why are english keyboards not in alphabetical order?

Question

why are they the way they are...why were we taught to use them with the letters in a bunch of random places...didnt it start like that with typewriters?

Answer 1

The keyboard arrangement that we have (QWERTY) was designed based on letter frequency in English so that a typist would be less likely to hit two adjacent keys in quick succession and thus jam the type bars on a mechanical typewriter.

The arrangement was actually designed to slow the typist down (or rather to attempt to make the typing speed more even). Of course, when typists came to use computers they required the key arrangement which they are used to.

Different arrangements are used for other languages since the letter frequencies are different.

Here is one of many histories: http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html

(Note that the reasons here differ somewhat from the ones I was told by my Dad way, way back!)

Answer 2

The American engineer Christopher L. Sholes had been busy creating typewriters since the late 1860s.



Nearly all accounts of his work retell the same myth: in the first models typebars would clash and get stuck because of the high speed of typing, so Sholes tried to set the most frequently used letters as far apart as he could (the typebars still jammed in the late 20th century in the most advanced models, though). This is the way the letterkey layout called QWERTY (the first letters placed in the first row of the layout) allegedly came into being. Nobody knows the precise history of the origin of this sequence of keys, while Sholes didn’t leave any records.





In the first models of typewriters letterkeys were arranged in the alphabetical order (the traces thereof are still visible in today’s keyboards: see the letters FGHJKL in the middle). It didn’t take inventors long to conclude that alphabet was not the best pattern of arranging the letterkeys, because in writing some letters tend to be used more often than the others, and typing on a typewriter with letterkeys arranged in the alphabetical order was not that easy. By the way, one of the particular features of the key layout was that all Latin vowels stood in the upper row (except for the letter A, but it was still there in the French layout: AZERTY).



The QWERTY layout was exactly designed to speed up typing: at that time typists used to type with two fingers; the blind 10-finger method (touch typing) was not used until the late 1890s.




Housekeeping tip
All the letters of the word TYPEWRITER stand in the upper row. This is believed to have helped persuade customers in shops: a salesman would quickly type the key word and thereby reveal the advantages of a typewriter.

Answer 3

QWERTY, (pronounced /ˈkwɝrti/) is the most common modern-day keyboard layout on English language computer and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six letters seen in the keyboard's top first row of letters. The QWERTY design was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to Remington in 1873, when it first appeared in typewriters.

PURPOSE

Frequently used pairs of letters were separated in an attempt to stop the typebars from intertwining and becoming stuck, thus forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars and also frequently blotting the document[1]. The home row (ASDFGHJKL) of the QWERTY layout is thought to be a remnant of the old alphabetical layout that QWERTY replaced. QWERTY also attempted to alternate keys between hands, allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes home a key. This sped up both the original double-handed hunt-and-peck technique and the later touch typing technique; however, single-handed words such as stewardesses and monopoly show flaws in the alternation.

Answer 4

The keyboard arrangement that we have (QWERTY) was designed based on letter frequency in English so that a typist would be less likely to hit two adjacent keys in quick succession and thus jam the type bars on a mechanical typewriter.

The arrangement was actually designed to slow the typist down (or rather to attempt to make the typing speed more even). Of course, when typists came to use computers they required the key arrangement which they are used to.

Different arrangements are used for other languages since the letter frequencies are different.

Here is one of many histories: http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwe...

(Note that the reasons here differ somewhat from the ones I was told by my Dad way, way back!)

Answer 5

It's the "qwerty" keyboard. The random order was created grouping most used letters in specific places to prevent the arms of the keys from becoming jammed in the old manual style typewriters.

Answer 6

The letter placement may seem random, but actually the middle row of keys' or "home" keys are the letters used most often. It is faster to have your fingers resting on these keys. That also means that any other key is only one row either up or down.