I didn't learn on my parents' Royal electric (no carriage return key, you had a good old lever to slam), but I did use it. I learned to do fast hunt & peck on an Apple II, and learned proper touch-typing on a real IBM Selectric.
I have used everything from a totally manual Underwood to a Kinesis "well" ergonomic keyboard, but always a QWERTY layout except when outside the US (man, did that French AZERTY screw with my head).
Oh, right, that was another thing that bugged me the first few times I tried to use an electric typewriter: keeping track of whether the model I was using at the time had a return key. The first time I used one that had a return key, I kept reaching up to swat the return lever, not finding it, and completely losing my groove -- I was already used to the return key on computers, but my brain kept going "typewriter, therefore return lever instead". The first time I used an electric that didn't have a return key, I'd finally trained myself to think, "electric, therefore return key," so I kept looking for that and losing my flow by the time I remembered to swat the lever instead.
And then there was the first time I tried to figure out how to set tab stops on a typewriter that wanted them set electronically. I kept looking at the back trying to figure out where the tabs were, despite the fact that the machine in question moved the type-ball and not the platen. Whoops.
(On the mechanical typewriters, I remember that the tabs looked way too flimsy for how hard the carriage slammed into them when you hit the tab key. But I never had one bend or break, so I guess they were strong enough.)
(no subject)
I have used everything from a totally manual Underwood to a Kinesis "well" ergonomic keyboard, but always a QWERTY layout except when outside the US (man, did that French AZERTY screw with my head).
(no subject)
And then there was the first time I tried to figure out how to set tab stops on a typewriter that wanted them set electronically. I kept looking at the back trying to figure out where the tabs were, despite the fact that the machine in question moved the type-ball and not the platen. Whoops.
(On the mechanical typewriters, I remember that the tabs looked way too flimsy for how hard the carriage slammed into them when you hit the tab key. But I never had one bend or break, so I guess they were strong enough.)