I'm sure I'm not the only one, that on first looking at a keyboard, said “all the letters are jumbled up”. The standard answer I always got was because when they were making keyboards they wanted all the letters of “typewriter” to be on the top row (I know you can't resist having a quick look to be sure. Yea they're all there) so salesmen wouldn't have to fiddle about in showing off their fantasical device. The problem is even for typewriter they're still messed up, what's that all about. Surely ABCD wasn't that bad. After a bit of research this cunning writer has done all your thinking for you and the reason we have QWERTY. Apperently after a study done in 1800's they found that using the old mechanical typers of the day caused them to jam in the pressed position if you hit too many keys at once or a bad combination of a few .These are called typebar clashes. Anyone who has ever played around with one has at one time seen the keys stick.
As in any industry, the system that sells the most wins regardless if it is the best, as happened with the VHS or Beta compititon in the 80's. Mister QWERTY (after a quick google serch I've confirmed there is no real mister QWERTY actual name of the creator was Christopher Latham Sholes) sold more keyboards then anyone else (possibly of those crafty salesmen having typewriter all on the top row) and soon it was the standard that everyone was used to. Anything else would be weird and hard to get used to. This wouldn't have meant much if the predictions that “there was a world market for maybe five computers” was right. As we know now IBM went into business and computers, with QWERTY keyboards, now are the foundation of most of our lives. Infact you're probably reading this on a computer now!!
And so it was unrivaled for many years, but if that was all it wouldn't be interesting and this article would be short of the wordcount, so introducing the big twist and subject of this article: DVORAK. Unlike the standard keyboard there actually was a Dr. August Dvorak. Not to be confused with the classical composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák who was about in the same time. I'm sure they're related if you look it up in great detail but that's too much work for an otherwise useless factoid. The Dvorak system was developed to speed up typing speeds, reduce typo's and stop “repeditive strain injury” AKA the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrom that all typist and serious gamers fear.
This layout puts all the vowels an the left middle row and common consenents on the right, where the fingers lie naturally. Unregularly used letters like Q, W, V are on the bottem row. Think I'm talking crazy? How about this, in 1933 Dvorak started entering typists trained on his keyborad into the international Commercial Schools Contest, which were typing contests sponsored by typewriter manufacturers consisting of professional and amateur contests. The professional contests had typists sponsored by typewriter companies to advertistise their machines. Ten times between 1934 and 1941, Dvorak's typists won fir in their class events. In the 1935 contest alone, nine Dvorak typists won twenty awards. Dvorak typists were so successful that in 1937 the Contest Committee barred Dvorak's typists for being "unfair competition" until dvorak protested.
For those that get their kicks out of doing things a little bit differently try dvorak for 3 weeks, give it time and soon you'll get used to it, see your typing speed improve like it was on steroids, and the great joy of dvorak, watch your friends struggle with the new keyboard layout and enjoy the security and privacy your computer has no one will be able to type any meaningful word on your computer and give up in complete rage. It's simple to convert any computer to Dvorak, it can be done in 2 minutes and one windows restart. For windows users vista users go to "control panal" then click on "region and language options" then find teyboards and language tab at the top, select "change keyboard" then click on add...... English (United States) Dvorak. A quick restart and bam your done. For apple Mac users first select "shut down" then remove any external devices and all wires connected. Pick up your Mac and throw it out the window, buy a PC and follow the instructions mentioned earlier. So maybe I'm a little biased against mac users but I believe we evolved a middle finger for a reason, I enjoy the benefits of right click,and I don't put CD's in the bin when I want to eject them.
Look down at your keyboard, minus a few regional differences (oh umlaut yoü're sõ cräzy) they all look the same here's a comparison side by side with Dvorak, all letters are in capital, all symbols are in lower case.
