9fans archive / 1997 / 09 / 39 /    prev next

From: Gary Capell gary@pgr...
Subject: [9fans] re: emacs jokes  -Reply
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 17:41:12 +1000

> >Don't joke about 5 button mice - I rembember a small box being marketed
> >in the early 1980s that had 4 or 5 buttons, 16 character LCD display,
> >an RS232 interface and basic word processing software (?!).
> >
> >You formed letters using combinations of button presses and could
> >use it as a keyboard replacement or to pre-enter text before
> >downloading when you reached the office. The claim was that users
> >could type *real* fast using this box. 

It might be interesting to dust this idea off again,
and combine it with the new display from Kopin (http://www.kopin.com/).
The display is 320x240 pixels, 6mm diameter (you read it with
a magnifying lens).  You might be able to build a useful computer
you can carry in your shirt pocket.  Chorded buttons would work
better in that case than a stylus.

It probably wouldn't sell (noone wants to learn a new form
of typing), but I'd like to try one for at least a while.