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Just look at letters on your computer’s keyboard. They’re a mess! How in the world did the rarely used Q’s and W’s get a prime position on the top row? And how did A get so far to the left when N is halfway across the board? The whole thing is one giant hodgepodge.

This may leave you wondering why anyone would create a keyboard that’s so unnecessarily complicated. Isn’t efficiency the motto of technology? Well, go back 20 or 25 years ago when typewriters were still in use. Your standard typewriter had a keyboard made of buttons, which, when pressed, sent a metal, ink-covered type-piece onto a piece of paper. This left a print of the letter on the paper. By using these buttons, it was possible to write out paragraphs in a relatively short time and in clear type. As people used typewriters more and more extensively, they became faster and faster at typing. As they typed faster the keys would jam. This would often blotch the ink and ruin the paper.

The developers of type-writers searched for ways to solve this problem. They tried weighting the buttons, and creating erasable ink. They also jumbled up the letters on the keyboard. At first, the new “QWERTY” buttons solved the problem. Those writers who used typewriters now had to type slower and more deliberately to avoid typos. But the victory was only temporary. As a new generation of writers was raised, they learned to type on the new keyboard. In time, they became just as fast as their predecessors and the problem was renewed. When computers came along, the keyboards stayed the same to convenience those who had previously used typewriters.

Now, a new keyboard is being developed with the letters placed for maximum efficiency.  Unlike “QWERTY,” the new keypad has all five vowels and the five most used consonants in the middle row. 400 English words can be typed with the middle row alone, compared to roughly 100 by “QWERTY.” The new keyboard was found to be 70% more effective than the original.

 

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Why Are the Keys All Jumbled Up? Chronicles of Ithilien - Chapter 1 Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown The Wolf