Thread View: comp.std.misc
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Started by kyongsok kim
Thu, 21 Sep 1989 03:17
Re: chord keyboard faster than traditional keyboard?
Author: kyongsok kim
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1989 03:17
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1989 03:17
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i found one chord-kbd related article in applied ergonomics (uk) (1983, 14-1, pp. 55-59). it reviewed chord kbds and its reference section contains a few recent papers. the conclusion is that the main adantages of chord kbd are: 1. can be operated by one hand. 2. small size and compactness. it is mentioned that measuring speed of chord kbds is very hard since there are few skilled chord keyboarders. also some chord kbds (including shorthand machines) are fast partly because they transcribe text into a form of shorthand. (my interpretation: even with the traditional kbd, if you transcribe text into a form of shorthand, you can speed up.) the author was at Loughborough Univ. of Technology (probably in UK?). please e-mail to me if you know the address of the University. back to my original question: as far as ordinary text processing is concerned, it seems that I still cannot find any experimental data showing that a chord kbd is much faster than the a traditional (sequential) kbd. thanks. Kyongsok Kim Dept. of Comp. Sci., North Dakota State University e-mail: nukim@plains.nodak.edu; nukim@ndsuvax.bitnet; uunet!ndsuvax!nukim
Re: chord keyboard faster than traditional keyboard?
Author: Ian Feldman
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1989 21:52
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1989 21:52
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In article <2941@ndsuvax.UUCP> nukim@ndsuvax.UUCP (kyongsok kim) writes:
>
>i found one chord-kbd related article in applied ergonomics (uk)
>(1983, 14-1, pp. 55-59). it reviewed chord kbds and its reference
>section contains a few recent papers.
>
>the conclusion is that the main adantages of chord kbd are:
>
> 1. can be operated by one hand.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Actually a chord-keyboard that is intended to be operated by one
hand only ought to be called input-pad or -device.
I believe that there once was a lot of interest (primarily in the
military research circles) for single-hand-operable input devices
for (battle) field commanders and the like. A number of studies
dealt also with chord-input aspects of things like helicopter
sticks / controls.
>back to my original question: as far as ordinary text processing is
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>concerned, it seems that I still cannot find any experimental data showing
>that a chord kbd is much faster than the a traditional (sequential) kbd.
But that's obvious, isn't it? Chord keyboards are not used much
(if at all) for *ordinary* word processing for much the same reasons
why the _supposedly_superior_ Dvorak keyboard layout hasn't superseded
the QWERTY one - the latter does the job just fine.
That is why chord keybords are being used only in such applications
where the built-in limitations of general-input/ standard-alphanumeric
-layout keyboards constitute a hindrance towards given goals.
As far as I know the modern chord-keyboard saw light at an IBM Research
facility, c:a 1958. I recall having once had a research paper from there,
that dealt with ambidextrous (as opposed to one-handed) chord keyboards
in a typewriter-like device. Unfortunately I no longer have the paper,
nor a clue as to what it findings were. Try IBM Armonk/ Yorktown
Heights Research Library for starters...
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