Qwerty Dvorak
Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ] ' , . P Y F G C R L / =
A S D F G H J K L ; ' A O E U I D H T N S -
Z X C V B N M , . / ; Q J K X B M W V Z
In summery mind = blown, I think I'm stating the obvious here but this whole article was typed using Dvorak keyboard in 5 minutes and one cup of coffee. So try it, all the cool kids are using it, and soon it'll be the in thing. You don't want to be stuck with the old keyboard layout that scientists will some day prove leads to finger cancer. Here's the wiki link because it's not real until you've read it on Wikipedia.
As in any industry, the system that sells the most wins regardless if it is the best, as happened with the VHS or Beta compititon in the 80's. Mister QWERTY (after a quick google serch I've confirmed there is no real mister QWERTY actual name of the creator was Christopher Latham Sholes) sold more keyboards then anyone else (possibly of those crafty salesmen having typewriter all on the top row) and soon it was the standard that everyone was used to. Anything else would be weird and hard to get used to. This wouldn't have meant much if the predictions that “there was a world market for maybe five computers” was right. As we know now IBM went into business and computers, with QWERTY keyboards, now are the foundation of most of our lives. Infact you're probably reading this on a computer now!!
And so it was unrivaled for many years, but if that was all it wouldn't be interesting and this article would be short of the wordcount, so introducing the big twist and subject of this article: DVORAK. Unlike the standard keyboard there actually was a Dr. August Dvorak. Not to be confused with the classical composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák who was about in the same time. I'm sure they're related if you look it up in great detail but that's too much work for an otherwise useless factoid. The Dvorak system was developed to speed up typing speeds, reduce typo's and stop “repeditive strain injury” AKA the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrom that all typist and serious gamers fear.
This layout puts all the vowels an the left middle row and common consenents on the right, where the fingers lie naturally. Unregularly used letters like Q, W, V are on the bottem row. Think I'm talking crazy? How about this, in 1933 Dvorak started entering typists trained on his keyborad into the international Commercial Schools Contest, which were typing contests sponsored by typewriter manufacturers consisting of professional and amateur contests. The professional contests had typists sponsored by typewriter companies to advertistise their machines. Ten times between 1934 and 1941, Dvorak's typists won fir in their class events. In the 1935 contest alone, nine Dvorak typists won twenty awards. Dvorak typists were so successful that in 1937 the Contest Committee barred Dvorak's typists for being "unfair competition" until dvorak protested.
For those that get their kicks out of doing things a little bit differently try dvorak for 3 weeks, give it time and soon you'll get used to it, see your typing speed improve like it was on steroids, and the great joy of dvorak, watch your friends struggle with the new keyboard layout and enjoy the security and privacy your computer has no one will be able to type any meaningful word on your computer and give up in complete rage. It's simple to convert any computer to Dvorak, it can be done in 2 minutes and one windows restart. For windows users vista users go to "control panal" then click on "region and language options" then find teyboards and language tab at the top, select "change keyboard" then click on add...... English (United States) Dvorak. A quick restart and bam your done. For apple Mac users first select "shut down" then remove any external devices and all wires connected. Pick up your Mac and throw it out the window, buy a PC and follow the instructions mentioned earlier. So maybe I'm a little biased against mac users but I believe we evolved a middle finger for a reason, I enjoy the benefits of right click,and I don't put CD's in the bin when I want to eject them.
Look down at your keyboard, minus a few regional differences (oh umlaut yoü're sõ cräzy) they all look the same here's a comparison side by side with Dvorak, all letters are in capital, all symbols are in lower case.
Qwerty Dvorak
Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ] ' , . P Y F G C R L / =
A S D F G H J K L ; ' A O E U I D H T N S -
Z X C V B N M , . / ; Q J K X B M W V Z
In summery mind = blown, I think I'm stating the obvious here but this whole article was typed using Dvorak keyboard in 5 minutes and one cup of coffee. So try it, all the cool kids are using it, and soon it'll be the in thing. You don't want to be stuck with the old keyboard layout that scientists will some day prove leads to finger cancer. Here's the wiki link because it's not real until you've read it on Wikipedia.
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