Why is a keyboard arranged the way it is?

Answer 1

The letters are grouped in two ways:

- one to make the keys used most often (in English) close together in two groups

The most used keys are in two clusters at the "home" position for each hand.

- second to make keys used consecutively farther apart

The QWERTY computer keyboard is copied from the typewriter keyboard, which originally used metal arms that traveled up to strike the paper. If the frequently used keys were next to each other, they could cause the arms to jam together (while one was going up and the other was coming back). This can still happen with typewriters using the QWERTY layout, but much less frequently.

The QWERTY keyboard was designed by John Densmore for the first successful typing machines, created by inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1867. These were subsequently built and sold by the Remington company in 1873.

Answer 2

The original QWERTY keyboard was designed to place commonly used pairs of letters away from each other, so that the type arms in the typewriter would not jam. Modern typewriters and computers do not, of course, jam anymore, but the layout has become the defacto standard. Alternative layouts have been tried, and some do exist in common use today, but most people are familiar and comfortable with the QWERTY layout, so it persists.

Answer 3

Because of the old typewriting style. Old typewriters had same keyboard order, so people that were migrating from typewriter to PC don't have to learn keyboard configuration over and over again.

Answer 4

The standard QWERTY keyboard resulted from the early mechanical typewriters. The keys were connected to swinging arms arranged in a slightly curved row, such that pressing a key induced a direct mechanical motion that swung the arm away from the operator and into the centre of the machine, where it struck an ink ribbon and stamped a raised letter (on the arm) onto the paper, which then moved to the left accommodate the next letter.

Since all letters struck the same point in space, the arms would often collide when typing at speed, especially those keys that were fairly near each other and used separate fingers. By re-arranging the letters so that common sequences were spread further apart, collisions and jams were less likely, thus you could type faster.

For instance, the letter F is surrounded by the letters ERTDGCVB. Thus the only likely collision would be EF or FE, since they require left-hand forefinger and middle finger in succession. However FR is not a potential collision as your left hand forefinger must release the F to strike the R. All other combinations involving F would occur so rarely as to not be a problem.

The QWERTY arrangement is so-named as those are the first 6 letters on the top row. It wasn't the only arrangement, but it was the most popular, even if WAS and SAW were particular nasty combos that caught me out more than a few times.

When computer keyboards were first used, the arms were no longer needed but the mechanical motion was largely the same until electric keyboards were invented. But since touch-typists were familiar with the mechanism and the layout, it made sense to retain the QWERTY layout long after the mechanical motion was removed. Thus it is still in use today.

Answer 5

A key board is laid out the same as a typer writer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY

Answer 6

the keys are like that, to slow down the typist

Answer 7

it has to do with the top row figure it out

Answer 8

Because old fashioned typewriter keys jammed easily with fast typing. The keys are set up to slow typing down so the keys do not jam.