🚀 go-pugleaf

>
	Mark Horton want's a keyboard standard, and wonders why every
	keyboard is so wierd.

There's a funny little problem here Mark.  The "sholes" keyboard is
designed to be as inefficient as it can possibly be.  Yes, DESIGNED
to cramp your hands, fatigue you, and make you type slower.  Of course,
people invest a great deal of time and money LEARNING TO BEAT THE DESIGN,
learning this "hand mangler", then learning do type faster on it.

Of course, there have been many attempts to standardize the basic layout.
People even keep statistics on how long it takes to type, avarage keying
time, and all sorts of extra statistics.  However, trying to determine
the best layout of the control keys, tab key, return key, and other
"minor" keys, is like trying to determine whether you run faster if you tie
your shoes together with a square not, or an overhand :-).

Way back in the 1930's DVORAK came up with a keyboard that was significantly
faster.  Of course he was somewhat restricted in what he could do with
his keyboard, since he was basically using a modified sholes keyboard.

In the 1970's, CCI took DVORAK's main ideas, and added a few of their
own, like letting the thumb do more work.  This isn't the exact layout,
but, their specific needs were different.

>     ------------------------------------------------------------------
>     | !  | @  | #  | $  | %  | ^  | &  | *  | (  | )  | _  | +  | ~  |
>     | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | 6  | 7  | 8  | 9  | 0  | -  | =  | `  |
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> | TAB | : | <  | >  | P  | Y  | F  | G  | C  | R  | L  | ]  | |  |
> |     | ; | ,  | .  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | [  | \  |
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>   |LOCK| A  | O  | E  | U  | I  | D  | H  | T  | N  | S  | "  | }  |
>   |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | '  | {  |
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------
>          | ?  | Q  | J  | K  | X  | B  | M  | W  | V  | Z  |
>          | /  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>          ---------------------------------------------------
>                    |      SHIFT |  CTRL     | SPACE   |
>                    |            |           |         |
>                    ------------------------------------

They found out that the thumb keys could be pressed reguardless of where
the remaining fingers were.  In fact, the Idea worked so well, they put
two more keys down there (Personally, I think four would be the max).
Even on their "powerterminals", there are two control keys which can
be pressed by the little finger or the thumb.

These keyboards were given to directory assistance clerks who had no typing
experience (typists were paid better at the time).  The result, within a
matter of two or three weeks, the Dvorak clerks were running 20% faster
than the Qwerty clerks, monitored by automatic statistics gathering built
into the system.

Stangely enough, since the DA pay is now higher and trained 80wpm typists
are being hired to use the QWERTY models, the statistics have gone only
slightly in favor of the QWERTY/experienced vs. the DVORAK/inexperienced.
We had to make QWERTY boards so that "staff" could man the keyboards when
the unions went on strike.

Many Dvorak proponants claim anywhere from 50-100% gains for most usages.
This doesn't appear to be quite true.  However, the gain is significantly
greater than the fraction of a percent gain of a PC over a SELECTRIC layout,
most of which could be attributed to the typists familiarity with the
faster model.  If the keyboard is a QWERTY, there is very little that can
be done about making them "faster".  You will "like" what ever you become
most familiar with.  You will dislike anything different until you have
become familiar with that.

Ironically, full-travel, "heavy" keys, are less popular among DVORAK typists,
who "sweep", rather than "pound" on the keyboard.  Even those so-called
"mushy" keyboards are a little firm for most DVORAK typists.