How Mac Keyboards Got Complicated
Of course the very first Mac had a keyboard; what self-respecting personal computer of the 1980s wouldn’t? Today, to our sophisticated 21st century eyes, the keyboard that shipped with the 128K Mac in 1984 looks quaint, but certainly not alien: even though the Mac keyboard was not the primary device for issuing commands to the computer (that’s what the Mac’s menus were for!), it was quite well suited for the other main task for which computer keyboards were designed—data entry.
True, it did differ from other computer keyboards of the day by lacking arrow keys and a Control key and by offering several keys that were new-ish to keyboard users of the era, like the Command (⌘) key.
But it wasn’t that mysterious ...
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