Idea for alternative Russian keyboard?
Background: USSR did not dissolve, dissolved a few years later (when PC-compatible had become ubiquitous), or at least in a smoother way.
Category I: Modified hardware with additional keys
(1a) 7 additional keys for the discrepancy between Latin (26) and Russian (33) alphabets (e.g. Istra 4816); all other key pairings follow US layout
(1b) 4 additional keys for Russian letters; other 3 “displaced” symbol key was split under 6 Russian letters (e.g. ES1845)
Category II: Physical ANSI/ISO layout, largely following typewriter convention
Note that Russian typewriter’s number row is shifted one key from their western European counterpart, there are different possibilities under the broad category.
(2a) Keep the typewriter position of symbols, only replacing those outside of ASCII (§ and №), as in GOST 14289-88’s main figure (e.g. MC 1504)
(2b) Move both shifted (numerals etc.) and unshifted (punctuations) registers one position left, with or without replacing out-of-ASCII symbols (e.g. kbdru1.dll for Windows)
(2c) Only move shifted register one position left, keep unshifted registers untouched; specified in GOST 6431 and GOST 14289’s later revisions but never got a chance to be implemented
(2d) Similar to IIb, but moving certain symbols to achieve a closer correspondence to US keyboard, (e.g. Baget)
Category III: Original layouts not conforming to typewriter traditions
(3a) Windows kbdru.dll, criticized by Artemy Lebedev as bad for comma being in a shifted position; or some modification of it
(3b) Some other possible layouts, for example, the one I once created for my fictional world building, conforming to ISO physical layout
Other notes
- Timeline:
- The entire Category I and (2d) happened when factories independently designed and imiated (or copied if you like) their products, without a national standard, with GOST 6431 mentioned above actually about typewriters.
- (2a), (2c) were real standards in our history, but they had some conflict with each other, possibly they couldn't care less to sort the matter out anymore.
- Different design philosophies:
- (1a), (2a), (2b) believe that the keystroke for symbols should be kept exactly the same for Latin and Cyrillic mode, so either additional keys or third register (AltGr) are invoked, while 7 keys are completely useless in Latin mode.
- Other categories believe that it is useless to maintain the capability to output all non-letter ASCII in Cyrillic mode anyway, since programmers who need them would need the Latin alphabet at the same time. Thus Cyrillic mode involves omission of some ASCII punctuations, and later designs (e.g. the two layout DLLs in current Windows) involves non-ASCII symbols instead