Weirdest Enter/Return key?

[madrobby]

This is the strangest shape I’ve found so far. Why even bother with the tiny ass part (when you press this part of the key it binds so horribly that you can’t actually press the key)? This is from a TeleVideo 950 terminal keyboard. wiki/TeleVideo_950.

Those Futaba switches are horrible. Wow.

BC88B2CD-916E-4E99-B635-23B51DBDE612.jpeg (1.16 MiB) Viewed 4551 times

This return key is also angled differently from the surrounding keys and looks just very odd.

Show some of your odd finds!

[Chyros]

Nah man, that's just a medium-ass enter key, it's common on Zeniths and some other boards too .

[hansichen]

I want to nominate this enter key made by Cherry. It's also a "big ass enter" key but the part where you would hit the key as an ansi user is stepped and you can't really actuate the key at this position

[Hypersphere]

It's interesting to watch the evoluton (through the fossil record as documented in the DT wiki) of the BAE to one with a skinnier ascending portion, finally morphing into two species -- the ISO and ANSI enter keys. At the same time, on some boards, the Right Bracket "]" key grew longer and then underwent cell division into a single-unit "]" and 1.5u Backslash (on US ANSI species). It's handy for HHKB-layout fanciers that the split Right Shift persisted on some models, with the 1u portion remapped to a Fn key.

I'm typing this on a Zenith Z-150, where the ascending part of the Enter/Return key is not as thin as it is on the full-size Zenith 163-73, so that the Right Bracket is only 1.25u rather than 1.5u, making it harder to hit as a HHKB-style Backspace.

[Hak Foo]

It seemed to me a lot of the weird shape came out of a desire for simple-to-tool rectangular case openings. I'm thinking of the old boards with giant Q too.

[madrobby]

Nah man, that's just a medium-ass enter key, it's common on Zeniths and some other boards too .

Why aren’t these called “half-assed”, such a missed opportunity

[depletedvespene]

Nah man, that's just a medium-ass enter key, it's common on Zeniths and some other boards too .

The upper bit is too thin to be a "normal" MAE key; the fact that the key above it is wider than 1U makes it worse — that one should have been expanded to use that space (or even one 1U key and one 1.25U key) and have a regular, easier to use ANSI Enter key instead of the HAMAE key.

[depletedvespene]

It's interesting to watch the evoluton (through the fossil record as documented in the DT wiki) of the BAE to one with a skinnier ascending portion, finally morphing into two species -- the ISO and ANSI enter keys. At the same time, on some boards, the Right Bracket "]" key grew longer and then underwent cell division into a single-unit "]" and 1.5u Backslash (on US ANSI species). It's handy for HHKB-layout fanciers that the split Right Shift persisted on some models, with the 1u portion remapped to a Fn key.

Note that the right Shift key went an expansion first — many older keyboards have a key between what is now /? and RShift (couple quick examples: 1 2 ), a feature that was definitively erased by the enhanced layout; later on, the right Shift was reduced again, this time on its right side, to make space for an extra key (\| on the Focus, Fn, up arrow, etc.)

[Findecanor]

I want to nominate this enter key made by Cherry. It's also a "big ass enter" key but the part where you would hit the key as an ansi user is stepped and you can't really actuate the key at this position

Notice also how far right it is. One step more than an ISO Enter key!

The problem with "Big-Ass" Enter keys is that they need to be stabilised on both the horizontal and on the vertical to support stable presses on any spot on the key's surface, and very few of them actually have two stabilisers.
The reason why some are stepped is because there is only one, and the designer did not want a wobbly bit.

[keycap]

technically not even an enter key but just.. why

Screenshot_49.png (236.35 KiB) Viewed 4344 times

[Menuhin]

I don't know how to "type" an Enter on this thing:

[keycap]