Content deleted Content added
starting draft of new summary article, much of it so far copied from the original |
FlightTime (talk | contribs) m FlightTime moved page User:John Maynard Friedman/Computer keyboard/Sandbox to User:JMF/Computer keyboard/Sandbox: Automatically moved page while renaming the user "John Maynard Friedman" to "JMF" |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{hatnote|This article is a brief overview of computer keyboards. For a detailed discussion of the hardware aspects, see [[Keyboard technology]]. For the user interface expressed in software, see [[Keyboard layout]]}}
{{Distinguish|keyboard computer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
[[File:Typing example.ogv|thumb|[[Typing]] on a computer keyboard]]
A '''computer keyboard''' is a [[
[[File:Keyboard Keys.jpg|thumb|right|Keyboard keys]]▼
▲A '''computer keyboard''' is a [[Typewriter#Keyboard layouts|typewriter-style]] [[input device]] that uses an arrangement of buttons or [[Push-button|keys]] that act as [[Electronic switching system|electronic switches]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/computer+keyboard|title=computer keyboard|work=TheFreeDictionary.com|access-date=2018-06-26}}</ref>
Keyboard keys (buttons) typically have a set of characters [[Engraving|engraved]] or [[Printing|printed]] on them, and each press of a key (or combination of keys) typically corresponds to a single written [[symbol]] or or other [[interrupt request (PC architecture)|interrupt request]].<ref>{{cite book |title=New Directions in Behavioral Biometrics |isbn=978-1315349312 |author=Khalid Saeed |date=2016}}</ref> While most keyboard keys produce [[Letter (alphabet)|letters]], [[Numerical digit|numbers]] or symbols ([[character (computing)|characters]]), other keys or simultaneous key presses can prompt the computer to execute system commands, such as such as the [[Control-Alt-Delete]] combination used with [[Microsoft Windows]].<ref>{{cite web |website=SlashDot.org
Line 17 ⟶ 10:
|quote=..menu to bring up the task manager}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Control-Alt-Delete in the World of VDI
|url=https://blogs.vmware.com/services-education-insights/2017/03/ctrl-alt-del.html
|quote=From its humble origins, .. evolved into .. screen with options to}}</ref> In a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software: the information sent to the computer, the [[scan code]], tells it only which key (or keys) on which row and column, was pressed or released.<ref name="msusb13a">[http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/scancode.doc Microsoft Keyboard Scan Code Specification] ([http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/scancode.doc Appendix C, "USB Keyboard/Keypad Page (0x07)"]), [[Microsoft]]. Revision 1.3a, 2000-03-16, accessed 2018-10-13.</ref> Consequently, the effect of pressing a particular key is determined by the computer's [[operating system]], independently of (and potentially over-riding) the symbols engraved on the keys.
==History==
While [[typewriter]]s are the definitive ancestor of all key-based text entry devices, the computer keyboard as a device for electromechanical data entry and communication derives largely from the utility of two devices: [[teleprinter]]s (or teletypes) and [[keypunch]]es. It was through such devices that modern computer keyboards inherited their layouts.
As early as the 1870s, teleprinter-like devices were used to simultaneously type and transmit [[stock market]] text data from the keyboard across telegraph lines to [[stock ticker machine]]s to be immediately copied and displayed onto [[ticker tape]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Essay on Technology Advancements in Computer Interfaces
|url=https://www.123helpme.com/technology-advancements-in-computer-interfaces-preview.asp?id=364629}}</ref> The teleprinter, in its more contemporary form, was developed from 1907 to 1910 by American mechanical engineer [[Charles Krum]] and his son [[Howard Krum|Howard]], with early contributions by electrical engineer [[Frank Pearne]]. Earlier models were developed separately by individuals such as [[Royal Earl House]] and [[Frederick G. Creed]].
Earlier, [[Herman Hollerith]] developed the first keypunch devices, which soon evolved to include keys for text and number entry akin to normal typewriters by the 1930s.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/gallery-ibm-100-years-of-thinking-big/|title=Gallery: IBM: 100 Years of THINKing Big|author=Smith, Andy|work=[[ZDNet]]|date=15 June 2011|access-date=20 October 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210153020/http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/gallery-ibm-100-years-of-thinking-big/|archive-date=10 December 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
The keyboard on the teleprinter played a strong role in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication for most of the 20th century, while the keyboard on the keypunch device played a strong role in data entry and storage for just as long. The development of the earliest computers incorporated electric typewriter keyboards: the development of the [[ENIAC]] computer incorporated a keypunch device as both the input and paper-based output device, while the [[BINAC]] computer also made use of an electromechanically controlled typewriter for both data entry onto magnetic tape (instead of paper) and data output.<ref>{{cite web |website=ComputerWorld.com |date=2 November 2012
|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2493059/computer-peripherals/past-is-prototype--the-evolution-of-the-computer-keyboard.html
|title=Past is prototype: The evolution of the computer keyboard}}</ref>
The keyboard remained the primary, most integrated computer peripheral well into the era of personal computing until the introduction of the mouse as a consumer device in 1984. By this time, text-only user interfaces with sparse graphics gave way to [[Graphical user interface|comparatively graphics-rich icons on screen]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Linear interface for graphical interface of touch-screen
|url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2494439
|author=D Kocielinski |date=2013}}</ref> However, keyboards remain central to human-computer interaction to the present, even as mobile personal computing devices such as [[smartphone]]s and [[Tablet computer|tablets]] adapt the keyboard as an optional virtual, touchscreen-based means of data entry.
==Keyboard technology: the hardware==
▲[[File:Keyboard Keys.jpg|thumb|right|Keyboard keys]]
{{excerpt|Keyboard technology}}
==Keyboard management: the software==
Software control of the keyboard and its interface with applications is delivered by the keyboard [[device driver]]. A system configuration is used to declare the [[input method]] being used, the default language in use and the symbolic meaning to attach to each scan-code.<ref>{{cite web |title=Default Input Profiles (Input Locales) in Windows |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/default-input-locales-for-windows-language-packs |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |date=May 2, 2017}}</ref>
===Keyboard layouts===
{{excerpt|Keyboard layout}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* {{anli|Input device}}
| |||