Any of you that remember the original IBM PC recall that the F (Function) keys were placed at the left side of the keyboard and that there were only 10 of them (two vertical rows of 5 each). Many people liked it that way. In the days before mice or joysticks, you could use your left hand on these keys to control the program (apologies to left handed people) while you typed with your right. But with the PS/2 product line, IBM moved the F keys to the top of the keyboard. Why? This is the story, as I know it.
My years at IBM had their high and low points, as you would expect in any career with one company that lasted so long. One of the best areas that I worked in was Display Products, located primarily in Kingston NY. This area had all the right ingredients for being a great place to work - very talented and motivated people, a successful high-income product, and a lot of autonomy within the corporation.
The key product was the 3270 Display System. The 3270 was a line of user terminals (monitors) for mainframe computers. These were what are called "dumb" terminals - there was very little actual processing power in them and the display on the screen was composed in the mainframe computer and just sent to the 3270 for display. But in the pre-microprocessor, mainframe world, this was the correct design point.
What the 3270 had going for it was quality. The monitors and keyboards were head-and-shoulders better than competing products. It took a long time for the PC industry to offer equivalent quality, and in many cases it is not matched today. Even the shipping and packaging used were state of the art.
The original 3270 keyboard had 12 F keys, arranged a 4x3 grid at the right of the keyboard. But this was an option - the basic keyboard did not have F keys at all. When the product line was upgraded in the mid-70's, it was decided to have standard F keys in a single horizontal row at the top - in three groups of four keys. The F keys on the side could still be purchased as an option.
In the late 70's, Display Products was working on "smarter" terminals using embedded microprocessors. In fact, we were working on a personal computer proposal. We later found out that IBM in Boca Raton Florida was also working on a similar proposal. The corporation decided to give the work to Boca (as we abbreviated it), but since we were working on a similar concept, they asked us to get together and share information. And so we did and then went on to other work.
There was a very powerful group within Display Products, called Human Factors Engineering. This group made all the decisions about any external, visible aspect of the display terminals - including screen layout and keyboards. Human Factors did not have much initial contact with Boca at that time.
As time progressed into the early 80's, Display Products began to realize that the end of the line had come for dumb terminals, and sought to rebuild the product line based on IBM PC technology. The first of these was something called the 3270 PC - a modified PC using (guess what) a different keyboard - one that was physically compatible with the original 3270 keyboard.
As time and internal politics marched on, the Display Products Human Factors group was able to further influence the PC group in Boca, with the intent of converging the two keyboards. In that convergence, the left side F keys were lost from the PC product line forever.
Interestingly, some other manufacturers of PCs came out with keyboards that had both sets of F keys - on the top and on the side. But this soon passed.
So, enjoy your F keys on the top of the keyboard, as Display Products meant them to be!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com)