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New Keyboard Has Just 53 Keys
Enigma5O writes to tell us The Tech Zone is reporting on a new style of keyboard with just 53 keys. Departing from the normal QWERTY keyboard setup the 'New Standard Keyboard' designed by John Parkinson measures just 12.5 inches wide x 5 inches deep x 1 inch thick and is arranged in alphabetical order. The keyboard has been designed with ergonomics in mind keeping all keys within easy reach of the home position. The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?
They seem to have forgotten the space key?
Any keyboard without a big bar that either thumb can use to space will never take off in my book. But maybe the PDA market will like it
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
is bad enough, but alphabetical? If I was ever going to change typing style, I'd change to dvorak
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
That's not completely true, the QWERTY setup was in part setup so that typewriter salesman could quickly and efficiently type "TYPEWRITER" (take a look at the letters, all in the top row).
Just your everyday corporate code monkey.
Exchanging the keycaps is trivial on some keyboards. For example, No Big Deal on my IBM Model M - the last good keyboard made. Other keyboards have the keys contoured differently depending on the row they are on, and even if you switch the keycaps around, the different contours feel really uneven.
Why re-arrange anyway? Presumably if you bothered to learn Dvorak, you learned to touchtype anyway. I'm typing this in Dvorak, on my laptop, and my fingers really can't tell the difference as far as what's painted on the keycaps. I did my personal Model M, but 99% of the keyboards I type on have qwerty painted on them. So?
Um, is the "ergonomic rule" about putting commonly used keys under strong fingers only one of these "everybody knows it's true" and not a real truth? 'Cause this sucker has 4 vowels under pinkies (a, e, i under the left pinky at that). Wouldn't that be bad ergonomic design, if the finger-strength rule is real?
"No memore me propo nomo!"
I actually woundn't mind one of these if it would be QWERRty and have a light touch. Most keyboards I've messed with I can't stand. Only the laptop keyboards a re really good for me (due to wrist issues.)
I *love* my iBook kb.... wish I had it on all my machines.
-=fshalor
Aren't we at a point where children should be taught QWERTY alongside their ABC's? QWERTY is obviously an important sequence to learn.
I've heard and read about Dvorak keyboards before, and this article made me want to go buy one. I realize that I could just remap my current keyboard, but I would like something with all the keys marked. When I did a quick froogle search, I came up with this site: http://www.typematrix.com/dvorak/ I have *never* seen a keyboard like that. Has anyone used them? Are they comfortable? Whats the deal with the orthogonal layout?
--Nycto
Let us not forget the real scientific research that went into making QWERTY, such as putting all the letters for the word TYPEWRITER together on the top row so salesmen didn't have to learn much.
80-20 rule: not all of those 146 different values you could send are used that often. A good keyboard design would be based on an analysis of what letters and keys are pressed most often (assuming we want to keep the principle of one key per letter, one key for Enter and so on) and have a kind of Huffman coding so that the most commonly used characters are quickest to type.
;-).
Programmers type characters like { } $ ( ) = + more often than the general population. It would be an awesome geek-toy to have a keyboard which promoted these characters to their own keys and relegated those useless squiggles like vowels to Shift-Ctrl combinations
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Another way to provide a medium would be to say that each letter is composed of exactly two keys pressed at the same time. That is, if you press just one key, nothing happens. This relieves you from having to press all keys at exactly the same time, and gives you n(n-1)/2 values for n keys. So for your 146 values, you'd need 18 keys (17 keys would only provide 136 values, 18 keys provide 153 values). With a keyboard of 3 rows of 6 keys each, I could even imagine that to be useable for one-handed typing. Or maybe a 4x4 pad with two larger keys below. Of course the disadvantage of that approach is that there's no easy way to label the keys, so if you don't remember a certain key combination, you cannot just look at the keyboard to find it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Someone calls a 53-key ABCD keyboard a "new standard keyboard" and suddenly people start to think that it will replace keyboards? ABCD keyboards have been around for a while and aren't any good for typing. As far as layout goes ABCD is as bad as QWERTY in terms of random placement of the keys. The theory that it will "help kids learns" is bull. It might help grandma learn, but a normal kid will pickup any keyboard layout. This might as well be the DVORAK layout then, it's truly much better in terms of key placement.
Yea, I think we're stuck with the keyboards we have, rather than the keyboards everyone thinks we should want. And just from my own perspective, 53 keys isn't anywhere near enough...I get the shakes if I don't have a number pad at least.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
While the one show is yet another rehash of the alphabetical layout - which others have built before and in a better way - our current keyboards need a solid redesign.
:-)
Alignment in rows and columns for instance is much more effective and less strainfull. Shifted allignment is a herritage from 1895 or something (pure technical constraints back then). Caps Lock is really bad the way it is. Even for the countries that need it a lot for alternate Glyphsets (russian f.e.). It need to be moved away. Far away at a special position. Much to big too. In a way simular to Escape - the only key in a position and size that can stay the way it is. How often have we *all* pressed it by accident.
Then there's the asymetry. It sucks. To quote Edison: "There's a better way to do it. Find it."
