Dvorak Mac keyboard

If you search a keyboard with keys after the Dvorak -Layout I can't help. From OS 8.6 up you can choose the Dvorak-Layout for the keyboard(you may change the keys of a normal keyboard after choosing Dvorak -Layout)

If you have the original Apple USB keyboard, according to this web page you can just pop the keys off and rearrange them, then use the Dvorak keyboard layout.

I did find a couple of ergonomic keyboards with Dvorak layouts that say they're Mac compatible, but only one appeared to have the special Mac keys. Do a web search for "USB dvorak keyboard Mac" and you should find the same sites I did.

Apple never, to my recollection, made a Dvorak keyboard, so rearranging the keys on a QWERTY or buying a third-party keyboard are going to be your only options, I believe.

clickgr,

The only Apple product that I am aware of with a factory direct Dvorak option was the Apple IIc built-in keyboard. A recessed button just above the top row of keys let you "type in secret code" by changing to Dvorak, type a message normally and then see if a friend could decipher what you typed (using qwerty fingering) while on the Dvorak setting.

Jim

clickgr,

I am not sure if Dave's link works for you. He mentions USB but other options are available.

Here is another site to consider:

http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/mac.html

The real question focuses on what you mean by "looking for the original Apple Keyboard."

If you are referring to one of the many ADB keyboards and not USB, the key cap swapping still works. I have 25 such keyboards in half a dozen Apple OEM styles on the front porch waiting to be unloaded from the last auction. The bid winner only wanted the mice, not the keyboards. Moral? Six or more ADB styles are abundantly available.

So, finding a keyboard at a thrift store for $5 and changing caps will get the job done. BTW, for which computer will this be used?

Jim

(Appologies in advance if you are not in a country or area that has an abundant supply : } )

When I was in school (yes, that was during the Pleistocene era) we used a language called APL on IBM selectric typewriter terminals. There was a replaceable type ball to get the characters, but the keyboard was still not adequate -- most of the special characters were not shown.

The Computer Center pasted paper key caps on. They immediately wore out. Then they hit on a brilliant idea -- they pasted new paper key caps on the Fronts (not the tops) of the keys. They lasted forever and were perfectly readable.

Grant,

Psyko has a friend who is looking for an APL machine. Seriously! Seen anything lately?

Jim

clickgr,

Now we're talking. The Mini uses a USB keyboard and many more options are available. However, I would try posting your question again here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=762

to get more responses. The power of the discussions is the diversity of users. The more users who read your post, the better chance you have of getting great ideas.

The heading "Other Apple Hardware" may seem like the most logical or appropriate topic for you to choose but it is part of the old folks home called "Older Hardware Products" for Apple fanatics who are losing their teeth but not losing their grip on their 20 year old mouse.

While many of us may have lost our grip on reality - because we really like our old Macs - we make assumptions based on the discussion category. Sorry for the historical histrionics, you just found yourself in the company of old-timers with really old ideas. (Apologies to the under 90 crowd frequenting these haunts.) lol

A Google search may turn up highly customized programmable keyboards, they tend to be rather expensive, in part to pay for the advertising costs associated with marketing unique items.

So, the cheapest option is still to buy a second NEW Apple keyboard and just pop off the keys. It really is painless.

Jim

When last I used it, there was a small group of research-oriented IBM mainframe folks pushing it hard as a mathematical notational language and engineering productivity tool.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst had developed a version of APL for their original Engineering-oriented time-sharing system. [The UMASS time-sharing system was comparable in importance and scale to Dartmouth's time-sharing system that only supported BASIC.] They hand-coded the innermost parts in Assembly Language, then wrote the rest of APL in APL, then re-wrote a function at a time for better speed.

When UMASS made the leap from their home-grown time-sharing to semi-custom time-sharing on a Control Data 6600, they needed to port APL. They went back to their original APL-in-APL sources, and got a version working very quickly. Later on, they were working with Raytheon to speed it up and develop major engineering support libraries.

All this pre-dates the Personal Computer era by several years, so I have no idea where evolution has taken APL, or what hardware it runs on today.

I think APL was a precursor to Mathematica which was a precursor to The Math Works MathLab. I think of all these package as various incarnations of "Engineering Notebook" packages.

Thanx, Grant.

It is a dean of a college of computer engineering that is looking so it all makes sense.

Jim