AgendA

The AgendA is a British-designed personal organiser (PDA) from the mid-80s. Its most striking feature is the microwriter keyboard. As if to encourage the use of the microwriter, the conventional keyboard is arranged alphabetically instead of in the usual and familiar QWERTY layout. One of the main design goals was to extend battery life, and that has certainly been achieved. The built-in NiCads would last weeks on a single charge (when they were new).

The microwriter is a descendant of the first chord keyboards, pioneered by Doug Engelbart (inventor of the mouse). Part of the innovation involved in the AgendA was a system of mnemonics to assist the user in learning the chords. Once the user had learnt the basics, it was possible to move on to more advanced uses of the chord keyboard including a full set of single-chord commands for the machine. In fact, this advanced usage may have gone too far, with all sorts of special chord combinations for every conceivable command. Only the most determined and motivated users could memorise all of them.

There was an article about the machine on page 154 of the February 1989 issue of Personal Computer World.

• Bellaire Electronics, designers of the AgendA
• Microwriter AgendA home page
• AgendA at Geoff Macdonald's Computer Museum
• Microwriter AgendA from the Gadgetman's Shelves
• Chorded Keyboards from ericlindsay.com