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| Thread ID: 63745 | 2005-11-21 17:04:00 | Anyone have a "Dvorak" keypad ? | Eric Richards (6226) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 406120 | 2005-11-22 05:13:00 | Just another myth, but closer to the truth than most. The key order doesn't make all that much difference to the speed. But the original reason was to reduce the chance of having one typebar going forward while its immediate neighbour was coming back. Even with the QWERTY keyboard, I managed to jam typebars together on my Imperial 66, frequently. But that was usually caused by getting two keys going forward almost simultaneously. (I was a damn fast two-finger typist). Dvorak is alleged to share the "busyness" of the hands more evenly. But there are other keyboard layouts. Have a look at the back of a DOS manual. Germans don't call it the QWERTY keyboard. ;) What the world really needs is a keyboard which can spell and punctuate. :cool: |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 406121 | 2005-11-22 05:35:00 | Thank you Graham L, I look foward to the keyboard of the future. | mark c (247) | ||
| 406122 | 2005-11-22 06:27:00 | What about the keyboard with no letters on the keys? Does anyone use it??? I come across 'dvorak' keyboard whilst studying business admin...I wonder if avid data entry people got adjusted to it just as they do to the 'qwerty' one. | Mr Wetzyl (362) | ||
| 406123 | 2005-11-22 19:53:00 | The QWERTY keyboard was not designed to slow typists down. It *was* designed to prevent jams, and also speed up typing. Qyiet Actually, it was intended to speed up typing by preventing jams; a subtle but significant difference, intended to overcome weaknesses in the basic mechanical design of typewriters at that early stage of their development. As for QWERTY vs DVORAK, if you had never known either system before, I'd lay odds that DVORAK would be easier to learn and faster to use, even for two finger typists like me. A keyboard layout that groups the most commonly used vowels and consonants into one row of keys and separates them for left and right hand usage has to provide economies of movement that can speed up typing and reduce errors. Making the change to DVORAK after years of QWERTY is another matter altogether, and I suspect that it is the challenge presented by that transition that motivates many of the critics of DVORAK. They get altogether far to hysterical for any other issue to be the cause. I'd be more concerned if they proceed with plans to invert traffic lights to give green for stop and red for go on the basis that green has higher visibility and stopping on demand is more important than going. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 406124 | 2005-11-23 02:17:00 | You mean it's supposed to be red for stop and green for go? Is that why they all blow their horns? I thought it was because they were pleased to see me. :thumbs: | Graham L (2) | ||
| 406125 | 2005-11-23 18:17:00 | The QWERTY keyboard was not designed to slow typists down. It *was* designed to prevent jams, and also speed up typing. This (home.earthlink.net) awful looking website was the most consise rebuttal I could find. There were plenty of more verbose (reason.com) ones. -Qyiet Now the TV program said QWERTY keyboard was designed to prevent jams, and also slow typing only to prevent jams. Personally I dont know what the truth is, I would think the TV program makers (click on line) would do more homework on the issue than most of us at this web site forum. |
Eric Richards (6226) | ||
| 406126 | 2005-11-23 20:48:00 | Have you seen the caliber of the posters who have posted in this thread? Hell, I would take their combined word over just about any source on the planet, especially anything on TV. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 406127 | 2005-11-24 02:51:00 | Where did the TV program makers come into this.? All I know is,that half the time,someone deletes the letters on my KB then surreptitiously puts them back. ;) |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 406128 | 2005-11-24 03:06:00 | My keys are in diiferent places everytime I type something....... | Metla (12) | ||
| 406129 | 2005-11-24 03:12:00 | Personally I dont know what the truth is, I would think the TV program makers (click on line) would do more homework on the issue than most of us at this web site forum . The answer Eric, is to read the links provided and work back to the description of the original design, that way you will find the truth you seek: it was designed to eliminate jams that were slowing down typing . The name "QWERTY" for our typewriter keyboard comes from the first six letters in the top alphabet row (the one just below the numbers) . It is also called the "Universal" keyboard for rather obvious reasons . It was the work of inventor C . L . Sholes, who put together the prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's . For years, popular writers have accused Sholes of deliberately arranging his keyboard to slow down fast typists who would otherwise jam up his sluggish machine . In fact, his motives were just the opposite . When Sholes built his first model in 1868, the keys were arranged alphabetically in two rows . At the time, Milwaukee was a backwoods town . The crude machine shop tools available there could hardly produce a finely-honed instrument that worked with precision . Yes, the first typewriter was sluggish . Yes, it did clash and jam when someone tried to type with it . But Sholes was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by rearranging the letters . Looking inside his early machine, we can see how he did it . The first typewriter had its letters on the end of rods called "typebars . " The typebars hung in a circle . The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath . If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession . So, Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as "TH" and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances . He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes' chief financial backer . The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside . Sholes' solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced . The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes' patent granted in 1878 (see drawing), some years after the machine was into production . QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down . However, it is all academic now, which is why the Dvorak keyboard can work . It wouldn't have survived in Shole's day . Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
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