PC World doesn't like the C64....

[Blacklord]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139100-page,2-c,keyboards/article.html#

or the PET ...  http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139100-page,4-c,keyboards/article.html

[airship]

Hey! THREE CBM computers made the 'Worst Keyboard' list! In my opinion, the PET and C64 keyboards were miles ahead of the others they list, most of which were the 'chicklet' design. Okay, so the original PET 2001 really sucked. It deserves its place. But the others? Forget it. Most keyboards have something wrong.

Much as I love the C128, I would echo the complaints of others about the lack of multiplication and division on the keypad. At least you can use the KEYS function to program the conveniently-placed function keys to fill in. But the C128 keyboard's worst flaw is the placement of the individual cursor keys way up there in the stratosphere. Does anyone even use those, or do they do what I do and use the shifted-cursor keys? Which are, by the way, are placed just about where the inverse-T cursor keys are on a PC keyboard, which is a great place to put them.

[Golan Klinger]

I posted about this at Lemon a few days ago and I gave this link which is to the author's blog. Looks like a few Lemon-heads had a go at him.

[hydrophilic]

I really liked the seperate cursor keys having had plenty of experience with the VIC and 64.  And they are 'real' keys too.  Not like the plus-4 whoose cursor keys were almost like the chicklet keys of old.

The placement never bothered me.  I wonder how the keyboard would have been designed if the C128 did not have a 64 mode?  Strange that the main keyboard is almost, but not quite, the same as the C64 (the spacebar is not the same size).

The article also comments there are too many symbols.  I think the opposite is true of PC keyboards.  I wish there were some extra symbols for things like ¢, é, ç, ñ, ±, ÷, °, •, ², square root, and pi (I hate alt-codes, char pickers, and other clumsy work-arounds).

[Guest]

Apple was probably the only early computer to have a decent keyboard.  The keyboard on my //e is almost perfect (except the height of the keyboard because the Apple is so tall).  The Coleco Adam has probably the best keyboard ever, but considering it was specifically designed for word processing that shouldn't be a surprise.  

As for the 128's keyboard, I do prefer it to the 64 keyboard, but mostly for the number pad and the lower height.  The arrangement of the keys is indeed awful and always will be.  If the C= 128 had the A500's keyboard and form factor (ie, internal 3.5" floppy), it would have sold better, IMHO.

[airship]

I agree with the 'I hate alt-codes' meme. I can't believe you have to type an alt-code sequence (alt+0151) just to get an m-dash: —