In Summer 2021, I started work on my own personal IBM keyboard wiki on my website aptly called Shark’s Wiki. One motivation was the uncertainly surrounding Deskthority and its wiki after their buy-out, but I’ve been wanting to deliver properly referenced content on my site for a while now.
Today, I wanted to share some of the stuff that’s taking shape! My initial aim is to tackle niche or seldom attempted stuff before. For example, my beloved Models M3 and M4 buckling sleeve keyboards and keypads, and a comprehensive list of all Model M variants and their defining features (including not only buckling spring Model Ms). The first link below represents that latter list (the largest effort so far), of which a comprehensive list of variants has been missing from the Model M Wikipedia page, and paritally Deskthority wiki (until December just gone). Also, I want to deliver stuff on ThinkPad/TrackPoint keyboards as well. Here’s a sample:
In the pipeline are pages on Enhanced Keyboards (standard 101-105 key Model Ms), Model M6/M6-1 and Model M13. Stay tuned!
Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think!
My IBM Enhanced Keyboard (the standard Model M) wiki page is functionally complete and got enough illustration! There are still a few variants left that I need to cover, but basically, all the common ones are present (plus, a unique and whacky Unicomp that supports a phone line at the end!)
Meanwhile, also added a small page about the IBM 1130 Computing System keyboard, the first IBM 029 keypunch based keyboard in my wiki!
IBM Retail POS (RPOS) Keyboard family, a subset of Model Ms with buckling sleeve switches.
The hybrid “printer-keyboards” consoles that constituted IBM’s second generation of keyboards. At the moment, it’s just a known variants list with design detail yet to come.
The short-lived era of IBM elastic diaphragm keyboards. Again, it’s just a known variants list with design detail yet to come.
