Knight keyboard
Early 1970s computer keyboard used at the MIT-AI lab
The Knight keyboard, designed by Tom Knight, was used with the MIT-AI lab's bitmapped display system. It was a precursor to the space-cadet keyboard and the later Symbolics keyboard.
01Influence
The Knight keyboard is notable for its influence on Emacs keybindings, particularly for helping popularize the meta key, which originated with the Stanford keyboard. The layout is also noteworthy: the meta key was outside the control key, which is opposite from the layout used on most modern keyboards, dating to the Model M IBM PC keyboard, which uses the Alt key instead, and places it inward to the control key.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Knight keyboard”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Novena + Knight keyboard (16277937833).jpg by MMcM from Boston, USA, CC BY 2.0
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