[Simh] LK keyboards, anyone?

[Gary Lee Phillips]

You can find LK keyboards on Ebay pretty regularly, though I consider
the prices too high most of the time ($50 and up once you pay
shipping.) I have also been told that any of the keyboards with PS/2
or USB connectors will work, including LK411 as well as the ones you
mention.

Since I also have an actual Alpha desktop workstation, I attached a
real VT220 terminal to it and will often use that to get a standard
keyboard.

I'm not sure what the options are with Windows unless you use Cygwin
to get Linux/UNIX type code running.

On Linux, you can start with an xterm window and telnet or ssh from
there. The xterm software has a VT220 keyboard compatibility that maps
the standard PC keyboard to provide the missing keys with ALT or SHIFT
combinations. Another option is a script called "vmsterm" that can be
found in various places on the web. This calls xterm for you, feeding
in the keymap changes as command line parameters. I use that with SimH
and it's pretty handy. The default mapping setup does map NumLck to
the GOLD/PF1 key, though, so on most keyboards the num lock light will
go on and off. I just ignore it.

You can set your editors on VMS to use the WPS keypad rather than the
EDT version. That's the EVE default, actually, though probably most
users override to get EDT. With WPS you don't need a GOLD key, or you
can map the GOLD key somewhere else.

The bigger problem with mapping a PC type keyboard to use DEC coding
is the "missing" key in the keypad. It has to be mapped to something
else. (PC numeric keypads have 17 keys, while DEC terminals have 18.)
The vmsterm script moves the "keypad minus" to the PC "Pause/Break"
key. Most VT220 emulations will let you choose whether to map the
"PgUp" and "PgDn" keys to match the PC keyboard labels or to match the
DEC key positions (which makes "End" the DEC "PgUp" key.)

Hope this helps,
--Gary