The important alternation keys like Caps, Ctrl, Alt, Command and the extra ones like Enter, Backspace and tab need a redo aswell. Symetry in size, amount and position all the way through and Enter moved to a super-prominent position in the center just the way space is now. Keyblock needs to be standardised, one way or the other. Either telephone or ancient-electrical-start-at-the-bottom. I prefer telephone since the other was only implemented due to technical constraints on the first calculators. Bottom-to-top keyblocks suck. Period.
While navigation keys are a must, F-Keys, Print, Help and such are nice extras. Maybe those could be spread about in an even fashion. F-Keys to the left, Navi and Fixed Funktions to the right. Mayybe a few extra keys in Mac style (volume+, volume-, mute, on/off, eject). Curiously enough I'm sitting at a current-state white mac kb just now. The Multimedia keys adside this kb has all the suckage I critized above. It actually expect Apple to sumon the guts to change all this. Maybe someday when all the Win people have switched to a unix variant.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Whatever its advantages as a last resort for two people who can't learn anything else, Esperanto has a cult-like movement that is simply dangerous to get into. I myself stopped having anything to do with Esperanto after ten years of hearing from people that Esperanto should be the only language permitted in international communication, and that my being interested in the native languages of my peers made me a traitor to the movement, much of which is hoping for a "final victory" of Esperanto over national languages.
I mean isn't this beginning to start a move towards the point where we are typing like we do on our cell phones? Seriously, I don't think these great advantages he talks about are really that advantageous. The fewer keys to learn is nice, but you have to remember twice a many shift options. I have a hard enough times remembering some of the symbols on the number row.
Who is to say this keyboard is easier for the hunt and peck typist? What if the person thinks keys should be arranged ABCD EFGH instead of ABCD NOPQ? Also why make the space bar so small? It has to be one of the most used keys on a keyboard and very easy to find. The keys on the bottom is also a bit disturbing to me. I have a tendancy to user the lower portion of a keyboard and/or the desk for "lowering" my hands while typing and my thumb often rests there or on the space bar (as is evident by the wearing of the plastic wear my thumb constantly rubs and presses).
And who made this guy the delete nazi? Where is my damn delete key or insert for that matter? There are times for using both. Two caps and num lock buttons? What a waste of space! Those are buttons you either turn on and leave on or you never turn on. The lack of the 10-key numpad also means this keyboard will find a lack of acceptance with people who type a lot of numbers. When I worked doing order entry, it was faster entering product numbers and credit card numbers with the 10-digit pad. The same is true for people working on accounting spreadsheets and programs, I am sure. If you are not typing text it is easier to move over to there, but if you have to type a balanced mix of both having it is also nice and anyone with a laptop can tell you how annoying it can be to have the number pad as part of the regular keypad.
This is a great idea if the mentality of people really is to get reduced size keyboards at the expensive of having to learn a ton of shift inputs. Work on improving the exist model to a point where people would like and still use it for a smaller size. I mean with a bit of effort you can probably make a very functional keyboard with about the same size (look at laptops). I don't think re-inventing the wheel is really necessary.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Manslaughter. You would spell it "Criminally Negligent Homicide", I imagine.
Probably not.
You can read my Ph.D-dissertation (PDF, big) (abstract) (PDF, small) for more information, but frankly it is very hard to beat the QWERTY keyboard, as it is very very efficient at the task it is used for. Please note that the dissertation does not focus on QWERTY per se, but rather on various alternatives to QWERTY, and the factors involved in attaining good usability, ergonomics and performance in diverse text input scenarios.
and yet you're here on slashdot - presumably loving linux? ironic?
Why are we stuck with binary keys only? There's also:
Right now most people use duration for repeat, but using it to map a key to shifted form might be ok...i also rather like the idea of hitting the keys very hard to generate caps. Either of those only save a shift key or two, but even that would free up shift for other uses....could also support more character formatting than just case---mode keys to make a character bold, italic, etc...
Forget that. I don't need a key for "for" - if I wanted a single-key for looping constructs and conditionals, I'd just use a language where those are single-character constructs.
For programming, different adjustments would be more useful. For example, get the () keys more accessible. Get A-F keys (and x) added to the numerical keypad. That sort of thing.
Ok the article appears to be slashdotted. Perhaps later I can get a look at this keyboard.
I would welcome a trend to smaller keyboards with fewer keys. The growth of specialized keys on keyboards has really gotten out of hand in my opinion. What reason is there for 100+ keys on the keyboard?
How about a new survey question of "How many keys does your keyboard have that you have NEVER used?"
Think Deeply.
In my opinion, this is a far more innovative keyboard:
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
This way I can set the keyboard any way I choose, whether it be QWERTY, Dvorak, or any other way that fits my needs. And I can also program it for specific functions, in gaming for example. The best part is that the keys reflect those changes.
There are already a few novel keyboards like this one on the market and laptop keys already allow for added functionality in a limited space. I never liked multiple keystrokes to perform functions and I never will.
The thing is... at least in Quebec, they have bastardized French as well. I remember a friend telling me about a french Canadian newscast that he was watching, where somebody slipped "pretty much" (in a french accent, of course) into the middle of his sentence.
