CHAT: Keyboard (Was: YAC: or more exactly: yetanotherconlangsketch)

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2 Nov 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> > Robert Hailman wrote:
> > > I've never come across an abcdefg... keyboard, or heard of one. I do
> > > know of the Dvorak layout, but I've never seen a Dvorak keyboard
> > > anywhere.
> >
> > Dvorak is far superior to qwerty.  Typists trained on a Dvorak keyboard
> > type faster and make fewer errors.  But, Qwerty is too engrained to be
> > likely to change.  It certainly made sense on a typewriter, by
> > preventing jams, as Roger Mills pointed out.  I've also heard that it
> > was early on altered to allow "typewriter" to be written entirely on the
> > top line, so that salespeople could type that easily when demonstrating
> > it to customers.  But, that bit might be an urban legend, I don't know.
>
> I spent several years *trying* to find a Dvorak keyboard for whatever
> computer I was using, without any luck.
I've looked around, but not seriously enough to make sucess likely.
Besides, I'm proficient enough with a Qwerty keyboard to accept it for
know.

> I can go up to 100 wpm with a Qwerty, so it isn't all *that* bad...but it
> would be fun to see how fast I could go on a Dvorak, with practice.
> <rubbing hands in glee>  (My *usual* typing speed is closer to 70-80
> wpm.  I can't sustain 100 wpm without my fingers starting to hurt!)
I scored at 82 WPM in my grade 9 keyboarding class, but that's from a
pre-written rough draft. If I'm composing it as I type, I'm probably
around 60-70 WPM.

> And unfortunately for me, Qwerty isn't particularly good at preventing jams.
But wasn't the whole point of Qwerty to prevent jams? I'm sure that when
one is proficient enough, not much can prevent jams. Last time I used a
manual typewriter I could only type at about 25 WPM, so jamming wasn't a
problem.

> <thinking>  ObConlang, I think you *could* design a typewriter for
> Chevraqis, it'd just be a pain in the butt.
Ajuk uses our Roman alphabet, so the typical system is acceptable, but
there are a lot of combinations like "er", "ij", and "gh" that would
cause trouble on a manual typewriter, because the keys are right next to
eachother pretty much. The three I listed above are pretty common, too.

--
Robert