- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
I think the Gold mark and Mark are the same, so your assumption was right.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
Uwe wrote:
I also don't believe that the keyset on the machine was custom made. There isn't just one German keyboard layout, there are many variants, especially with multilingual type options (accent keys), I've seen other Erika models with the ö and ü keys in the top row. The company produced machines for many different languages and it's not rare to find Erika models with Cyrillic or Greek keyboards..
It turns out there are many more keyboard layouts than I ever imagined.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
Georg has a great website, and that booklet was fascinating to look through; thanks for posting that link. I don't think that I spotted your keyboard layout, but the brochure is over a decade older than your typewriter and I'm sure Erika added to that list, or at least amended what was on it.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
My thoughts exactly. Some Dutch keyboards from the late 1930s also were not present in the booklet.
BTW, the Belgian keyboard (Belgisch) was mind boggling.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
No kidding! 
That would be one worth owning!
I love the names that were given to the keyboards too. Some of them sound exotic, like the 'Japan', but then you realize it's a fairly standard keyboard aside from the Yen symbol.
Why do you suppose they would have made a distinction 'Amsterdam' and 'Rotterdam' in two Dutch layouts?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
I was wondering too about that. I can think of two possibilities.
1) For cultural or historical reason there was demand for two keyboard layouts. Erika picked random citynames for them.
2) For different usage scenarios there was demand for two keyboard layouts. Erika picked names that made some sense.
The "Amsterdam" is more numeric oriented, with 0, +, = and - keys.
This keyboard is better suited for (international) generic usage, study and science.
Amsterdam has always been a university city.
The "Rotterdam" is more trade oriented, with the Florin and section keys.
This keyboard is optimized for financial and legal usage.
+ and - for accounting can be achieved with black and red ink.
Rotterdam was (and still is) a large harbour city.
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
I was wondering if there were any regional differences given Rotterdam's closer proximity to Belgium and if there was any Flemish influence. I like your second theory, which seems very logical. I also like that Erika was a little creative with its keyboard names; most other companies would simply have called those two keyboards 'Dutch 1' and 'Dutch 2'.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
What an interesting thought. But there are no regional differences that justify a different keyboard. Amsterdam and Rotterdam lie both in the Holland region. Holland and Flanders are pretty different.
I too like the keyboard names, they are very clear.
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Thread Starter- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
I was wondering if there were any regional differences given Rotterdam's closer proximity to Belgium and if there was any Flemish influence.
Uwe, maybe you are right after all. I have acquired an Erika S with a 'Rotterdam' keyboard. To my surprise, I discovered I have misread the 'Rotterdam' keyboard drawing. I thought the character above the / was a florin, but it turned out to be a ç (c-cedilla). As far as I know this character is very common in French, one of the Belgian languages.
The Erika on the TWDB
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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Re: Interesting keyboard layout
I assume the other French accents included with the keyboard are dead keys?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
