An old article but still atleast introduced me to one really weird Keyboard layout
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QWERTY is one of the least efficient keyboard layouts. It was designed to intentionally slow down typing by spacing common letters far apart, to prevent typewriter keys from jamming. It’s really not great for modern electronic devices, but it’s so widespread that it’s very hard to change.
It was designed to intentionally slow down
This myth is one of my pet peeves. The rate of typing was not the cause of jamming.
The proximity of sequential typebars was the problem. Two adjacent typebars pressed simultaneously would jam at the very beginning of their stroke. To type adjacent keys, the first key would have to retract completely before the second key could start to be pressed. Otherwise, they struck eachother in flight.
Put 3 or 4 bars between sequential letters, and their “flight” paths only intersect at the very end of their strokes: you can start pressing the second key before the first has even hit the paper, because it will bounce out of the way before the second one gets close. QWERTY enabled good typists to have three or four typebars “in flight” simultaneously, greatly increasing their rate of typing.
QWERTY wasn’t designed to slow down typists. It enabled them to type much faster.
Your conclusions are correct, of course: It’s not great for modern devices where keystrokes don’t interfere with eachother. It’s just the oft-repeated “intentionally slow down typists” claim that drives me nuts.
Thanks for the correction! I’m glad to have learnt something new today.
Qwerty wasn’t designed to slow people down. when you account for practice time no layout is significantly different in the real world. The limit is how fast you think not how fast your fingers move.
Maltron keyboards have always intrigued me just never been able to pull the trigger on one.
Isn’t Svalboard the new(?) hottness in keyboard-land?
I taught myself Dvorak. Didn’t buy a new keyboard or anything, just practised a little every day in some app I installed on my computer.
Took me maybe a week before I switched to Dvorak full time, and maybe a week more before my writing was as fast as it had ever been on Qwerty. It’s absolutely worth making the change.
I did this at 12 years old back in the 90s. Never lost my ability to type qwerty, either. Completely worth it.
I never managed to touch type on qwerty, so I guess I had nothing to lose in that sense.
I made the change in my late 20s, just before I started writing my PhD thesis. I figured if I was going to do a lot of writing, I might as well make it as efficient as possible.
I’ve wanted to learn Colemak, but I would also need a swipe keyboard with predictions for Android.
Heliboard offers the option. The ideal layout for a small onscreen keyboard may be rather different from one for typing with all your fingers though.
True, but I think it would help to have both in the same layout.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Maybe. I use Dvorak for real keyboards and QWERTY on my phone. I tried Dvorak on my phone and didn’t see any benefit.
Hmm, maybe it doesn’t matter and is more like speaking different languages. Ten finger typing and swiping are different skills anyway.
I type on Colemak on my PC and Qwerty on mobile
Same, it’s really easy to keep them separate mentally.
I think QWERTY may even be better for typing on a phone, because common letters are more spread out, leading to fewer errors.
FUTO also has this feature thankfully cuz I guess switched to Colemak two weeks ago myself
Seems to be missing stenotype keyboards like this one: https://stenokeyboards.com/
They have to be the fastest way to type if you can learn the chords properly, around 200wpm.
I have always wanted to move to a steno keyboard but not had the focus to put in a an hour a day for a month or so to get good at it.
I do use a lot of 30 and 40% keyboards and use chording on those but not for actual letters, just stuff like backspace or enter. Smallest I can actually do work with is the Pain 27 thanks to using home row mods and chords but that step to remembering all the letters as well just needs a lot of extra practice.
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I’ve wanted to learn Dvorak for years but the article hit on it: I’m not and never will be native to it since I already know QWERTY, so won’t ever net the sweetest efficiency gains.
French, I’ve tried bépo because AZERTY (the French standard since forever) seriously sucks. AZERTY is missing lots of diacritics and corresponding capital letters (including very common ones), lots of opening and closing characters are inexplicably separated, … And the same bullshit as QWERTY, no thought behind where alphabetical characters should be beyond 19th century’s “the mechanical arms of my typewriter should not cross too much”.
However I couldn’t commit to bépo and gave up. AZERTY is too ingrained in my mind at this point.
Nah, I used QWERTY till I was like 28 then learned Colemak-dh on an ergo split keyboard, only took a month to get to normal and now I can type with both. It’s like becoming multilingual but WAAAAAAY easier.
20 yrs ago (fuck, I guess it was), I got to 40wpm on Dvorak and 60wpm on colemak. But it was such a a pain in the ass for everything else that I gave up.
Still regret it.
Hey I have extra keyboards and time now…
Really, you’ll get proficient in no time. The trick is to go all in with touch typing, no hint and peck!
When I was in my late 20s I spent one low-activity work week transitioning to Dvorak. I have used it for 20+ years now (although it’s a bitch to get working on subpar OS’es).
You can maintain both skills, but I chose to let my qwerty skills fade - now I only use it on mobile (because, I loathe typing on glass and so swipe whenever I can - and swiping is hilariously useless with Dvorak because it’s so well laid out).
I use dvorak on touchscreen because you get way more chains of left and right thumb alternating.
plus as a lefty, fuck you right handed jerks.
