It's called n-key rollover. Yes, many companies make absolute crap for keyboards, and yet people actually make fun of me at work for buying a 250$ keyboard. Would they ever suggest 250$ is too much to spend on, say, a bed? I doubt it.
elitekeyboards.com <-- the best keyboards money can buy. n-key rollover, topre capacitive switches, etc.
They aren't (in my opinion, and by basis of the construction thereof). The keyboards they carry are japanese imports most of which use Cherry switches. They also, unlike the Das Keyboard, have well built controllers. Pricey, but worth it. I adore the Majestouch Click Otakus that I got from Elitekeyboards.
Contoured keyboards are in some cases an acquired taste, in others unusable. I have an old hand injury that makes it tough for me to use something like the Kinesis which puts my hands in awkward positions. I've been forced to find decent standard keyboards, which have consistent keystrikes [which a membrane won't provide].
For what it's worth, I find this article to be a good read on what the deal is with quality keyboard switches, including Cherry and Alp clones:
There's another article and I believe it was on my bookmarks at the last job and I didn't copy it over, but if I find it i'll add it in.
EDIT: Keep in mind also good switches only take you so far - the problems the Das Keyboards [which use Cherry switches] have had is poor controllers. BUT, even with a good controller, my understanding is USB has a limitation on N-Key rollover to a low number of simultaneous key presses. Most of the quality keyboards come with PS2 adapters and recommend using PS2 if you want full bandwidth.
ANOTHER EDIT: This I believe is the "other" guide I was thinking of. It gives an overview of several "mechanical" keyboards which may be useful for those looking for an alternative to the $20 freebie their computer came with: http://www.overclock.net/computer-peripherals/491752-mechani... ... Personally, since I've started using mechanicals I've had most of the end-of-day wrist pain I used to experience disappear.
I have been using Kinesis keyboards for years, the foot-switches for alt/control/shift have been a god-send for my RSI. I've had some with terrible build quality though, I've never had a keyboard last more than a year, and I've frequently had to open them up to fix loose wires.
Can you say more about what problem those $250 keyboards are solving? I guess I never find myself with issues where keys don't register or anything like that, even with a $15 crapola one. (Wireless ones, however, are a different story.)
At least with my Topre Realforce 87U there are definitely some perks to justify it:
* The feel of the mechanical keys is fantastic. There's much more feedback; keystrokes make a nice subdued "schlock" noise. The backspace key sounds like the sound from Mario games where he does that spinning landing thing on a baddie.
* Easily swappable keys; my WASD are swapped for the purple arrow keys they come with, and my Esc key is a nice dangerous-looking red.
* LEDs are built into the keys they're for. Not a killer feature, but pretty slick.
* Flexibility; there are dip switches in the back for various tweaks such as swapping Ctrl and Caps Lock on a hardware level - they even provide keys to switch out so that the new Caps Lock key gets its LED.
For something I'll be typing on for many hours a day it's a worthy investment.
Those all sound like neat aesthetic benefits, but the OP made it sound like there's something objectively wrong or buggy with less-expensive keyboards.
It's largely subjective; the feedback of mechanical vs. membrane keyboards can certainly be measured objectively (i.e. pressure for key presses and snapback time), but it's just a matter of personal preference between the two (and I wouldn't consider the better feedback to be just a neat aesthetic benefit; it's the reason I bought it, not a bonus). My dad has always used an old clacky mechanical IBM keyboard but has no problem using membrane keyboards. I can use a membrane keyboard if I have to, but now it feels "mushy" after being spoiled by my Topre.
Membrane keyboards are cheaper to make (because most people don't care) but have less tactile feedback and are less reliable. Mechanical keyboards are more expensive to make, but are much more durable (keys will not wear out) and have quicker key snapback. Lack of n-key rollover could also be considered a defect of inexpensive keyboards, although it's not a common hindrance to casual typers.
How do these compare to the current gen of Mac keyboards, response and feel wise? The current gen Mac keyboard is my all time favorite, all my computers have them.
Currently, Apple only makes membrane keyboards. Even as membrane keyboards go, the best I can say about them (subjectively) is that they're not quite as awful as most of the competition.
A better comparison would be with old (early 90s) ADB models, such as the Apple Extended Keyboard II.
It has to do with the in hardware device key mapping.
Most keyboards use resistance circuits to tell which key has been depressed. When you depress more than 1 key most of these designs cannot tell between the values.
Modifier Keys like shift, control are mostly separately monitored and thus independent.
For my Mid-2009 13" Macbook Pro, I can press up to 6 alpha-numeric keys and 5 function keys (shift, option, control, command, function) at once, for eleven total keys. OS X users can test this for themselves using the "Keyboard Viewer" accessible through System Prefs/Universal Access.
While some manufacturers may be slackers, it doesn't appear that they all are.
