John, (01)
Jonathan is on vacation I'm a volunteer working on the Software
Collection Committee of the Computer History Museum, and the lead for
the NLS/Augment restoration project. (02)
Jonathan has been doing some really amazing work on this project. He
succeeded in getting the first independent clone of the NLS system
working, and is quickly becoming an expert on the UI and internals of
the system. He also worked with an EE to discover the interface used
by one of Doug's keysets (analog game port), and interfaced it with
the new Java based AugTerm written by another person working with the
committee. We're hoping to transition Doug to this new AugTerm in
the near future. Jonathan is also managing the entire pool of
existing keysets and identifying which ones still work. (03)
It would be wonderful to have a new USB keyset. There are precious
few "vintage" keysets around. As we work towards our goal of making
NLS/Augment freely available for non-commercial use, we anticipate a
demand for more keysets that use a standard USB interface. Also,
Eugene Kim is leading another project with Doug to create a new
system based on concepts and capabilities from NLS/Augment, and he
also anticipates a demand for keysets. (04)
I had planned on looking into what it would take to design and do a
limited production run (several dozen) of a USB keyset. Is this
something you'd be interested in taking on, and if so, would you be
able to move this to the front burner? I'm thinking of somewhere in
the May/June time frame to get an electrical and mechanical design
done, a single prototype built, and be ready to bid it out for
manufacturing. Would your schedule allow you to do something in that
time frame? Would you be willing to do this on a volunteer basis,
with grateful recognition by the NLS/Augment community? (05)
Please let me know as soon as possible, since we'll need to find
someone else relatively soon otherwise. If you find that you're not
able to work on this project, we'd appreciate it if you could return
the keyset to Doug ASAP. He'll pass it on to Jonathan, who will add
to the pool for use by the two projects. (06)
Best regards, (07)
>Return-Path: <sechrest@jas.peak.org>
>Delivered-To: nls-technical@douge.cim3.com
>Received: from jas.peak.org (jas.peak.org [69.59.196.137])
> by douge.cim3.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 680CE61B
> for <nls-technical@chm.cim3.net>; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:11:30
> -0800 (PST)
>Received: from sechrest (helo=jas.peak.org)
> by jas.peak.org with local-esmtp (Exim 4.44)
> id 1F809g-0001g1-Cb; Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:11:36 -0800
>To: Jonathan Cheyer <jonathan@cheyer.biz>
>Cc: Eugene Eric Kim <eekim@blueoxen.com>,
> NLS Restoration Technical Discussion <nls-technical@chm.cim3.net>,
> bootstrap-nsf@ws.blueoxen.net
>Subject: Re: chord keyset
>In-reply-to: Your message of Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:41:12 PST.
> <43ED9518.2050405@cheyer.biz>
>Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:11:36 -0800
>From: John Sechrest <sechrest@jas.peak.org>
>Message-Id: <E1F809g-0001g1-Cb@jas.peak.org>
>X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: <locally generated>
>X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: sechrest@jas.peak.org
>X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on jas.peak.org); SAEximRunCond expanded to false
>
>Hi Jonathan,
>
>I do have a keyboard. And I have a diagram of it. It has a DB-15
>connector on it, but I don't remember at the moment if it is
>male of female.
>
>We have a background task of trying to build a USB chording keyboard.
>It is on my desk at work, and I am reminded of the task because of that.
>
>If you need it back, I can find a way to get it back to doug, so that
>you can use it.
>
>I am currently stalled on the 5 bit vs 8 bit issues that doug was
>asking for.
>
>Is there any value in building some replica units?
>
>What time frame do you have on needing it?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Jonathan Cheyer <jonathan@cheyer.biz> writes:
>
> % Hi John,
> %
> % I'm currently working on joint projects with the Computer History Museum
> % to preserve the NLS/Augment system software and some of its hardware
> % artifacts (i.e. chord keysets), as well as with Doug Engelbart and
> % Eugene Kim on an NSF grant to do more current and forward-reaching work
> % with NLS/Augment.
> %
> % I've been trying to locate people who may have one or more keysets, so
> % we can track how many keysets are still in existence, how many are
> % working fully, and what pinouts the keysets are using.
> %
> % Eugene mentioned that you are currently borrowing a chord keyset from
> % Doug, and you had been working at some point on building a USB interface
> % for the keyset. I'm interested in hearing from you about what you've
> % learned so far. In particular, if you have any technical information
> % about the chord keyset that you could share, or other useful practical
> % information, that would be great.
> %
> % I've got the pinout information for one chord keyset so far and have
> % built a driver for it, but I've noticed that not all the keysets are the
> % same. For example, the single keyset that I currently have access to has
> % a DA-15 female ending, and the one that Doug uses has a DB-25 male ending.
> %
> % Also, if you're not actively using your keyset, I was wondering if you
> % would be willing to return the keyset soon. There are very few keysets
> % available at this point, and it would be useful for members of team
> % assisting Doug with his NSF grant to use the keysets during the duration
> % of the project.
> %
> % Thanks for your help!
> %
> % Jonathan
>
>-----
>John Sechrest . Helping people use
> . computers and the Internet
> . more effectively
> .
> . Internet: sechrest@peak.org
> .
> . http://www.peak.org/~sechrest
>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>Subject: confirm af8c3d436b32aa44bf39559aadfbf91c386d540f
>Sender: nls-technical-request@chm.cim3.net
>From: nls-technical-request@chm.cim3.net
>
>If you reply to this message, keeping the Subject: header intact,
>Mailman will discard the held message. Do this if the message is
>spam. If you reply to this message and include an Approved: header
>with the list password in it, the message will be approved for posting
>to the list. The Approved: header can also appear in the first line
>of the body of the reply. (08)
Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc. (09)
phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax: +1 520 843-7217 (010)
mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (011)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://chm.cim3.net/forum/nls-technical/
Shared Files: http://chm.cim3.net/file/work/project/nls-restore/
Community Portal: http://www.computerhistory.org/
To Post: mailto:nls-technical@chm.cim3.net
Community Wiki: http://chm.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NLS_Restoration (012)
|