The space-cadet keyboard is a keyboard designed by John L. Kulp in 1978 and used on

Lisp machine Lisp machines are general-purpose computers designed to efficiently run Lisp as their main software and programming language, usually via hardware support. They are an example of a high-level language computer architecture, and in a sense, they ...

s at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

(MIT), which inspired several still-current jargon terms in the field of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and influenced the design of

Emacs Emacs , originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor MACroS"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, ...

. It was inspired by the

Knight keyboard The Knight keyboard, designed by Tom Knight, was used with the MIT-AI lab's bitmapped display system.

, which was developed for the Knight TV system, used with MIT's

Incompatible Timesharing System Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS) is a time-sharing operating system developed principally by the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, with help from Project MAC. The name is the jocular complement of the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing Sy ...

Description

The space-cadet keyboard was equipped with seven

modifier key In computing, a modifier key is a special key (or combination) on a computer keyboard that temporarily modifies the normal action of another key when pressed together. By themselves, modifier keys usually do nothing; that is, pressing any of the , ...

s: four keys for

bucky bit In computing, a bucky bit is a bit in a binary representation of a character that is set by pressing on a keyboard modifier key other than the shift key. Overview Setting a bucky bit changes the output character. A bucky bit allows the user to t ...

s (, , , and ), and three shift keys, called , , and (which was labeled on the ''front'' of the key; the top was labeled ). had been introduced on the earlier Knight keyboard, while and were introduced by this keyboard. Each group was in a row, thus allowing easy

chording Chording means pushing several keys or buttons simultaneously to achieve a result. Musical keyboards In music, more than one key are pressed at a time to achieve more complex sounds, or chords. Computer keyboards Chording, with a chorded key ...

, or pressing of several modifier keys; for example, could be pressed with the fingers of one hand, while the other hand pressed another key. Many keys had three symbols on them, accessible by means of the shift keys: a letter and a symbol on the top, and a Greek letter on the front. For example, the key had a "G" and an up-arrow ("↑") on the top, and the Greek letter

gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter r ...

("") on the front. By pressing this key with one hand while playing an appropriate "chord" with the other hand on the shift keys, the user could get the following results: Each of these might, in addition, be typed with any combination of the , , , and keys. By combining the modifier keys, it is possible to make

(50 \text \times 5 \text) \times 2^ = 4000 \text

. This allowed the user to type very complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands of single-character commands at their disposal. Many users were willing to memorise the command meanings of so many characters if it reduced typing time. This attitude shaped the interface of

; compare the use of the key in vi, due to the convenient position of the key on the

ADM-3A The ADM-3A was an influential early video display terminal, introduced in 1976. It was manufactured by Lear Siegler and had a 12-inch screen displaying 12 or 24 lines of 80 characters. It set a new industry low single unit price of $995. Its " ...

terminal. Other users, however, thought that so many keys were excessive and objected to this design on the grounds that such a keyboard can be difficult to operate. Emacs uses "M-" as the prefix for when describing key presses: the "M-" stood for on the space-cadet keyboard, and when Emacs was ported to PCs, the key was used in place of . This keyboard included a key which had limited application support. It also included four Roman Numeral keys (, , , and ) which allowed for easy interaction with lists of four or fewer choices.

References

External links

Space Cadet
Mike McMahon's discussion of the keyboard, with illustrative pictures and technical documentation

on the space-cadet keyboard
The Lisp keyboards
overview of the space-cadet and other famous Lisp keyboards * {{Keyboard keys Computer keyboard types Lisp (programming language)

Description

See also

References

External links