User avatar
simulant

Posted Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:33 am

rpiguy9907 wrote:
Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:33 am
I don’t see an option for ANSI layout, only ISO, so I will not be joining. But it is a great project, good luck!

I’ve had the same idea for years, glad to see someone less lazy than me making it happen!
haha thank you. We may add ANSI as a Stretch Goal. (Although saying that I don't think many of the computers these designs were inspired from used ANSI, but I could be wrong - Acorn Electron and some Sinclair are sort of ANSI?)

The plan is to hopefully get funded and then bring the stretch goals for variations, tweaks and other languages/layouts. We'll take backer surveys before production to get a democratic view of what everyone wants the most and try to act on that.

Nice to meet someone also who had this idea and sees why there is a need for it :)

I hope you can keep an eye on the project and help spread the word (and maybe even back at some point too if you change your mind).

Thanks again.

User avatar
rpiguy9907

Posted Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:19 pm

simulant wrote:
Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:33 am
rpiguy9907 wrote:
Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:33 am
I don’t see an option for ANSI layout, only ISO, so I will not be joining. But it is a great project, good luck!

I’ve had the same idea for years, glad to see someone less lazy than me making it happen!
haha thank you. We may add ANSI as a Stretch Goal. (Although saying that I don't think many of the computers these designs were inspired from used ANSI, but I could be wrong - Acorn Electron and some Sinclair are sort of ANSI?)

The plan is to hopefully get funded and then bring the stretch goals for variations, tweaks and other languages/layouts. We'll take backer surveys before production to get a democratic view of what everyone wants the most and try to act on that.

Nice to meet someone also who had this idea and sees why there is a need for it :)

I hope you can keep an eye on the project and help spread the word (and maybe even back at some point too if you change your mind).

Thanks again.
The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.

User avatar
simulant

Posted Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:12 pm

The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.
Hi thanks, technically I'm not sure if the big Ass enter key counts as a ANSI or not (at least nowadays.) - but I know what you're saying! We don't have "Alt Gr" printed on our Amiga influenced keyboard styles so that also ties in a bit more with ANSI, but it still is an Alt Gr key in terms of giving those extra characters like the Euro symbol Alt gr+4... But yes the dollar sign on the shift-3 vs our shift-4 I does make it an ISO too along with the other @ sign and other couple of characters. I still think it is the best International layout in terms of giving dollar, UK pound and Euro symbols all nicely for English language countries :)

We'll definitely add other layouts and language variations within the budget if we raise enough to do so. Stretch Goals will then be added though for other variations if it isn't possible to create them from the total we raise naturally.
Last edited by simulant on Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
rpiguy9907

Posted Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:07 am

It is a great project. It is my fault that my hands are untrainable - the extra character next to the left shift throws me off whenever I type on ISO. It is one reason I've only ever used games on my A1200, I can't type on it :-)

I will keep an eye on the project progress for sure!

User avatar
sportbikepilot

Posted Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:10 pm

simulant wrote:
Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:12 pm
The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.
But yes the dollar sign on the shit-3 vs our shift-4
Tell me more about this "shit" key...

User avatar
simulant

Posted Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:59 am

sportbikepilot wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:10 pm
simulant wrote:
Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:12 pm
The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.
But yes the dollar sign on the shit-3 vs our shift-4
Tell me more about this "shit" key...
hahah oops, I was typing that on my work PC using a Corsair keyboard - I think I need a nice Retro-styled one instead with the help of this project to not get such typos!! My old Corsair seems to get a few keys sticking these days :( haha funny though but I've edited the original as this is supposed to be a family friendly project!!!!! :)

User avatar
nonarkitten

Posted Thu Jun 25, 2020 2:25 pm

rpiguy9907 wrote:
Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:19 pm
The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.
Early Amiga 500/2000 keyboards did (not sure you can call the 1000's either ISO or ANSI). With the 1200 and 4000 I think they used ISO everywhere and left the two spare keys as "blanks" to save money.

I would like to say that this project has improved by leaps and bounds. I'm now a backer for a mouse and keyboard set and am seriously tempted by the two-pack since the new CD32 keyboard looks so nice.

Don't take this too seriously, but one cool idea might be to swap the location of the Control and Caps Lock keys. The Amiga and Acorn both put their Control keys above the shift. The Amstrad didn't have a consistent place for the Control key; it sort of "wandered about" and the Speccy didn't have one at all, so their location is of less importance. I know if you use an open keyboard firmware like QMK, that such a remap is very straightforward.

Another very small tweak would be swapping the Alt and Amiga keys; Amiga follows the Mac standard not the Windows standard of OS-Alt key ordering. Again, only if you can remap keys easily.

User avatar
simulant

Posted Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:47 pm

nonarkitten wrote:
Thu Jun 25, 2020 2:25 pm
rpiguy9907 wrote:
Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:19 pm
The Amiga used an ANSI layout (but with the Big Ass Enter key) in the US.
Early Amiga 500/2000 keyboards did (not sure you can call the 1000's either ISO or ANSI). With the 1200 and 4000 I think they used ISO everywhere and left the two spare keys as "blanks" to save money.

I would like to say that this project has improved by leaps and bounds. I'm now a backer for a mouse and keyboard set and am seriously tempted by the two-pack since the new CD32 keyboard looks so nice.

Don't take this too seriously, but one cool idea might be to swap the location of the Control and Caps Lock keys. The Amiga and Acorn both put their Control keys above the shift. The Amstrad didn't have a consistent place for the Control key; it sort of "wandered about" and the Speccy didn't have one at all, so their location is of less importance. I know if you use an open keyboard firmware like QMK, that such a remap is very straightforward.

Another very small tweak would be swapping the Alt and Amiga keys; Amiga follows the Mac standard not the Windows standard of OS-Alt key ordering. Again, only if you can remap keys easily.
wow thanks for your support. These kind of changes could be something we can easily implement so we'll definitely include these options as backer surveys before production if we do manage to meet the funding goal.

I'll want to check all the details before we manufacture so surveys will go out to ask users exactly what layout positions for keys they want and such before anything is made. Your suggestions will be perfect to include, thank you!





Return to “Hardware”