Another Edupage piece that may reflect on standards and change?
THE KEYBOARD FROM HELL?
The QWERTY keyboard, replete with arcane keys such as "Print Screen," "Scroll Lock" and "Pause," is a source of frustration to hardware makers, who say the keyboard will be the last part of the PC to be redesigned, because what's available now works for most people. Donald Norman, an Apple fellow, has another opinion, however: "The keyboard is the most bizarre, ridiculous, nondesigned monstrosity foisted on the American public. We've put huge amounts of effort into the design of the things you see on the screen, but the keyboard seems handed down by God -- and it's an evil god... Everybody will agree it should be fixed. So we'll put it on the list. But this list is long, and when it comes to ordering it in importance, the keyboard is just never quite important enough to get our attention." A New York-based designer and editor concurs: "The keyboard is the most humiliating and despicable object we have to work with in our daily lives." (Wall Street Journal 22 Oct 96 B1)