4 ms·
The modern keyboard is a throwback from Typewriters, Typewriters had a specific layout to actually SLOW your typing down so that the print arms didn't get jamme
by xs83 8y ago
The modern keyboard is a throwback from Typewriters, Typewriters had a specific layout to actually SLOW your typing down so that the print arms didn't get jammed by ensuring that letters that are often used together translate to print hammers being fired at as large a distance as possible.
Unfortunately it is pervasive, I have often been tempted to learn Dvorak or one of the 'faster' keyboards but just imagining the annoyance when having to go back to a normal QWERTY puts me right off!
- Doxin 8y agoTypewriters have a layout to prevent the hammers from jamming by spacing common keys out farther, they are not designed to slow down typing. Due to the mechanics in a typewriter two keys close together have a much larger range of movement where they interfere than two keys far away. A hammer will have to move almost entirely back to its rest position if an adjacent hammer is to not run into it. On the other hand it would have to move only half an inch to get out of the way of a hammer on the other side of the typewriter.
- beatgammit 8y agoEh, I use Dvorak and typing in QWERTY isn't that big of a pain. For the first few months, it was pretty hard to switch between them, but I use both nearly every day so it's become a non-issue. I much prefer to type in Dvorak, but I'm reasonably fast as both.