I'm limited to 5 alpha numeric keys, and I get the Keyboard viewer via System Preferences > Keyboard > "Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in menu bar"
There's also a lot to be said about the feel and quality of the keyboard. We press these little buttons thousands of times a day, millions of times in our lifetime. A clunky, overly loud keyboard, or one that requires too much travel is a terrible thing to have to work with.
It amuses me when people are surprised by product development. Here are the rules:
- if the consumer will buy it, it isn't a flaw
- if the consumer won't pay extra for it, it isn't a feature
This is how all products in all markets are developed. On the rare occasion that a product developer takes it upon themselves to deliver a better product they will make less profit (reward), and therefore be less competitive and more likely to fail as a business. These companies are often called hobbies. The only way to improve products is to improve ("educate") consumers, and I'm not holding my breath on that one.
> This is how all products in all markets are developed.
Why are you saying that in such absolute terms? As if they were the defining features that govern the markets.
If that was really how it worked, what do you say to start-ups who make risky entrepreneurial bets on a daily basis?
The usefulness of something is not always readily obvious. It takes time to internalize, and often we just won't get it unless it's been thoroughly marketed to us, or suggested by friends and peers.
We can amply ridicule keyboard manufacturers for their lack of any real breakthroughs or innovation in recent years.
we just won't get it unless it's been thoroughly marketed to us, or suggested by friends and peers.
Yes, there is no demand for something novel without appropriately educated consumers. (I swear I just said that...)
We can amply ridicule keyboard manufacturers for their lack of any real breakthroughs or innovation in recent years.
Why? They have made great strides in creating exactly what consumers want: a $20 surprisingly durable USB keyboard with a 104 key layout (ex. Dell CJ651). The original poster's motivation is his realization that he is not the average consumer, and thus is not satisfied with the average product.
Finally, about what I'd like to see in keyboards
We all want a pony. I'll make you one, but it will cost $1,000 - I presume that you're okay with this.
Your extended character input problems have nothing to do with your keyboard - Mac OS X can easily input most of them with a small number of strokes on that same keyboard. You could switch the keys you speak of on Windows with different drivers.
Keyboards aren't going to fundamentally change but there are manufacturers who aren't slackers, who are trying. (As far as the original article - use ctrl, alt and shift - they're designed as modifiers - for your Metroid III action.) Think of the Anykey on older Gateway keyboards[1], or the Compaq keyboards with the split spacebar where the left half was actually backspace[2], or the new-ish Dell keyboards where the layout of the six keys above the arrow keys has been changed to feature a huge delete key[3]. The Windows key, a long loathed key by many a gamer, forced back to the desktop in the midst of a critical section. Most have only come to accept since it pretends it isn't there as many games disable it. And even then, it only uses up previously unused space which doesn't moving other keys around.
These little 'innovations' annoy me, and I'm sure many others, to no end. Innovations that ended up on the scrap heap of innovation and change-is-bad-ism.
Keyboards /cannot/ fundamentally change because unless you magically replaced all the keyboards in the world at once, installed user-base just has too much inertia.
Others have said - buy a more expensive keyboard. That solves the complaint in the article.
Except it doesn't. 'N-key rollover' doesn't exist as a market differentiator. Unless you've gotten frustrated by this problem, decided it was actually worth your time to research it, how could you know that 'N-key rollover' is the differentiator you're looking for? The market has spoken, and 'cheap' is better than N-key rollover. Or 'good enough', anyway. It's 2009 and the writer still can't play Metroid III. I'd bet that there'll still be the same problem in 2019, even though the technical solution has existed since keyboards were invented.
Modifier keys are usually specially dealt with on the matrix of wires in your keyboard to make that work. The issue is how many non-modifier keys the keyboard can register at once.
That said, other comments note that Apple seems to lay a dense matrix that allows for high numbers of simultaneous key presses to be registered even for non-modifier keys. Perhaps this finally explains some of why their keyboards cost $50 instead of $3. (Definitely not all, but if this is true, it's a nice touch.)
Everything on a Mac is command+option+shift+fn+esc+tab+jump+button-A+something. If they couldn't handle dozens of simultaneous keypresses, half the OS X keyboard "shortcuts" would stop working.
What puzzles me is that even a simple USB hub (so that you can plug in a mouse or a pen) seems beyond most manufacturers. A few months ago, I managed to snag a keyboard with two USB ports and a scroll-wheel (the SlimStarPro from Genius), which promptly vanished from local retailer shelves.
Not having reason to care about key rollover issues, I'd gladly trade the top rows of special-function buttons for a single small trackball in the wrist-rest area (as seen in early laptops such as the Apple Powerbook 100 of the 90s). I suppose it's "inconceivable" to sell that nowadays ...
elitekeyboards.com <-- the best keyboards money can buy. n-key rollover, topre capacitive switches, etc.
geekhack.org is a great reference.