Why are the Keys in a computer keyboard not arranged in Alphabetical order?
First Line : Q W E R T Y U I O P
Second Line : A S D F G H J K L
Third Line : Z X C V B N M
Kinda confusing to remember the order right? You cant type closing your
eyes unless and until you are mastered in typing or you have some
exceptional typing skills. Have you ever wondered how nice it would be
if these keys are arranged in Alphabetical order? I mean something like A
B C D .... X Y Z ?
Then why don't they put them in that order instead of placing keys in this unusual Q W E R T Y order???
Here is the answer :
 |
| First QWERTY Keyboard developed by Sholes |
The earliest typewriter keyboard resembled a piano and was built with an
alphabetical arrangement of 28 keys. The developers of the first type
writer assumed it would be the most efficient arrangement after all,
anyone who used the keyboard would know immediately where to find each
letter; B after A, H after G, U after T..... hunting would be reduced,
pecking would be increased. Nice no? then why they have switched to Q W
E R T Y version ?
The inventor of the keyboard version we are presently using is Mr. C. L. Sholes (Christopher Latham Sholes). He faced several problems while working with the normal keyboard. The arrangement of letters which the first typewriter had are called "typebars." The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. If a user quickly typed a succession of letters whose type bars were near each other, the delicate machinery would get jammed. Due to these mechanical failings, he had to change those rollers and type bars very frequently. It was very irritating and disappointing task for him. So, with the help of an educator Amos Densmore, he studied letter-pair frequency. As we all know, in English there are some frequently used letters (e, i, a, h etc) some less used letters (q, z etc). With a little research he was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by separating the most common letter pairings and redesigned the arrangement. (some versions say that he just interchange the keys to oblige typists to type more slowly). Initially traditional typewriter users opposed this invention because its very confusing to those people who got used to type with regular a to z keyboards. But as years passed, people got accustomed to QWERTY version and they have adopted the same technology for computer keyboards. Of-course, there are some other versions too... But this is the standard one.
The inventor of the keyboard version we are presently using is Mr. C. L. Sholes (Christopher Latham Sholes). He faced several problems while working with the normal keyboard. The arrangement of letters which the first typewriter had are called "typebars." The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. If a user quickly typed a succession of letters whose type bars were near each other, the delicate machinery would get jammed. Due to these mechanical failings, he had to change those rollers and type bars very frequently. It was very irritating and disappointing task for him. So, with the help of an educator Amos Densmore, he studied letter-pair frequency. As we all know, in English there are some frequently used letters (e, i, a, h etc) some less used letters (q, z etc). With a little research he was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by separating the most common letter pairings and redesigned the arrangement. (some versions say that he just interchange the keys to oblige typists to type more slowly). Initially traditional typewriter users opposed this invention because its very confusing to those people who got used to type with regular a to z keyboards. But as years passed, people got accustomed to QWERTY version and they have adopted the same technology for computer keyboards. Of-course, there are some other versions too... But this is the standard one.
