What happened was Bill Gates left his ordinary keyboard in his car on a hot day and it melted into the shape you know today.
He figured he could sell it and sure enough there were enough people with bent hands that bought it. True story.
Posted on 04/15/2018 1:34:03 AM PDT by LibWhacker
We need a cursive keyboard. Then we could type really fast.
I am stunned we are still using the QWERTY keyboard, designed to slow typing common words as much as possible. Why the Dvorak keyboard is not in standard use by now, is just flat baffling. Just inertia and tradition, but you would think modern typing classes in grade school would use nothing but Dvorak, and every new electronic device would have it available. I mean, right in settings should be an option for the Dvorak keyboard.
• Many common letter combinations require awkward finger motions.
• Many common letter combinations require a finger to jump over the home row.
• Many common letter combinations are typed with one hand. (e.g. was, were)
• Most typing is done with the left hand, which for most people is not the dominant hand.
• About 16% of typing is done on the lower row, 52% on the top row and only 32% on the home row.
Dvorak studied letter frequencies and the physiology of the hand and created a new pattern to alleviate the above problems, based on the following principles:[7]
• Letters should be typed by alternating between hands (which makes typing more rhythmic, increases speed, reduces error, and reduces fatigue). On a Dvorak keyboard, vowels are all on the left home row, as well as the most used symbol characters, while the most used consonants are on the right.
• For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and bigrams should be typed on the home row where the fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers (Thus, about 70% of keyboard strokes on the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard are done on the home row and only 22% and 8% on the top and bottom rows respectively).
• The least common letters should be on the bottom row which is the hardest row to reach.
The right hand should do more of the typing because most people are right-handed.
Makes sense to me.
As I understand it, the standard keyboard was actually designed to slow typist down to avoid key jams in the old mechanical typewriters.
What would the learning curve be to switch from QWERTY to Dvorak layout? As I stated earlier, it took two full years of typing classes for me to master the QWERTY layout (back in the 1970s). Since then, I average between 70-80 words a minute. Never had any kind of “carpal tunnel” or other repetitive injury. I’m also left-handed, which may give me a bit of an advantage.
When I first read about them I thought that they would take off.
The theory made sense.
I wouldn’t hazard a guess.
I would imagine it would vary from individual to individual.
For people our age I would guess it would be more difficult being that our brains are pretty much hard wired already. But for younger people in their early 20’s or younger I would think that it would not be that difficult and worth the effort.
If you can do 80 words per minute without any stress why bother.
I cannot type except with 1 finger because QWERTY makes no sense to me but ABC... does
If only the guy who invented the keyboard did not drop his prototype keyboard on the way to the patent office that day and hurriedly placed back the keys.....
the QWERTY keyboard was developed to slow down typists, because they were too fast and kept jamming the early typewriters.
back in the 80s there was a lot of discussion and some computers had options of either keyboard.
My mom thought I was destined for prison!
My mother typed 120 WPM on a manual in the old days (second fastest in her high school ever).
At 45, she took up typing again to help my father with NASA proposals, after a 20 year layoff. I tested her at 90 WPM over 5 minutes without error.
She is also a classical pianist.
I am lousy myself.
By the time I took typing, I suspected I would be hopeless at anything requiring finger or manual dexterity. Typing class confirmed it and I subsequently forever gave up any hope of playing the piano, the banjo, etc., or being a magician, etc. Problem was, I was fast running out of potential occupations.
I had decent reflexes and could punch like a mule kicks, but hated being punched back. So boxing was out, although lack of general athleticism, endurance and speed had already pretty much tipped me off that I wasn’t going to be a boxer. I wasn’t smart enough to be a brain surgeon, mathematician or physicist. Things were looking pretty bleak, when lo and behold, I found out that with a little effort (actually, a LOT of effort) I could do well at math. I wish I could go back and put some effort into those other things I gave up so quickly (except boxing!).
I learned typing as a child, using a manual typewriter. When I got good enough at it (parents’ determination of “good enough”) they let me use Dad’s IBM Selectric. THAT was an awesome machine; really made typing “fun”. Best keyboard ever; the keys were electrically powered and actually kicked back. Your hands kind of float over the keyboard if you use it right. DEC VT-100 terminal keyboards were almost as good; probably as good as you can get with spring action keys. Modern computer keyboards feel dead to me.
If you’re a quick brown fox, you’ll be able to jump over the lazy dogs.
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