20 lines
1.2 KiB
Plaintext
20 lines
1.2 KiB
Plaintext
QWERTY
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/kwertee/ , adj. [from the keycaps at the upper left] Pertaining to a
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standard English-language typewriter keyboard (sometimes called the Sholes
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keyboard after its inventor), as opposed to Dvorak or non-US-ASCII layouts
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or a space-cadet keyboard or APL keyboard. Historical note: The QWERTY
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layout is a fine example of a fossil. It is sometimes said that it was
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designed to slow down the typist, but this is wrong; it was designed to
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allow faster typing under a constraint now long obsolete. In early
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typewriters, fast typing using nearby type-bars jammed the mechanism. So
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Sholes fiddled the layout to separate the letters of many common digraphs
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(he did a far from perfect job, though; th , tr , ed , and er , for example,
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each use two nearby keys). Also, putting the letters of typewriter on one
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line allowed it to be typed with particular speed and accuracy for demo s.
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The jamming problem was essentially solved soon afterward by a suitable use
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of springs, but the keyboard layout lives on. The QWERTY keyboard has also
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spawned some unhelpful economic myths about how technical standards get and
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stay established; see http://www.reasonmag.com/9606/Fe.QWERTY.html.
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