Terry Pratchett's Cherry Keyboard

[paperWasp]

Looks like Sir Terry Pratchett, probably best known for his 41 'Discworld' series books, used a Cherry keyboard! I wonder what model it was (what kind of switches), could somebody identify it from the pictures? For the author capable of producing so many quality volumes, it must've been a very well chosen tool!





Full article from bbc.com.

[Myoth]

It's a G80-8000 of some kind with lasered caps and probably MX Blacks

[TNT]

Explains the quality of his novels... I'm joking of course

[Palatino]

It's a G80-8000 of some kind with lasered caps and probably MX Blacks

Is there a wiki entry on it? Googling G80-8000 yields boards with bigger footprints than the one in the picture, often with magnetic readers.

[Myoth]

It's a G80-8000 of some kind with lasered caps and probably MX Blacks

Is there a wiki entry on it? Googling G80-8000 yields boards with bigger footprints than the one in the picture, often with magnetic readers.

there is not, and it's definitely a board with a magnetic reader

https://www.cherry-world.com/cherry-mul ... -8000.html

[kbdfr]

Obviously the pics show two different keyboards.
While the keyboard in the second photo is of course a Cherry G8X-8XXX (it could be a G81-8308 with 24 programmable keys),
the keyboard in the first photo (the one he apparently used for writing) is clearly something completely different,
and certainly not a Cherry keyboard.
Which probably explains why I have never heard of Terry Pratchett nor of Discworld before

[Palatino]

Ah, I think we may be looking at different boards. The one in the second picture does show part of a raised magnetic reader above the numpad, but the one in the first picture looks different, with smaller ‘bezels’ and a central block sticking out of the back a bit with what looks like buttons on. It’s that more compact one I like the look of - any ideas about that one?

[Palatino]

Obviously the pics show two different keyboards.
While the keyboard in the second photo is of course a Cherry G8X-8XXX (it could be a G81-8308 with 24 programmable keys),
the keyboard in the first photo (the one he apparently used for writing) is clearly something completely different,
and certainly not a Cherry keyboard.
Which probably explains why I have never heard of Terry Pratchett nor of Discworld before

Didn’t see this before my post. I do have a soft spot for the Discworld books. Any ideas on what the non-Cherry board is? The rear central block looks unusual.

[paperWasp]

True. I think the artifacts in pic #2 are real Terry's things.
Picture #1 just shows a "taste" of his study. The museum probably didn't have another Cherry keyboard of the same type so they might have used something visually similar to display toghether with his wax figurine. (???)

[Muirium]

I first saw Pratchett's multi-monitor setup—pretty boss for a writer!—on a documentary he appeared on, many years ago, most likely on the BBC. This was before I was into keyboards, so my eyes were on his showy screens rather than his keys. He was alive and well in that show, talking about something or another. It might have been about Alzheimer's, if vague memory serves, which (as the article says) he was keen on talking about, while he could.

That hard drive is so getting read someday, by future tech archaeologists who'll have as much respect for his wishes as their historical namesakes do for those sealed in ancient tombs!

the keyboard in the first photo (the one he apparently used for writing) is clearly something completely different,
and certainly not a Cherry keyboard.
Which probably explains why I have never heard of Terry Pratchett nor of Discworld before

I like the implication you only read works typed in Cherry keyboards. But how do you know which ones were?

I've a similar fondness for Rhodes pianos, but they're a little more apparent in the finished product.

[Muirium]

A little searching (via images) finds this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... _keyboard/

Apparently, productive bugger that he was, he had a few over the years. Lot of dead links in there, though.

Got to say I'm more envious of his Saturn than his keyboard:

[kbdfr]

the keyboard in the first photo (the one he apparently used for writing) is clearly something completely different,
and certainly not a Cherry keyboard.
Which probably explains why I have never heard of Terry Pratchett nor of Discworld before

I like the implication you only read works typed in Cherry keyboards. But how do you know which ones were? […]

Well, others simply do not exist (with the exception, of course, of non-Cherry keyboards with Cherry switches)
_________________________________

But of course there is also another reason:

A little searching (via images) finds this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... _keyboard/

Hey, the thing at the left of the keyboard is a Philips SpeechMike, so he probably didn’t type his books but dictated them directly into his word processor, which explains how he could be so prolific.

Happy to have debunked the fake reports about that Terry Pratchett guy’s keyboard

[Jan Pospisil]

He used speech to text in his later years when the Alzheimer got bad enough for typing being difficult.
I do appreciate the cluttered desk, makes me feel less bad about my own mess.

[paperWasp]

Interesting. My several minute textual 'ducking' didn't reveal that reddit link.

Back for the Cherry keyboard in the museum. If it was the one with 24 programmable keys, I can imagine his setup (varying according to the set or characters in a particular novel), sending keystrokes like:

P1: Ankh-Morpork
P2: Archchancellor
...
P4: Carrot Ironfoundersson
...
P8: Granny Weatherwax
P9: Havelock Vetinari
...
P24: oook!

If he used a speech to text system in his late years, it must have been a very good one to tackle all those elaborate and funny names. Imagine all those "siri speechos" from another recent thread!

[Muirium]

I’d question my own memory if I had as many unlabelled macros, relying on mnemonic-free function keys. Is that F7 or F17? And is she talking to F19 or F21? Umm… bugger, I’ll just type it myself…

This is why I like to use alphas for macros, so there’s something for my own memory to grab hold of. Either that or relegendables I suppose!

[kbdfr]

I’d question my own memory if I had as many unlabelled macros, relying on mnemonic-free function keys. Is that F7 or F17? And is she talking to F19 or F21? Umm… bugger, I’ll just type it myself…

This is why I like to use alphas for macros, so there’s something for my own memory to grab hold of. Either that or relegendables I suppose!

And that's precisely why the programmable keys of the G81-8308 have relegendable keycaps

[Muirium]

<Pictures “Ankh Morpork” in tiny writing on the key…>

[kbdfr]

Is that a character? I would then simply put a pic of him/her on the key.
And otherwise I would use the initials - which, by the way, happens to follow your suggestion of "alphas"

[Palatino]

It’s a city. I’d take a picture of the artwork from a front cover depicting the steaming metropolis, print it in miniature and stick under a relegendable.