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poltr1Years ago, while in college, I was reading about an alternative keyboard layout called the Dvorak keyboard. It placed the most frequently-used letters ([ETANORISH]) in the home keys position on the keyboard. By rearranging the keys based on their frequency, typists would be more efficient and type faster.
In 1984, a friend of mine at the time had an Apple IIc. I noticed that the IIc featured a keyboard switch that would switch the keyboard from QWERTY layout to Dvorak layout. (Cool!)
Brief intro and information on the Dvorak keyboard.
So why didn't it catch on? Sometimes, the better technology doesn't always win. Mac-heads still insist their Macintoshes are better machines than PCs. And the Beta-philes out there (myself included) say that Beta was a better videotape format than VHS.
The QWERTY layout -- also called the Sholes layout -- has been around for many years. It was first used on typewriters, and was designed to prevent the keys from jamming. In short, it was inefficiency by design. By slowing down typists, there would be less keyjams. (Sidenote: Here's what The Straight Dope says about QWERTY.)
The Dvorak keyboard was patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak, an efficiency expert and inventor. He arranged the keys based on their frequency of usage in the English language. Unfortunately, it didn't catch on. Typists were already used to QWERTY, and didn't want to spend money on a new typewriter. Then came WW II, and the demand went out for typists...and typewriters. QWERTY already had the market share, and people didn't want to switch to Dvorak.
Even though we have the technology to easily switch our computer keyboards from QWERTY to Dvorak and back, most people don't bother. They've become so accustomed to QWERTY that they don't want to learn a new keyboard layout. Even if their typing style is the two-finger hunt-and-peck.
If I had a spare keyboard, and a key puller, I might rearrange the keyboard to a Dvorak arrangement, and try it out for a week. All I need to do is to plug in the keyboard, change the keyboard properties in Control Panel, and I'm all set.
Of course, this is a nice little practical joke to lay on unsuspecting co-workers. }:) But you didn't hear this from me.
I also found a half-keyboard with QWERTY layout, manufactured by Matias Corporation, based in Vaughn, ON. Essentially, it's the left-hand layout, but if one holds down the space bar, it acts like a "shift" key, and the shifted keys for the other half of the keyboard -- it's the mirror image of the missing right-hand side. This would be great for Palm users -- typing with one hand, and using the stylus with the other.
Matias also manufactures a full-size QWERTY keyboard with half-keyboard functionality. Either of these keyboards can be classified as adaptive technology, enabling people with disabilities to use computers just as easily as their able-bodied counterparts.
In 1984, a friend of mine at the time had an Apple IIc. I noticed that the IIc featured a keyboard switch that would switch the keyboard from QWERTY layout to Dvorak layout. (Cool!)
Brief intro and information on the Dvorak keyboard.
So why didn't it catch on? Sometimes, the better technology doesn't always win. Mac-heads still insist their Macintoshes are better machines than PCs. And the Beta-philes out there (myself included) say that Beta was a better videotape format than VHS.
The QWERTY layout -- also called the Sholes layout -- has been around for many years. It was first used on typewriters, and was designed to prevent the keys from jamming. In short, it was inefficiency by design. By slowing down typists, there would be less keyjams. (Sidenote: Here's what The Straight Dope says about QWERTY.)
The Dvorak keyboard was patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak, an efficiency expert and inventor. He arranged the keys based on their frequency of usage in the English language. Unfortunately, it didn't catch on. Typists were already used to QWERTY, and didn't want to spend money on a new typewriter. Then came WW II, and the demand went out for typists...and typewriters. QWERTY already had the market share, and people didn't want to switch to Dvorak.
Even though we have the technology to easily switch our computer keyboards from QWERTY to Dvorak and back, most people don't bother. They've become so accustomed to QWERTY that they don't want to learn a new keyboard layout. Even if their typing style is the two-finger hunt-and-peck.
If I had a spare keyboard, and a key puller, I might rearrange the keyboard to a Dvorak arrangement, and try it out for a week. All I need to do is to plug in the keyboard, change the keyboard properties in Control Panel, and I'm all set.
Of course, this is a nice little practical joke to lay on unsuspecting co-workers. }:) But you didn't hear this from me.
I also found a half-keyboard with QWERTY layout, manufactured by Matias Corporation, based in Vaughn, ON. Essentially, it's the left-hand layout, but if one holds down the space bar, it acts like a "shift" key, and the shifted keys for the other half of the keyboard -- it's the mirror image of the missing right-hand side. This would be great for Palm users -- typing with one hand, and using the stylus with the other.
Matias also manufactures a full-size QWERTY keyboard with half-keyboard functionality. Either of these keyboards can be classified as adaptive technology, enabling people with disabilities to use computers just as easily as their able-bodied counterparts.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 05:18 pm (UTC)Chording keyboards
Date: 2005-03-15 10:39 pm (UTC)As with all alternative input devices, from eye tracking and Ouiji Boards through ergonomic layout character-based keyboards, they work for some and not for others.
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to limit the speed of the typist somewhat so that the mechanism could keep up with the human. Dvorak keyboards were developed after the purely mechanical problems that lead to the QWERTY layout were no longer an issue, and may have caught on, except that too large a percentage of users were already trained on the QWERTY. Dvorak users had to be able to use QWERTY or they would be unable to use most of the equipment they encountered, and for most people (not all), it's very difficult to train yourself on completely different fingering on an otherwise identical device to get the same results to a point where you're highly efficient on both.
Keyboard
Date: 2005-03-16 12:27 am (UTC)KG