Why the Spectrum didn't have a Space bar...

[Gryzor]

So, last night I was reading the article about the birth of the Spectrum. As usually, with Retro Gamer's such articles, it left much to be desired, but it was a nice one while it lasted. It also had some nice pictures of proposed prototypes (my favorite was the one with the white aluminium faceplate).


There was also one prototype with a proper space key. The caption read that they dropped it because the case designer deemed that it added too much depth to the case.


...say what? O.M.G. I mean, how much of a braindead, dimwit recluse do you have to be in order to put form over such BASIC function? I mean, what if he deemed that, hey, the letters P and W do not look very nice and hence drop them altogether? Pathetic...


Of course RG didn't have much to say on that, in typical fanboy fashion


So, now we know why the Speccyd didn't have a Space key - it would be too wide for someone's taste if it did!

[Bryce]

...say what? O.M.G. I mean, how much of a braindead, dimwit recluse do you have to be in order to put form over such BASIC function? I mean, what if he deemed that, hey, the letters P and W do not look very nice and hence drop them altogether? Pathetic...

where's the problem, just use the commands  HILE-DO[nb]Yeah, I know Spectrum didn't have a While-Do command! But it looked humourous all the same.[/nb], RINT, STO, etc...

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Well, it does have that ridiculous editor with all the commands on the keys, so you could use shortcuts. But this leads me to believe that they only included all the keys in order to fit all the commands

[Bryce]

But they do have a Space-Key, they just don't have a Space-bar.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

I stand corrected, indeed they do (a space KEY! in the most awkward position imaginable! But it surely looks lovely...)

[Bryce]

I assume they didn't want to add a further row just for the Space-bar. This would have meant either making the case deeper or higher or making the keys even smaller. I assume they didn't want to do any of these.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

...is what I'm saying, thank you very much

[antoniovillena]

Because there is a rubber keyboard. The material is very soft, so it's complicated to make wider keys. Also the editor was token based, so the space key is not so common in basic listing.

[Gryzor]

The designer didn't mention anything about technical difficulties. He just flat out said it didn't look nice. I've seen rubber space bars before (Z88, anyone?)...


Also, SPACE -and this may come as a surprise to you - is not used only in BASIC.


I have here sitting next to me a ZX Spectrum + on my work desk (a CPC would be too long unfortunately), and it does have a space bar. So I guess they saw there was need for it.


I really think this was one of the most idiotic deign decisions of the whole era.

[Bryce]

The ZX Spectrum+ may have had a space bar, but the keyboard was still a disgrace! The +2/+3 were the first and only decent keyboards that came out of Spectrum and even those aren't anything to write home about.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Yes, it is a disgrace indeed, but that's beside the point. The  + series was, of course, all Amstrad, and they kind of knew what the user needed...