Why do we use the QWERTY keyboard for computer but not ABCD or something like that?

Answer 1

Inverntor C. L. Sholes put together the prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's. He built his first model in 1868. The keys were arranged alphabetically in two rows. At the time, Milwaukee was a backwoods town. The crude machine shop tools available there could hardly produce a finely-honed instrument that worked with precision. So, the first typewriter was sluggish. It clashed and jammed when someone tried to type with it. But Sholes was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by rearranging the letters.

The first typewriter had its letters on the end of rods called "typebars." The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. So, Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as "TH" and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances..

The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes' patent granted in 1878 (see drawing), some years after the machine was into production. QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down.

So there.. it sped up typing so it stuck.

Answer 2

The original QWERTY keyboard was designed to match the way type is laid out in a printer's box (used for setting type). The more commonly used letters are along the "home" row and towards the center. The less used letters (like q, z, }, and / ) are on the other rows to the outside. This actually allows people to type faster then with an ABC keyboard.

The original layout was modified slightly because some of the more common letters were being typed with same hand, and it a person typed to fast, it could cause keys next to each other to get stuck together.

Answer 3

i heard that when keyboard was first disigned it was a abcd keyboard, but people type too fast and make lots of mistakes. and remember the keyboards are part of printwriters and you are pretty much screwed if you make a little mistake, so keyboard was redesigned to slow people down a little, and has been kept as a convention.
another explaination is that qwerty keyboards put the most used keys in the middle and less used keys aside because index fingers are more flexible than pinkies. and also the keys are arranged in a way that makes typing more comfortable, for example, putting letters of a common segment of a word next to each other.(er,ui,etc)

Answer 4

Like ecoandy said, and in fact it might be more efficient than a straightforward ABCD format because it's more likely to result in sequences of letters alternating between one hand and the other, rather than all on one hand.

Answer 5

I disagree with everybody. I would personally like a keyboard that goes ABCD..., caus I can type pretty well with one hand, like right now. Some idiot designed them without asking the public their oopinion.

Answer 6

its an artifact of old type writers. QWERTY was the design that produces the fewest tangles when typists were working.

Answer 7

It's still the easiest layout, the letters are placed in a logical order - er, as, op, oi - they are quicker to reach with your fingers.