The QWERTY keyboard was designed to reduce mechanical jamming in early typewriters.
We kept it for computers. Which don't jam.
How many of our systems are just preserved solutions to problems that no longer exist?
And how would we even know?
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@Daojoan
Let's talk about Ethernet.
IEEE 802.3 Ethernet is an excellent protocol.
Every company that has bet against Ethernet has died.
(Infiniband being the next proprietary interconnect scheduled to give way)
But "layer 2" (ugh) networking doesn't scale, & it was never supposed to scale, & originally it was specifically designed as a best-effort protocol so that it could even work at all.
@Daojoan
start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet#History
in the 1970s, a 3mbps interconnect was crazy fast. Concepts of less-than-100%-reliable packet switching were gaining traction.
At the time, Inspired by ALOHAnet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet the designers figured the only economic way to share this fast interconnect between a lot of computers was to use a coaxial cable as if it were a packet radio network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier-sense_multiple_access_with_collision_detection
the idea of an inexpensive carrier-sense-multiple-access link-layer network was born.
@Daojoan so the networking world became very very accustomed to two things:
- a 1500 byte Maximum Transmit Unit, which was the standard on the original 10mbps 802.3 Ethernet
- connecting a bunch of computers to a common Ethernet, & relying on the fact that they all listen to eachother's packet splattercasts across this directly-connected Ethernet to build discovery & various other "automatic" features into protocols & applications.
@Daojoan so,
-1500 bytes became "the Internet MTU" that no one ever dares exceed (even in their own networks where that hasn't been a limitation for several decades), and
- enterprises tunnel Ethernet all over the place, & continue come up with new & interesting ways for vendors & service providers to charge them for services that maintain their precious emulation of a 1970s coaxial cable emulating a packet radio broadcast network.
Meanwhile, (at host/office scale networking where this is applicable) "layer 3" IP routing has not been a more expensive operation to perform in hardware than Ethernet switching since about 2009 or so.
We've always done it this way.
@Daojoan
urban legend.
The researchers tracked the evolution of the typewriter keyboard alongside a record of its early professional users. They conclude that the mechanics of the typewriter did not influence the keyboard design. Rather, the QWERTY system emerged as a result of how the first typewriters were being used. Early adopters and beta-testers included telegraph operators who needed to quickly transcribe messages from Morse Code
http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/%7Eyasuoka/publications/PreQWERTY.html
reject the idea
I think it's also largely arbitrary, which is why most alternatives are nichey.
Optimizing layout for typing -- typing what? English? Spanish? German? (Considering only Roman alphabetic here)
At some point it's your nonconscious learned semiautonomous embodied skill, like shoelace tying, drinking water from a cup, etc, doing the work. The whole POINT of these sorts of skills is to render them not conscious.
I doubt there is a layout that makes your fingers happier reaching for a particular letter, beyond some basics like common keys (sic) clustered near the center etc.
@Daojoan Thank for asking such a profound ?
If both parties would focus on these issues…
Who knows where that kind of thinking could lead us!
Backspace still exists even though you do not need whiteout to fix your typo.
Carriage Return and Line Feed still exist too.
The Escape function has changed. In olden daze, you would rip out the paper and start over. Progress!
@Daojoan 80 column code is cause of punchcards
@Daojoan the Electoral College is another great example of this. I’m coining the term right now: Vestigial Systems.
@Daojoan the fact computers do not jam is a testament to QWERTY's success across multiple domains!
I did try dvorak for a while, got my typing speed up on it. Easy enough to swap around on a model m, with the uniform two part keys.
It is better. It even feels better.
Until windows randomly reverts it's layout for some inputs. Or you go to type on ... any other keyboard ever.
@Daojoan @briankrebs Actually, it wasn’t - this has been investigated and debunked. It was consultation with telegraph operators that mostly influenced the layout. https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/139379/1/42_161.pdf
The eyeball routing the nerve fibres IN FRONT OF the light sensing rods and cones, before sending the entire nerve bundle through a hole in the light sensing coverage.
Is a personal favourite
@Daojoan like the save 💾 icon
@Daojoan they make the alphabetical keyboards if you want them.
@Daojoan I recommended a change to IBM over 50 years ago while working there. They thought I was being silly.
