Date   : Sat, 09 Mar 1985 18:47:41 GMT
From   : egb <egb%burl.uucp@BRL-TGR.ARPA>
Subject: Re: keyboards

> 
>   My father is very interested in getting a hardwired Dvorak keyboard
> rtkey  (Smartkey) to do the Dvorak in software, but there are problems using
> those types of programs.  The Kaypro uses a serial port rather than a 
> parallel port to connect the keyboard.  What needs to be done to change
> the way the keyboard is decoded before it goes to the computer?  Would
> it be a matter of a neew ROM somewhere?  Can you buy  a serial Dvorak
> keyboard somewhere that would work on the Kaypro?  Any help or Info
> would be greatly appreciated.
> 
>                   Thanks   Jim Garey    garey@ut-ngp.arpa

One of the ways I converted from an IBM EBCDIC keyboard to an ASCII 
computer input was to read the incoming eight bits from the keyboard and 
use them as the second byte to address a "page" of memory (256 bytes). At 
each individual address was the ASCII equivalent of the EBCDIC code----
worked like a charm.  

Should be possible to do the same thing to simulate a Dvorak keyboard----
read the ASCII keyboard, place the Dvorak equivalent at the addresses and 
provide that value to the computer input.

Does require programming in assembly language, though.  

Ed Baldwin,  Burlington, N.C.   burl!egb