

The Story Behind the QWERTY Keyboard - mxfh
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2013/05/fact-of-fiction-the-legend-of-the-qwerty-keyboard

======
dkrich
Serious question: does anybody know how English alphabet ordering originated?
It seems that the order is completely arbitrary, but interestingly has never
been changed because it works for teaching and is universally understood.

I think that parallels the development of the QWERTY keyboard system and
really any universally-accepted protocol (electrical outlets, clockwise
downward screwing, vertical gas pedal right of horizontal brake, etc.). Once
something is established that is simple and works, it becomes widespread and
indoctrinated into society, and it takes an improvement of not just huge
gains, but monumental gains to change people's behavior.

I think a lot about how many designs we accept as completely evolved that may
not necessarily be ideal but trade perfection for universal understanding
which is apparently more valuable.

EDIT: This section annoys me:

 _There’s a somewhat related theory that credits Remington’s pre-merger
business tactics with the popularization of QWERTY. Remington didn’t just
produce typewriters, they also provided training courses – for a small fee, of
course. Typists who learned on their proprietary system would have to stay
loyal to the brand, so companies that wanted to hire trained typists had to
stock their desks with Remington typewriters. It’s a system that’s still works
today, as illustrated by the devout following Apple built through the
ecosystem created by iTunes, the iTunes store, and the iPod._

That example makes no sense to me. I think Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP are a lot
better examples. Hell, SAP makes more from training courses in a month than
most companies make in ten years.

------
jcoder
Submitted about 5 hours ago, discussion here:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5659241>

~~~
tokenadult
That submission originally went to blogspam, as the top comment points out,
and a curator must have changed the URL of the link.

------
capisce
It's not just the virtual key layout that's inefficient, the physical key
layout is also terrible, such as X being to the right of S, or C being to the
right of D, making them awkward to reach with the corresponding finger on the
home row when touch typing.

What you want is a symmetrical key layout where the left side horizontally
mirrors the right side of the keyboard, and also with less or no horizontal
deltas between the rows for the right hand (M is too far right of the J on the
standard keyboard). A symmetrical physical key layout is objectively better
(if the physical layout for your right hand was ideal, the layout for the left
hand should be the mirror image of that), and can be found for instance in the
TypeMatrix, Kinesis Advantage, or Truly Ergonomic keyboards. Since switching
to the TypeMatrix 2030 I found typing to be a much more pleasant experience
(particularly in combination with the Colemak virtual layout). I just wish
there was a laptop being sold with a proper physical key layout too, would
make coding on one much more comfortable.

Here's an article that talks about why the standard keyboard sucks:
<http://loup-vaillant.fr/articles/better-keyboards>

~~~
tadfisher
A couple of hours with the Truly Ergonomic keyboard taught me that my
keyboarding technique, self-learned since the age of 5 or so, is a complete
disaster. Over the next couple of weeks, I had to unlearn such things as
hitting 'B' with my right index finger, 'C' with my left index finger, and 'P'
with my right ring finger.

Once I unlearned the behaviors that I used to deal with staggered layouts and
awkward modifier usage, I overcame my 20-year-old typing speed wall. My speed
is faster even on staggered layouts, and the ergonomics aren't as much of a
concern.

------
thirsteh
Previous post: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5659241>

------
wahsd
Regardless of how many times the story has or hasn't been posted or discussed;
it grinds my gears that we are still using the qwerty, after it was a shitty
layout to accommodate a shitty typewriter design and for pitching purposes.
Then the horrible layout made it's way, absent of any kind of rationale or
relationship, into the computer keyboard, which didn't even have any typing
mechanism. Now it has even been transferred into the PDA (can we just start
calling PDAs what they are...which is not a phone) and tablets, which now
don't even have physical keyboards. Sometimes it blows my mind how humans just
drag stupid nonsense from the primitive past into the future.

~~~
nfoz
Sure, qwerty sucks. But I don't think it's the limiting factor. I reckon that
with any keyboard layout, a much more substantial improvement in typing
ability will come from spending some quality time with a typing tutor program.
The people I know who spent time switching to dvorak, it seems, never spent
much time learning to type qwerty very well....

~~~
mistercow
I used to type about 80 WPM with QWERTY, and I would peak at a hair under 100
when I was on a roll.

I switched to Colemak a few years ago, and I currently type around 90 WPM
ordinarily, and can peak at about 120 when I'm concentrating.

I have no idea if it's just that I've naturally progressed, or if Colemak is
naturally faster, but in any case, I was a competent typist before I switched,
and have significantly improved since.

