Why are letters on computer keyboard not written in alphabetical order?
The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the 1860s by the creator of the first modern typewriter, Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee. Originally, the characters on the typewriters he invented were arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar which struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, once an operator had learned to type at speed, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars, and also frequently blotting the document.[1] A business associate of Sholes, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to speed up typing by preventing common pairs of typebars from striking the platen at the same time and sticking together. The effect this rearrangement of letters had on maximum typing speed is a disputed issue. Some sources assert that the QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing
QWERTY keyboards are not designed to be efficient, they were in fact designed to SLOW TYPISTS DOWN. The first typewriters were mechanical contraptions that would jam if you typed too fast, so Christopher Sholes scrambled the keys to stop people from typing too fast! By the time computers arrived and the original motivation was gone, people were so used to the layout that there has been considerable resistance to change. Also, QWERTY is not the only keyboard layout; in France, for example the top row starts AZERTY. Not to say there hasn’t been attempts. For example the Dvorak keyboard was actually designed for efficiency and ergonomics, but the entrenchment of QWERTY has blocked its widespread adoption.
That’s just not the way the keyboard is set up. You have what is called “home keys” and they are, on the left FDSA, and on the right JKL: In school we were taught that your hands always start from these positions, right hand, right side; left hand, left side. Then you learn to move your right and left hands up and down, right and left from the “home keys” in order to type correctly. This is the way “correct” typing is taught. Hope I’ve helped… Also, I learned on electric typewriters, not manual ones. I’m not quite that old…lol. Ignore Ali, he has no CLUE what he is talking about!
