ml> BTW: many resturaunt POS systems are nothing more than a regular
 ml> computer under the counter and a touchscreen on the counter ;)

 AZ> Those work because:

 AZ> 1) They lack keyboards, putting the screen closer to the person
 AZ> touching the screen 

yes and no... the systems we used to install had keyboards, too... they
were under the counter out of the way in the cabinet...

 AZ> - and because they are relatively small screens (usually) - try 
 AZ> getting 6 inches away from a 20+ inch display and see how 
 AZ> comfortable that feels! 

hehe... i know... i think our normal touch screen monitors were 15inch or 17inch...

 AZ> 2) They are dedicated to a relatively simply single task.

yep... the programs handled all the heavy lifting...

you'd be surprised at all the ones out there that are (still) built on a
DOS command line platform... i was rather surprised when i first started
servicing some in this area and watch the DOS boot stuff going by before
the graphical program fired up... contrary to popular belief, one can do
graphical programming in a command line world IF the graphics subsystem has
graphical capabilities ;)

perfect examples are the games like duke nuke'em, doom and quake -=B-)

)\/(ark