Knight (TK) keyboard
This keyboard was used with the MIT-AI lab's bitmapped display system.
Some interesting things to note about this keyboard:
- Ctrl and Meta are right next to one another.
- The Rubout key is right to the left of the home row,
making correcting input immensely easier than a modern keyboard's
BS key in the upper right.
- The Top key and the SAIL character set on the tops of
the alphabetic keys.
- The Esc key was used to control the terminal system itself.
- The Alt key, separate from Esc, was used as the prefix
for operating system (DDT) commands.
- An unshifted colon key was used to introduce long DDT commands.
- The Call key was used to interrupt a program and return
to DDT (^Z in ASCII mode). Being positioned in the
upper-right, it allowed for quite satisfying (if futile) banging on
the key when a program was stuck in a tight loop.
- The Backnext key was used for things like terminal
linking. Because of the way the metal was positioned, this key makes
a different thunk from all the other keys.
![](Knight1a.jpeg)
Overall view
![](Knight2a.jpeg)
The home keys