-=> Quoting Joe Nicholson to Bob Breed <=-

 -=> Quoting Bob Breed to Joe Nicholson <=-
 
 BB> I think the main cause is that you never move you hands off the
 BB> keyboard,  it's just hammer away hour after hour for those doing
 BB> data entry stuff.

 JN> But with a typewriter, you take only the left hand off
 JN> the keyboard for the CR.  The right hand never leaves
 JN> it (isn't supposed to).

There *were* such things as electric typewriters even 50 years ago.

I used to own a rather odd IBM typewriter (IBM Executive). It used a
*proportional* font!! And had a split space bar. One half did an "en"
space the other did an "em" space (2 & 3 "units"
respectively).

The backspace worked in "units", with various characters taking from 1
to 5 units. I had a cheat sheet so I could tell how far I had to
backspace for a particular character.

 JN> That's why I asked earlier if typing speed increased
 JN> with the "soft key" keyboard.  Seem to recall speeds
 JN> of 50wpm with typewriters and nowadays I see speeds
 JN> of 80-100 in secretarial "help wanted" ads.

And they wanted that sort of speed 30 plus years ago. On an electric a
good typist *can* do that.

"Softer" touch keyboards are generally softer than the older electric
typewriters. And newer electric typewriters use what amounts to the
same sort of keyboard as some computer keyboards.

What *I* prefer (but can't seem to find) is keyboards with actual
switches & springs. They've got a progressive give. so you don't get
that sudden stop at the end of the stroke that "jars" your fingers.

Of course, such are far more expensive than the modern "membrane"
keyboards. 

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