Why is a computer keyboard set up the way it is.?

Question

and possibly who came up with it?

Answer 1

It is an adaptation of the type writer keyboard. Since the type writer predate the computer the old design stuck. I think the original QWERTY design was designed to slow down the typist so the type writer doesn't jam. The person that is credited with this design is Christopher Sholes .

use the link below to look up a full length intro to the invention of the layout:

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story098.htm

Answer 2

QWERTY IS the same keyboard used in the U.S., not sure about the entire N. America, so nothing different there. Each key is associated with a Japanese character but it really comes down to sounding a word out phonetically. The sounds like automatically change to Japanese hiragana. When you finish typing a word, you press a key that picks a kanji for that word. If that isn't the proper kanji, you press the key again and a drop down list will give you more options in kanji to scroll through.

Answer 3

The keyboard are set up indeed as QWERTY (left hand top letter row) which is the name of the coomon keyboard layout. In better operating systems like some Linux versions you have a choice of layout since it is possible to get other keyboard configurations

Answer 4

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RE:
Why is a computer keyboard set up the way it is.?
and possibly who came up with it?

Answer 5

The typriter had one major flaw. If you stuck two keys too close to each other they caused the thing to jam. This became a problem with the most common letters used in everyday typing. So they spaced the common letters in such a way that they were apart on the mechanical workings of the machine!!!

Answer 6

Christopher Latham Sholes is the man we have to "thank". He was a typewriter builder in the 1860's.
"It is sometimes said that it was designed to slow down the typist, but this is wrong; it was designed to allow *faster* typing - under a constraint now long obsolete. In early typewriters, fast typing using nearby type-bars jammed the mechanism. So Sholes fiddled the layout to separate the letters of many common digraphs (he did a far from perfect job, though; "th", "tr", "ed", and "er", for example, each use two nearby keys). Also, putting the letters of "typewriter" on one line allowed it to be typed with particular speed and accuracy for demos. The jamming problem was essentially solved soon afterward by a suitable use of springs, but the keyboard layout lives on."

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Early typewriters had fairly large linkages. In order to keep them from jamming up, frequently used letters were spaced far apart. People who type for speed (like 200 Words per minute) us a Dvorak layout which puts all the frequently used letters on the home row.

Answer 9

Forgot "who" but there is alternative called Dvorak keyboard, but going back to this, the qwerty layout started with typewriters, 1800s, back then one issue is to slow down our typing speed because machanically a higher speed word-per-minute rate would jam the keyboard so qwerty was a solution to this, Dvorak rearrange keys to achieve that higher rate because mechanical jamming is no longer issue but it is very different and unacustomed layout.

Answer 10

It was not designed to slow down typing... it was designed to speed it up, but often in ways we don't think about today.

First, it put the most common letters in the center, such that they are accessed with your index and fore-fingers. Notice that ertyiodfghiklcvbnm are all accessed with the two fingers. This is important because a) they are the strongest fingers to push on the keys without getting tired, and b) they have the greatest dexterity. Moving your pinky finger typically requires moving your entire hand.

Second, it separates common sequence characters on the opposite sides. This helps with a) speed (since it is quicker to type from alternating fingers than the same finger 3 times ("the" for example), b) in keeping manual type-writer keys from jamming together, and c) in keeping a consistant force on the keys since by alternating hands one reduces stress on one hand.

QWERTY heavily favours English -- in most other languages it is a serious speed drain -- and it slightly favours left-handed folks since the left-hand keys are slightly more common.


1875, Christopher Sholes