In article <87pox2h7t5.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>, Andreas Kohlbach   
    wrote:   
   > Your Name wrote on 14. January 2016:   
   > > In article <87vb6v241c.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>, Andreas Kohlbach   
   > >  wrote:   
   > >> Your Name wrote on 13. January 2016:   
   > >> >   
   > >> > Possibly - I really couldn't be bothered playing with the crappy things   
   > >> > long enough to find out / remember. The commands were printed on the   
   > >> > "keys" themselves though.   
   > >>   
   > >> Yep, I once saw it. I was amazed when I visited the UK in 1986 with other   
   > >> students and saw the kids of the host family had one. Had no idea why   
   > >> words are printed on the keys.   
   > >    
   > >   
   > > Yep. It wasn't possible to simply type "I" and "F" for the IF   
   > > statement, you were *forced* to press Shift-Function-M (or whatever the   
   > > key combination was). That silliness and the ridiculously bad   
   > > "keyboards" (flat membrane keyboards on the ZX80 and ZX81, and small   
   > > rubberised keys on the Spectrum) made trying to program the toys a task   
   > > in futility and stupidity.   
   >   
   > Although I would think that somebody who got used to this is then faster   
   > writing code than with a "real keyboard".   
      
   The hopelessly bad keyboards would likely have worn out well before   
   anyone got used to the quirkyness of the programming ... assuming they   
   simply hadn't given up already.   
      
      
      
   > The problem when the Sinclair series (the QL was already a bomb) died out   
   > a few years later their users had no choice but to get a real keyboard on   
   > a future computer, they would have to learn to for example type "load"   
   > instead of just "j".   
      
   Only for a little while. Most "programming" these days is done with   
   silly point-n-click interfaces and/or "Object Oriented" coding (which   
   basically means stacking blocks of someone else's code together like   
   computerised Lego).   
      
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