[Pmwiki-users] OT: Keyboard layouts

Patrick R. Michaud pmichaud
Mon Jun 14 08:03:45 CDT 2004


On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 11:32:19AM +0200, Christian Ridderstr?m wrote:
> 
> Oh, that's right... you don't even need shift do you?  
> 
> Off-topic: Isn't that kind of weird... how often is '[' and ']' used in 
> normal text?

One thing to remember is that frequency of letters in keyboard layout
hasn't been an issue in standard U.S. keyboard design since at least
the 19th century.  The QWERTY-based layout was developed then to 
help prevent typebar (the metal part that impressed the glyph through
the ink ribbon and onto the paper) jams on manual typewriters.
Interestingly, this improved overall typing efficiency by reducing
the speed at which people could type.

People have become so accustomed to the QWERTY layout that this has driven
computer keyboard design, even though the original reasons for a QWERTY
arrangement have long passed.

In a standard QWERTY typewriter (e.g., the layouts popularized by the
IBM Selectric and Underwood typewriters), the parentheses have always
been Shift+9 and Shift+0, and this has translated to computer keyboards
as well.  The keys that occur to the right of the 'p' (i.e., brackets
and backslash on U.S. keyboards) came about with the invention of
computer keyboards, thus some characters like brackets are unshifted
even though they occur less frequently than other symbols.

Indeed, I know of a few computer keyboards where the location of
punctuation keys were changed for various reasons, and none of these
have been widely successful.  The standard 101-key layout in use today
is just too entrenched.  

Indeed, it's so entrenched that the QWERTY layout is adopted on devices
where there are clearly better alternatives in terms of data entry speed.  
On my Palm V I'm using a "Fitaly" keyboard layout 
(http://www.fitaly.com/fitaly/fitaly.htm) which is optimized for 
typing using a stylus, such that the most common characters are 
clustered in the center of the layout.  With fitaly and an hour or so 
of practice I was able to easily enter data into my Palm at around 
50 words per minute--far faster than what is possible with Graffiti or 
a QWERTY layout.  However, Palm's internal display keyboard and the various 
"thumbpad" keyboards still use QWERTY because that's what buyers have 
come to expect, and an unfamiliar layout is perceived as a bad thing.  
This isn't to say Palm or others have made a design error--it's just 
that different groups have different ideas of "optimal" solutions.

Pm



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