\fi-440\li440 Q: Why did the key layout of the NeXT keyboard change with the 68040 product line? Is it possible to get the old-style keyboard with a new machine?\
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\fi-440\li440 A: As NeXT has grown and expanded its distribution channels, it has become important that we are able to ship our systems to Europe. Europe has much more stringent ISO standards for keyboard layouts. Our original keyboard did not meet European standards and would have prevented us from selling to several countries.\
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\pard\tx440\tx1920\tx2880\tx3840\tx4800\tx5760\tx6720\tx7680\tx8640\tx9600\fi-440\li440 One of the important requirements was that the return key had to be shaped like a backwards “L.” To accomplish this, one of the keys had to be removed and the key codes remapped. We understand that not all existing customers purchasing new systems will like the new layout because it is different from what they are used to. Some have asked that we stock both keyboards. \
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However, one of our missions is to make sure our keyboards can be used worldwide. To do this, we must standardize on the keycaps. We don't want to offer two keyboards for each country because this would dramatically increase our configurations and inventory, making handling and forecasting more difficult. \
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The UNIX folk among you may want to remap your keyboard. In /NextDeveloper/Demos, there is an application called Keyboard which allows anyone to remap the keyboard. You can remap the pipe and backslash keys to a location more comfortable for you.\
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We hope you understand our philosophy. It's difficult to please everyone with something as sensitive as keyboard mapping, but we wanted to let you know why changes were made.\
