Alphanumeric keyboard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007)
This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Alphanumeric keyboards include typewriters and computer keyboards. An alphanumeric keyboard is a device with many keys (usually marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numerical digits, and various extra keys.)

Contents

[edit] Computer Keyboards

Main article: Keyboard (computing)
A computer keyboard
A computer keyboard

After punch cards and paper tape, interaction via teletype-style keyboards became the main input device for computers. During the 1980s and 1990s almost all computers came equipped with them as the main form of interaction, and most users are familiar with using them.

There are different types of keyboard technologies.

The most popular layout of keys on the modern-day English keyboard is called the QWERTY design, based on the most popular typewriter keyboard layout. This has been further extended to the standard 104-key PC keyboard layout, with the addition of cursor keys, a calculator-style numeric keypad, two groups of special function keys, a key for the Windows Start menu (on IBM and clones), and other modifier keys. Some computer manufacturers have added keys specifically related to the Internet and e-mail, but these have not become standard.

The fastest typists (as of 2007) use a stenograph, a kind of chorded keyboard used by most court reporters and closed caption reporters.

Despite the development of alternative input devices such as the mouse, touch sensitive screens, pen devices, character recognition, voice recognition, and improvements in computer speed and memory size, the keyboard remains the most commonly used and most versatile device used for direct human input into computers.


IBM/Windows keyboard (US layout)
v • d • e
Esc F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 PrtSc ScrLk Pause
Tilde Exclamation mark At sign Number sign Dollar sign Percent sign Caret Ampersand Asterisk Bracket Bracket Underscore Plus and minus signs Backspace Grave accent 1 (number) 2 (number) 3 (number) 4 (number) 5 (number) 6 (number) 7 (number) 8 (number) 9 (number) 0 (number) Hyphen Equals sign Backspace Tab key Q W E R T Y U I O P Bracket Bracket Vertical bar Tab key Q W E R T Y U I O P Bracket Bracket Backslash Caps lock A S D F G H J K L Colon (punctuation) Quotation mark Enter key Caps lock A S D F G H J K L Semicolon Apostrophe Enter key Shift key Z X C V B N M Bracket Bracket Question mark Shift key Shift key Z X C V B N M Comma (punctuation) Full stop Slash (punctuation) Shift key Control key Windows key Alt key Space bar AltGr key Windows key Menu key Control key
Ins Home PgUp NumLk / * -
Del End PgDn 7 8 9 +
4 5 6
↑ 1 2 3 Ent
← ↓ → 0 .
v • d • e
Keyboard keys
Dead keys
Modifier keys
Control · Shift · Alt/Option (Apple) · AltGr · Command/Meta (Apple/MIT/Sun keyboards) · Windows · Super · Hyper · Fn (compact keyboards)
Lock keys
Navigation
Editing
Misc.

[edit] Mechanical Keyboards

Typewriter

[edit] Electric Keyboards

Stenotype

Key punch

[edit] See also

Languages