I just acquired a BBC micro keyboard with an intention to connect it up to the ZX81. I saw the pics of the mod SirMorris did on this forum and it looks like all the letters have been shifted across one position to the right to centre them over the space bar. I imagine this is because some of the extra BBC-specific type keys on the right were removed and this keeps it balanced.
Looking at the plethora of extra keys on the keyboard I was wondering which could be utilised, which is where I'd appreciate input from anybody who has made their own keyboard: what customisations did you make over the standard 40 keys (if any) and if you were to do it again today, would you do something differently?
I'm toying with the idea of putting the up/down cursors somewhere on the left hand side, with the left/right somewhere on the right (would need some circuitry to generate the 2 key presses but no biggie). It'd be nice to keep the 2 shifts which dictates the keyboard size somewhat as they're odd sized keys.
I'm also considering single keys for Edit / Graphics mode / Break / Function / Rubout, as keys for much of these already exist so can be reused without having to relabel keytops
How many more may will depend on what gaps remain - any other suggestions? Brackets / dot / comma, that sort of thing?I guess it's time to get all the keycaps pulled off, blow the dust out and have a play around with the layout!
Thanks for your time,
Chad
