Talk:QWERTY

was:

QWERTY is by no means the fastest key layout system -- a side effect of its design actually hindered typing speed -- but it remains in use on computers today simply because typists converting from typewriter to computer keyboard did not want to learn a new typing style to take advantage of keys that could not get stuck.

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Very impressive table.  :-) --Larry Sanger, but it crashes the Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition; I would suggest a gif file instead. -- Hannes Hirzel

It was actually easier to make the table than it would have been for me to make an image. Perhaps a screenshot of the table from a browser that works could be substituted? :) -Bryan Derksen

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In fact there is no good data proving those claims, and quite a bit of evidence to the contrary.

That's not true. See http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/

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I was taught many years ago that the keyboard was arranged the way it was in order to reduce the collisions of keys during typing. This, and the fact that most of the commonly used keys are not in the "home row" or necessate the extended use of the left hand, are designs to reduce the speed to that of the machine. -- mike dill

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Please keep this text factually accurate. Any claim that Sholes intended to slow down typists is false. The second paragraph's claim that the arrangement helped him avoid stuck hammers is true. --LDC

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I think the fable of the keys may be a bad link to have. The article was written by economists, with the aim of proving that capitalism does not leave good alternatives behind, and its data is massaged to that end. If anything we could link to a wiki page explaining with NeutralPointOfView that the study is controversial. As it stands, it's kind of like an article about biology linking to articles by Popper and Kuhn.

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The claim that other layouts produce faster typing speeds is vague. Today most references give that the QWERTY layout was developed to stop collisions, not to slow the typing speed artificially. There is a good discussion about typewriter design in Donald Norman's "The Psychology of Everyday Things" usability design book. The previous assumption that the layout was constructed to avoid collisions is also not really backed up, and generally there is no consensus. For example, note that the word "typewriter" is made up of letters in the first row only, and the first devices were sold - first of their kind - as "typewriter"s. -sc.

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Younger people may not have seen a mechanical typewriter with the hammers that swing towards the paper. IBM's interchangable ball shaped type heads for electrical typewriters and Computer printers are the reasons why some people don't even know what you meant by key collisions. Perhaps older folks can add some explanation in the article. Do people still remember those days when a carriage return was a lever?

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Request for more information: "Dvorak" and "Sholes" are both referred to by their last names only, as people. The article should at least mention their full name and who they are before it starts referring to them this way. I think Dvorak is Charles Dvorak, but I've never heard of Sholes? Wesley

The Sholes in the article is Christopher Sholes, mentioned in the top paragraph, and the Dvorak is Dr. August Dvorak. It might be a good idea to slip August Dvorak's name into the paragraph on the topic, so people don't think it's talking about the composer. --AaronW 01:37, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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I'm sorry but I learned typing in a few years. But in a Few months i typed as fast on Dvorak than on my other keyboard!

dvorak comparison

"tests showing little significant performance difference between those who first learned to type on QWERTY and those who first learned to type on Dvorak."

cite? what tests? conducted by whom? when? mnemonic 05:28, 2004 Jun 20 (UTC)

"Alternated keys"

This article claims that the QWERTY keyboard "also alternated keys between hands, allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes a key." I have no idea what this means - I can see many words which can't be typed simply by alternating hands, unless the typist is supposed to make an effort to alternate hands? Some clarification of this point would be useful, or else remove it. Also, I feel there needs to be some mention (here and in Typewriter) of the claim that QWERTY was designed to slow down typists so as not to jam the typewriter - even if the claim is false, some mention needs to be made, because the claim is made often. - Brian Kendig 14:06, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

To the best of my knowledge (there is some debate about this), QWERTY wasn't designed so much to make you type slower, as to put letters that are typed rapidly in succession, on opposite sides, effectively slowing you down. -- Rmrfstar 21:08, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

POV

I'm adding a 'neutrality disputed' boilerplate to the top of this page, because the second half of the article is largely an attack on the Dvorak system, which is totally out of place and POV. I'll be editing to try and get it NPOV, but I use Dvorak myself, so I may not be the best candidate. If anyone has any issues or disputes, take it up here or on my talk page. Matthewcieplak 06:02, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• I think it's better now; let me know if you have disputes I'd want to know about. Matthewcieplak 06:43, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Need reference

I just fixed a spelling error on this page and I was wondering if this line is true.

The word QWERTY was, coincedentially, the first message ever sent by e-mail.

Reference? --Chill Pill Bill 01:37, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I can't find any references, but I've heard it before. -- Rmrfstar 21:06, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Stewardesses & Lollipop

I'm quoting:

1. Stewardesses is the Longest word in English that can be typed with only the left hand. Actually, Sweaterdresses is longer (source: Matt Freedman).
2. Conversely using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is Lollipop.

I'm not sure how to explain it, I'm not so good with english words, but could someone edit it to explain that's only if you use the "touch" method? It's obviously not efficient at all but it's fully possible to type anything with only one hand.

edit: Gack, I wasn't logged in. --BodyTag 20:08, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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Why is the "longest sentence with one hand" claim unverifiable? Take a good wordlist, have a program filters all the words that can be typed with one hand, and have another program generate all the possible combinations. The longest one that makes sense in English is it. Using a (spell-checker's, possibly) wordlist that also lists grammatical classes for every word, the program could even possibly filter out those phrases that definitely make no grammatical sense at all. LjL 14:59, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I just mean it's fully possible to type any word with your right hand only if you go hunt and pecking instead of using touch. It didn't say anything about that. :\ Yes, most people find this obvious, but i think it deserves a notion. Again, sorry for my bad explaining skills. --BodyTag 20:28, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I mentioned the statistics were for conventional hand placement only. If you read the article on the Longest word in English, you will realize much debate there is over what constitutes a word. See the link, "Typewriter Words" at the bottom for a more thorough discussion of the topic. -- Rmrfstar 21:03, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)