My programmer friend swears by Dvorak. I trained on typewriters in high school, so I have been on QWERTY for too long. However, I always thought having more memorable passwords and then learning to type them in Dvorak on your QWERTY keyboard would be clever. So 'password' would be 'ra;;,soh' on my QWERTY keyboard.
One thing I also heard, but do not have a source for, was that the choice of letters on the top row was influenced by the desire to be able to type "typewriter" all on that row. As your fingers covered the middle and bottom rows, those were the easiest to see, so this worked in the favor of salesmen.
Just got around to reading this. This is fascinating - one of those topics I always wanted to explore but never got around to it. And thanks for the shoutout!
This was so interesting. And you managed to punch out enough letters to form a whole newsletter, just like always! 😅
But PLEASE don’t put any ideas into the heads of Apple people or whoever would be responsible for changing the QWERTY keyboard. I couldn’t handle the re-training at this point in my life!
I love reading about the history behind things we never really think of. The genius of Christopher Latham's layout is one I never really thought about, but came to appreciate ever more once I learned about it.
When I was a kid, my mom had an ancient typwriter with the arms that would swing up and impact the ribbon to leave the ink mark. You had to use significant finger power to press the key, move the mechanism and imact the paper. Today's keyboards are so easy it isn't even funny.
Like others, my first thought was that I'd love to try switching, but, too much of the world is QUERTY for it to be anything other than ridiculously confusing.
It occurs to me, though -- dialects, accents, languages, social body language cues ... we humans seem quite capable of mastering multiple sets and switching between them, far beyond what I'd ever imagine if I were predicting it without prior knowledge. Maybe keyboarding would be the same, and both wouldn't be that big a deal.
It's a bit like the driving on the right side vs. the left side of the road. In 1967 Sweden changed from driving from the left to the right side of the road. The last country that did so was Ghana in 1974. But there were not that many drivers or infrastructure in their countries at the time. Although it is discussed in the UK from time to time, it would be impossible for us to switch nowadays. I think people could learn to use the Dvorak keyboard, but then using a phone, or another computer, would mess with your head! There are just too many keyboards using QUERTY.
I’ve always considered trying a different keyboard and figured it would be an upgrade in efficiency and comfort. But alas, I know the retraining of my brain would be miserable and slow, so here I am still stuck on the same QWERTY keyboard!
Oh wow. I don't think my brain could cope with a different keyboard any more than it can cope with driving on the other side of the road!!
My programmer friend swears by Dvorak. I trained on typewriters in high school, so I have been on QWERTY for too long. However, I always thought having more memorable passwords and then learning to type them in Dvorak on your QWERTY keyboard would be clever. So 'password' would be 'ra;;,soh' on my QWERTY keyboard.
One thing I also heard, but do not have a source for, was that the choice of letters on the top row was influenced by the desire to be able to type "typewriter" all on that row. As your fingers covered the middle and bottom rows, those were the easiest to see, so this worked in the favor of salesmen.
Wow! Many new information here! Thank you Martin for the thorough research and writing.
Just got around to reading this. This is fascinating - one of those topics I always wanted to explore but never got around to it. And thanks for the shoutout!
Great content all round. Thanks
Very interesting. I tried using the DVORAK keyboard on my iPhone. I’ve not used it enough to develop any proficiency.
This was so interesting. And you managed to punch out enough letters to form a whole newsletter, just like always! 😅
But PLEASE don’t put any ideas into the heads of Apple people or whoever would be responsible for changing the QWERTY keyboard. I couldn’t handle the re-training at this point in my life!
I love reading about the history behind things we never really think of. The genius of Christopher Latham's layout is one I never really thought about, but came to appreciate ever more once I learned about it.
When I was a kid, my mom had an ancient typwriter with the arms that would swing up and impact the ribbon to leave the ink mark. You had to use significant finger power to press the key, move the mechanism and imact the paper. Today's keyboards are so easy it isn't even funny.
Yes Yes! I would love to weigh and try out as I love CHANGE. Will be fun to try! Thanks for this post.
Like others, my first thought was that I'd love to try switching, but, too much of the world is QUERTY for it to be anything other than ridiculously confusing.
It occurs to me, though -- dialects, accents, languages, social body language cues ... we humans seem quite capable of mastering multiple sets and switching between them, far beyond what I'd ever imagine if I were predicting it without prior knowledge. Maybe keyboarding would be the same, and both wouldn't be that big a deal.
It's a bit like the driving on the right side vs. the left side of the road. In 1967 Sweden changed from driving from the left to the right side of the road. The last country that did so was Ghana in 1974. But there were not that many drivers or infrastructure in their countries at the time. Although it is discussed in the UK from time to time, it would be impossible for us to switch nowadays. I think people could learn to use the Dvorak keyboard, but then using a phone, or another computer, would mess with your head! There are just too many keyboards using QUERTY.
This is a really interesting post. Didn’t think, or know about this. Thank you.
Fascinating story, thanks!
I’ve always considered trying a different keyboard and figured it would be an upgrade in efficiency and comfort. But alas, I know the retraining of my brain would be miserable and slow, so here I am still stuck on the same QWERTY keyboard!