Symbolics / Space-cadet Keyboards ... where?

[d p chang]

> Would anyone know how I might go about trying out one such Knight [2]
> keyboard? Or maybe a Symbolics [3] or Space-cadet [4] keyboard? I
> realize they won't work with contemporary computers, I'd just like
> to feel the key action.

i'm pretty sure the symbolics keyboards used to have adapters to the (now
defunct) apple adb style keyboards. i'm not sure but the computer museum
might have one.

 i used to know someone w/ a pretty cherry lisp-machine in his garage, but
i think he finally caved and got rid of it because the power consumption
was bordering on ridiculous for the occasional use. his had a small tank
for a keyboard. nevermind resting it on your lap for typing :-). i think
some of the tactile feel came from the massively overbuilt-ness of the
thing more than actual quality.

other than the keyboards, the actual programming environment was pretty
nice. snappy (even years after it got killed off, it felt pretty nice
compared to pc hardware sitting next to it), but then again it was
targetted towards programmers rather than users w/ the occasional
programming.

\p