By 1980, we had been through almost two decades of keyboard input - 10 years of the screen and keyboard. Using shortcuts was common, and without a mouse, required. Most "professional" keyboards came with some combination of ctrl, alt, meta, and option keys. The Cat came out at an interesting time. There was a ton of experimentation in the market - most people did not own a computer or know how to use them. The Cat is a very interesting take on easy to use and if you are into UX, reading through the built in help on the Cat is really interesting. http://www.canoncat.org/canoncat/onlinehelp.html