5 ms·

Yes!! It's remarkable that only one or two of the designs had the numbers in order. I've always wondered about this in regard to keyboards as well: why did any

by ds9 13y ago

Yes!! It's remarkable that only one or two of the designs had the numbers in order. I've always wondered about this in regard to keyboards as well: why did anyone ever think it was a good idea to put one of the numbers out of sequence?

mynameishere 13y ago
Because non-programmers start counting at 1. 0 is only used when you get to 10.
sdkmvx 13y ago
Zero was (is) special. It dials the operator. This was much more common back then than it is today, so it is fitting that it got a special position. I can't speak for keyboards, but I do recall once reading a Knuth paper on METAFONT where he noted the difference between the order that mathematicians write numbers (0123456789) and the order that typographers write numbers (1234567890).
aroch 13y ago
At least on the numpad it makes sense. One of the most used buttons in accouting (the 0) is assigned to your thumb and it can rest on the oversized button. As for the number row, this seems to sum things up nicely: http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39544/keyboard-number-row-ordering http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39544/keyboard-number-... Basically the 0 was added near the O because pre-zero being included typists used the capital O as zero. Thus zero was placed near O as a matter of usage.
breadbox 13y ago
Are you aware that for a long time many typewriters didn't even have a one key? You were supposed to type a lowercase ell for one. And if you really needed an exclamation point, you overstruck a period with a single-quote. Obviously that could never had worked on a computer keyboard, and I think the trend to supply an actual one key was in motion before keyboard-enabled computers became common. My point is that the folks who invented and (initially) used typewriters were not thinking mathematically. They were 100% concerned with getting ink on paper quickly and legibly.
kolinko 13y ago
In case of rotary phones it was much easier to put zero at the end. The old phones used pulses to dial numbers - one pulse meant one, two pulses - two, and so on. Ten pulses meant zero. If they wanted to put zero at the beginning, the dialing mechanism would need to be much more complex.
- nemetroid 13y ago
  In Sweden, one pulse was (is) used for zero, two pulses for one and so forth. Therefore, old rotary phones havet zero next to one [1]. However, when buttons were introduced de ended up with the same layout as the US. 1:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Dialog.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Dialog.jp...
tingletech 13y ago
0 is 10 pulses on a rotary dial. 0 is not really a number technically is it, more of a digit?
- R_Edward 13y ago
  Zero is not technically a number? It has been a long time since my grade school days, but I seem to remember zero being an element of Reals, Rationals, and Integers. Granted, zero is not an element of what we used to call "Counting Numbers," but really, it should have been.

by ds9 13y ago

mynameishere 13y ago

Because non-programmers start counting at 1. 0 is only used when you get to 10.

sdkmvx 13y ago

Zero was (is) special. It dials the operator. This was much more common back then than it is today, so it is fitting that it got a special position. I can't speak for keyboards, but I do recall once reading a Knuth paper on METAFONT where he noted the difference between the order that mathematicians write numbers (0123456789) and the order that typographers write numbers (1234567890).

aroch 13y ago

At least on the numpad it makes sense. One of the most used buttons in accouting (the 0) is assigned to your thumb and it can rest on the oversized button. As for the number row, this seems to sum things up nicely: http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39544/keyboard-number-row-ordering http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39544/keyboard-number-... Basically the 0 was added near the O because pre-zero being included typists used the capital O as zero. Thus zero was placed near O as a matter of usage.

breadbox 13y ago

Are you aware that for a long time many typewriters didn't even have a one key? You were supposed to type a lowercase ell for one. And if you really needed an exclamation point, you overstruck a period with a single-quote. Obviously that could never had worked on a computer keyboard, and I think the trend to supply an actual one key was in motion before keyboard-enabled computers became common. My point is that the folks who invented and (initially) used typewriters were not thinking mathematically. They were 100% concerned with getting ink on paper quickly and legibly.

kolinko 13y ago

In case of rotary phones it was much easier to put zero at the end. The old phones used pulses to dial numbers - one pulse meant one, two pulses - two, and so on. Ten pulses meant zero. If they wanted to put zero at the beginning, the dialing mechanism would need to be much more complex.

nemetroid 13y ago
In Sweden, one pulse was (is) used for zero, two pulses for one and so forth. Therefore, old rotary phones havet zero next to one [1]. However, when buttons were introduced de ended up with the same layout as the US. 1:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Dialog.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Dialog.jp...

tingletech 13y ago

0 is 10 pulses on a rotary dial. 0 is not really a number technically is it, more of a digit?

R_Edward 13y ago
Zero is not technically a number? It has been a long time since my grade school days, but I seem to remember zero being an element of Reals, Rationals, and Integers. Granted, zero is not an element of what we used to call "Counting Numbers," but really, it should have been.