They cost more just because fewer people manufacture them, and people that are really interested in a Dvorak layout keyboard are willing to pay a bit more. Take a look at some of the keyboards that are available in both QWERTY and Dvorak (e.g. Kinesis): getting it in Dvorak is generally only $10 or so more for the same model, but not because of royalties.
Ha. I taught myself to use my right foot to operate both the brake and gas pedals together for a smooth pullaway on any gradient, up or downhill. It didn't cut any ice with a driving examiner, though. Neither did my habit of putting it in gear while the engine was stopped, and turning the key with the clutch pedal depressed.
If there was a control I'd do away with, it would be the gear lever -- but I'd keep the clutch pedal. If you're pressing the gas hard, then you suddenly release it just before you press the clutch, you obviously want to change up. If you're braking just before you press the clutch, you obviously want to change down -- and by integrating the braking and extrapolating, you can know how far down {4-2 and 5-3 are commonly done when approaching roundabouts}. If you're starting from rest, the car can sense electronically whether it's facing uphill and select first, or downhill and select second. If you turn around in your seat, you obviously want to reverse.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Secondly, and more to the point, it's been shown over and over that there is no inherent speed advantage to the Dvorak layout. Yes, some people prefer the Dvorak layout, but if you put two groups of fast typists head-to-head, QWERTY vs. Dvorak, the results will tend to be a toss-up.
Probably true, but who cares about speed (as long as it's not slower)? Take a look at all those fast typists when they're over 50 or 60, and see which group, the QWERTY or the Dvorak users, has developed more RSI problems.
Dvorak is better because it's more comfortable to type with, because you don't have to move your fingers around as much: much less one-handed typing ("minimum"), much less moving between rows with the same hand ("minimum" again), etc. Typing on a QWERTY keyboard is an exercise in hand contortion, whereas typing on Dvorak requires barely any finger movement at all by comparison.
"I think English is one of the best languages (in terms of variety of words) even if it is not the easiest (my vote would be for Norwegian)."
With the way it adopts words from just about any and all languages, I think English will evolve into the "first language of Earth," just as everyone in the Star Wars universe speaks "Basic."
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Sadly, Moresnet no longer exists :-(
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Reforming keyboard design is like trying to reform orthography: noble, logical, and in the words of one of my professors, "Quixotic." QWERTY is at least as stupid and weird in its configuration as words like "through," which has almost twice the letters that it needs, vowels that can have any number of actual sounds (A: ash, calm, able). But as long as we keep writing like this, even though I, a Californian, only understand people in Yorkshire half the time (and that's if they want me to), can read the menus and signs, and I can read texts from 500 years ago even though the language has changed quite a bit. Likewise, I can type on any keyboard without feeling like a boob because it's ABC or Dvorak. Like with Windows and X86, it's all about backwards compatibility and portability.
Qwerty allowed typists to type faster on a typewriter where commonly used letters being spaced together jamming the typewriter would slow them down. Now that we don't have such a mechanical barrier qwerty is ill suited for speed. Though it seems dvorak is not so much better.
A warrior keeps death in the mind at all times from the moment of his first breath to the moment of his last.
Too many assumptions.
I'm on slashdot. Should I be loving Linux and hating Microsoft by definition?
Slashdot is more like a news site with plenty of smart commentary. Sure to some its a place where everyone gets together to bash Microsoft and say 'does it run linux?'.
I dont mind Linux, use it on one firewall and my embedded projects. But I also use Solaris, Windows, QNX, eCos, OpenBSD, netbsd, BeOS (sometimes) and the standard unix workstation pile (solaris, hpux, aix, tru64 even) for different things. Readers on slashdot are more diverse than you might think.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Well, here's the problem. Mac OS X, and in fact the entire Apple experience, is intuitive for a certain kind of person. Artists, fashion mavens, leftists, and other creative personalities can sit down with a 12" PowerBook with the latest dot-update of Tiger and comprehend its sensitive, tasteful aesthetic. It's a rare instinct, this appreciation for beauty and truth; accountants and other such pencil-pushers haven't a prayer.
In summary, unattractive squares should stick to Linux and Windows. Macs are for different thinkers.
Something that I've never really understood in these debates about different keyboard layouts: when do people actually type at their maximum typing speed anyway? I can type at about 50-60 words per minute, which is probably not very impressive by Slashdot standards. But I almost never get to actually type that fast - I have to stop to think about what I'm doing, whether it's composing a document or writing code. Even if switching to another layout allowed me to type at 80 words/minute, I don't think it would ever really increase my productivity.
Japanese has nearly no exceptions
Actually it has more than 5,000 exceptions. Just look at any of the homonyms with 3+ separate meanings and renderings. In a language which relies on non-alphabetic symbols to represent individual words, each of those symbols is technically an "exception".
If you pretended Japanese was spoken-only, then you could say it has few exceptions... but to be fair, the written version must be considered too. (If a person can speak+read Spanish and then learns to speak English, she can automatically read English too. But if she had learned to speak Japanese, then her Spanish-reading skills won't transfer over at all)