The
QWERTY Sham: Taking Keyboard Inefficiency to New Heights
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By: Christopher Dunn
Frustrated keyboardists across the
globe, overwhelmed by the obvious inefficiency of the ubiquitous
qwerty keyboard configuration have to wonder from time to
time how the qwerty keyboard came into existence.
For those not familiar with the
term, Q-W-E-R-T-Y refers to the six alpha keys on the left
side of the top lettered row of the standard keyboard. Coincidentally,
these keys spell "QWERTY", which, of course, has
no specific meaning other than what has become a favorite
reference to this specific keyboard layout. Over the years
the term QWERTY has evolved into a shorthand descriptor of
the most popular international keyboard layout of all time.
If you're like most people, you undoubtedly assume that sometime
in the distant past, a group of highly paid efficiency experts
were corralled into a room and forced to come up with the
most brilliant and efficient keyboard arrangement possible.
Surely the individuals would have been charged with the task
of developing a keyboard configuration for the ages - one
that would promise to yield absolutely the fastest keystrokes
with the minimum amount of stress.
Guess again. The qwerty keyboard
design was actually a far less noble effort and has a much
more insidious history than that.
A Short History of the Mechanical Typewriter
The mechanical typewriter certainly
represented one of the most important inventions of its time.
It played a key role in ushering in a new and unrivaled age
of enlightenment and information sharing. Nevertheless, the
invention of the manual mechanical typewriter in 1868 came
with its own unique set of problems and challenges. Among
the most notable of these problems was the propensity of the
mechanical character arms to frequently jam.
The earliest versions of the mechanical
typewriter had characters which were mounted on metal arms.
As the typewriter keys were depressed, the downward force
of the typist's fingers would cause the metal arms to swing
forward and strike the back of an ink ribbon and impress the
characters onto a sheet of paper which was firmly inserted
into a mechanical roller.
The jamming problem was exacerbated
when two or more keys were struck in rapid succession. Unfortunately,
the fastest typists tended to get ahead of the swinging action
of the arms causing frequent jams and resulting in errors
that were difficult and time consuming to fix. In fact, the
fastest typists ended up spending most of their time untangling
metal swing arms and fixing errors resulting from mechanical
mistypes. It just didn't pay to type too fast.
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Development of the QWERTY Solution
Consequently, the QWERTY keyboard arrangement was designed
specifically to solve this jamming problem. The QWERTY keyboard
was designed by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870's -
just a few short years after the first mechanical typewriters
came off the production line. The final version of the Qwerty
keyboard came about through a great deal of trial and error
in an attempt to overcome what was the most pressing problem
of the new typing device: the jamming problem. It was discovered
that by arranging the keys in such a way as to reduce the
possibility of typing keys in rapid succession, enough inefficiency
could be created in the typing process to circumvent the problem
of tangling the metal mechanical character arms. Problem solved.
Unfortunately, the burden of inefficiency rested squarely
on the shoulders of typists who suffered a tremendous loss
of productivity, incurred measurable additional stress, and
were plagued by serious physical maladies such as carpal tunnel
syndrome.
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QWERTY: The Most Inefficient Keyboard Layout Possible
1. The ten most frequently typed letters in English language
literature are in order: E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, and D.
Of the eight home keys of a traditional QWERTY keyboard -
that is, the keys where the fingers rest and spend most of
their time - only three of the top ten letters are represented:
A, S, and D. The other seven of the top ten most common letters
require a reach up or down from the home keys to strike the
key.
2. What is more, the three "common" letters (A,S,
and D) that are found on the home row of keys are located
to the far left side of the keyboard. That is to say, they
must be typed by the middle, ring, and little (pinky) fingers
of the LEFT hand. Most people are right handed. By forcing
typists to type the most commonly encountered letters by either
reaching or by using the least dexterous fingers of their
weakest hand, the QWERTY keyboard all but guarantees the most
painful, tedious and slow typing experience possible.
Hope for Change in the Keyboarding World?
So why are we still clinging to a keyboard arrangement that
is hopelessly outdated, completely irrelevant, and in every
way counterproductive to speed and efficiency in an age of
computers and high speed printers? Could it be the same reason
the United States refuses to embrace the more efficient and
intuitive metric system? Perhaps we are simply too entrenched
and invested in an inferior system. Maybe we perceive that
a change of this magnitude would be too costly or chaotic.
Possibly we simply lack the foresight or the will to change.
Whatever the reasons, it appears the QWERTY keyboard will
be with us for the duration. As they say, it is hard to teach
an old dog new tricks...
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