Keyboards: QWERTY et al
Part I: QWERTY
For users of Latin letters, the QWERTY keyboard format is practically instinctual. This is of course, because it’s what we learned. Should children tomorrow be taught to type on keyboards that have all the letters arranged alphabetically, that will quickly become instinctual for them. However, switch a QWERTY user to anything different and they will quickly lodge a complaint.
The common refrain told to children asking the expected question of why the keyboard is arranged QWERTY instead of ABCD is that the QWERTY format arranges letters that are used frequently in the easiest to reach places. This is true, but there is another dimension to that truth.
When the keyboard was first being developed, it was being developed not for MacBooks and tablets but for typewriters and typewriters presented the challenge of jammed keys. When typing on a laptop, the keys are raised but only slightly, and the mechanisms of what links each key to the letter appearing on the screen are hidden behind code and the miniscule button that is revealed when a key is peeled off. On typewriters, the keys were more elevated, and each letter was attached to a small spoke that would caues the so-called ‘paper finger’ to punch out through the ribbon and stamp the letter on the paper.
With that many moving parts to close together, there is a higher propensity for error caused by the the spokes and paper fingers getting tangled up together if pressed too quickly when close together. This is what caused Christopher Latham Sholes, a partial owner of the first QWERTY patent, to maniuplate the order of the keys on the board. His idea was to move apart letters that were commonly pressed in succession so that there would be less cause for tangles. Look at your fingers now, and see that to form A-N-D your fingers have to traverse from the left side of the keyboard down to the bottom right and then back up to the left. T-H-E causes a journey as well, although a less strenuous one, as do H-E, S-H-E and I-T.
From 1870 until the filling of the final patent in 1878 the arrangement of the keys shifted.
The modern keyboard differs from Sholes final patent in minor respects most notably: the M is shifted down one row, the C and X are swapped, and 0 and 1 are added to the top row. Modern keyboards also have more punctuation and some keys have dual purposes that can be changed according to whether the shift key is held down.
Part II: Dvorak
The Dvorak keyboard was proposed in1936 by Dr. August Dvorak who claimed that the new layout put keys in an order that would lessen the strain caused by frequent typing. The Dvorak keyboard didn’t catch on, mostly because people hate change. But most computers have the option where a user can switch to Dvorak usage if desired. On Macs, switch to the Dvorak layout by going to System Preferences>Language & Region>Keyboard Preferences>Input Sources. Click the little plus sign on the bottom left and add Dvorak as an option. It’s a great prank to play on a friend if you want them to think they’ve been possessed or something.
Part III: AZERTY & ZHJAYSCPG
The AZERTY keyboard is used in French speaking countries except, notably, Canada. The AZERTY’s attractiveness is derived from its emphasis on accents that are integral in the French language.
AZERTY replaced the 1907 ZHJAYSCPG keyboard after the latter failed to catch on.
Part IV: The Non-Latin Keyboards
Part V: Character Based Languages
Understanding how character based languages can be difficult for speakers of non-character based languages to conceptzualize. Each character is built from different strokes, so typing a character based language is a bit like construction. Character based languages use input editors combined with specialized keyboards so that a combination of certain keys yields a specific character.
These input editors may be combined with processors that analyze previous words written in order to guess what character is being typed. This is similar to the auto-complete feature employed by Google and Apple.
