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Just how this came to be is a narrative that remains murky and – ironically – far from fixed. It's a story that offers insights into the sometimes unexpected pace of technological change, and one that's peopled by unsung inventors and obsessive tinkerers. It taps a fervent debate that most of us are oblivious to.
The earliest typewriters were cumbersome, moody machines but there was nevertheless an order to their keys that any English-speaking user could readily glean: they were arranged alphabetically. So why change this logical layout? Legend has it that Qwerty – known for the jabberwocky-style word formed by the first six letters of its top row – was dreamt up with the express purpose of slowing typists down. One character even lectures another about it in a Paulo Coelho novel.
In fact, the Qwerty layout was concocted to prevent keys from jamming – or at least, that's what most experts have tended to believe. The letters on a typewriter are affixed to metal arms, which are activated by the keys; on early models, if a lever was activated before its neighbour had fully come back down to rest, they would jam, forcing the typist to stop. Enter Christopher Sholes. Born in small-town Pennsylvania in 1819, Sholes was many things, including newspaper editor and Wisconsin state senator. He was also one of a team of inventors credited with building the first commercially viable typewriter. Having already tried to build machines for typesetting and printing numbers, Sholes' adventures in type began in 1867, when he read an article in Scientific American describing the Pterotype, a prototype typewriter invented by one John Pratt. The article sounded the death knoll for that "laborious and unsatisfactory" instrument, the pen, soon to be set down in favour of "playing on the literary piano".
(Score: 2) by hellcat on Monday December 19 2016, @02:14PM
Been using DVORAK layout since the late 80s. Roughly doubled my typing speed.
In my best days I could bang out about 60-80 wpm in qwerty. Averaged 120 to 150 in Dvorak.
Nowadays I have to lurch between many keyboards, mostly coworkers qwerties (is that a word?) so my average speed is much lower. Mistakes higher.
My memories of the origin of qwerty are that the character order was based on the pigeonholes of the old lead typesetters. The type was kept in cubbies where the character order helped them minimize mistakes in laying the type. It basically maximized their arm movements, but labor was cheap. Since they were the primary market when the mechanical typesetters came out, late 1800s, it made sense to maintain the character distribution.
The Navy in the 50s and 60s initiated the Dvorak studies, seeking to enhance the productivity of clerks. I learned this in a business class focusing on industrial organizational productivity - time motion studies. If you don't know what that is, watch "cheaper by the dozen," an old movie that focuses on an icon of the discipline.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Monday December 19 2016, @07:38PM
I didn't learn to type until I was in my 30's (20 years ago). My top speed in QWERTY was not much, so I tried Dvorak. It didn't improve my speed much, but when I have to type a lot, it seems much more comfortable for my hands.
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Friday December 23 2016, @02:47AM
I've been typing on Dvorak on my computers now for about 20 years. I may or may not be much faster than on qwerty, but whenever I have to use a qwerty keyboard for any non-insignificant amounts of typing it just feels like my hands and fingers are flying all over the place. To me Dvorak is more comfortable and much less tiring for long periods of typing which is why I prefer to use it.