Re: IIgs keyboard upgrade

[Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com>]

puritan_2076@yahoo.com (Leon Howell) writes:
> I'm pretty shure there was an ADB keyboard just like the one that came
> with the original mac or mac+ with a numeric keypad. I think that's
> the one I want.

I'm pretty sure those are not what you want.  The original Macintosh and
the Macintosh Plus did *NOT* use ADB keyboards.  The keyboards for those
Macintoshes will not work on the Apple IIgs, nor on any other machine
in the Apple II family.

The first Macintosh computers to use ADB were the Macintosh SE and
Macintosh II, introduced in April 1987.  When I was a consultant for
Olduvai Software, I developed a product named "ADBridge" that allowed
the use of the "old-style" Mac keyboards and mice on the Mac SE and Mac
II, and vice versa.  I routinely used the original Macintosh product
on my Mac II, because I liked the feel much better than either the
"Apple Keyboard" or "Apple Extended Keyboard".

In principle, if you had an ADBridge, you would be able to use the
Macintosh or Macintosh Plus keyboard on an Apple IIgs.  I doubt that
Olduvai ever tested that configuration, but I don't know any reason
why it shouldn't work.

I'd love to buy an ADBridge if anyone has one gathering dust.  :-)

Eric