🚀 go-pugleaf

> ...one study of QWERTY found that its layout was significantly worse than
> could be expected if it had occured purely by chance; so you're still probably
> better with Dvorak.

The QWERTY layout was designed for mechanical typewriters in such a way as to  
actually slow down fast typists to prevent jams.  In the 90's jams may no longer  
be a problem, but IMHO we're still a long way from replacing QWERTY because most  
people still learn to type on it (and they don't care to learn a new way -  
whether or not anyone else feels they should).  On a personal level, I'm happy  
with QWERTY, but that doesn't mean I'm demanding that you don't use what works  
better for you, or that I'll stay with it forever.  Until a large majority of  
keyboard users start using something other than QWERTY, it is and should be here  
to stay.

Anyway, to one-finger typists, it doesn't matter much.  Most of the computer  
users I have known in my life use one or two fingers to type.  They're not  
secretaries or programmers; they're engineers, executives, supervisors, line  
workers, and others, most of whom never learned touch typing, have memorized  
QWERTY, and would be lost if the keyboard layout were to change.  Maybe  
providing other layouts as a preferences setting would work, but that doesn't  
solve the problem with physical keycap locations (should we put LCDs on the  
keycaps?  For NeXT in particular, do we need LCDs on the front, too, for the  
green stuff?).  Non-touch-typists almost never look at the monitor.  I type with  
all my fingers, but I still look at the keyboard a decent amount of the time,  
especially for SHIFT/CTRL/ALT/CMD sequences, which I always do with my left hand  
only (I don't think I've ever touched the right hand SHIFT/ALT/CTRL keys).  And  
I can never seem to find the damn "c"... no, "b"... no, "g"... grrrr, "_v_" key  
;-).

There is a real, practical problem in changing keyboard layouts.  And like it or  
not, it's always the real-life, practical things in the business world that  
determine how things are done, because innobation (grrrr, innoVation) is risky  
and costs money.  Convention (along with current skills and installed base)  
usually wins out at the level of "What kind of pencils should we order?", "Which  
copier will be down the least?", and "How should our keyboards look?".  That's  
why there are so many mainframes still around ;-).

Michael

--
Michael_Pizolato@afs.com
~18 kyu
Q16
NeXTMail appreciated