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New Standard Keyboard
An anonymous reader writes "There are two keyboard standards today - QWERTY and DVORAK. QWERTY, the one we usually have, was used on the first commercially produced typewriter in 1873. Ironically, QWERTY was actually designed to slow down the typist to prevent jamming the keys, and we've been stuck with that layout since. New Standard Keyboards offers new "alphabetical" keyboard. This keyboard has just 53-keys (instead of 101) and offers user-friendly benefits and quick data entry."
In 'not a whole lot of googling' effort. Not that anyone would check a story on slashdot... That's what comments are for, to bitch about the facts....
"[Inventor C. L. Sholes, who put together the prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's, designed the QWERTY keyboard] using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes' chief financial backer. The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes' solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced. The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes' patent granted in 1878 (see drawing), some years after the machine was into production. QWERTY's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down."
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
The other problem with switching over to Dvorak is most common keyboard shortcuts aren't so convenient anymore.
Imagine stretching your fingers over the keyboard to do a Ctrl-C Ctrl-V (or Cmd-C Cmd-V).
Most shortcuts are hard coded for QWERTY and would not make sense on a keyboard layout that is radically different from it.
Would anyone seriously call Dvorak a "standard?"
[sig] 10 + 10 = 100 [/sig]
So QWERTY is standardized as a layout among the hundreads of schools/institutions and thousands of companies, a bunch use DVORAK although I honestly ignore its popularity/usage.
As time goes on, more and more computers are found in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Most probably they will use QWERTY simply because it's there and established. Anybody using the least logic possible will understand that introducing an alphabetical keyboard will screw people up. Getting used to different layouts is more of a hassle than being user-friendly.
Imagine stretching your fingers over the keyboard to do a Ctrl-C Ctrl-V (or Cmd-C Cmd-V).
OS X comes with a dvorak mapping that switches to a qwerty mapping when you hit the command key.
Doesn't help me too much in vi (where I spend most of my time).
-- The world is watching America, and America is watching TV.
Presumably, you aren't a newbie if you're switching to DVORAK. And the regular, letter-for-letter shortcut layout is also available.
As I just said, the default DVORAK layout with the letter-to-letter command mappings is still there, so it's a moot point.
Under MacOS/X there is a settings where the keyboard is Dvorak for normal typing but Qwerty as soon as the "apple" key is depressed for shortcuts.
Therefore you get all the advantages of Dvorak (or supposed advantages) and your shortcuts are in the same place as ever.