What is the reason why keyboard are not arranged alphabetically?

Answer 1

The keyboard is modeled after the typewriter. When the typewriter was first set up, consideration was given to the speed with which the fingers could tap out the keys. Since the letters "q", "z", and "x" are infrequently struck, these letters were assigned the nondominant hand (the left hand in 90% of individuals), and in corners that were not as easy to reach quickly. The more common letters were place in easy reach of the hands. In a nutshell, this is how the "QWERTY board" came into existence.

An interesting aspect of this history: The QWERTY typewriter was designed in part to create a degree of intentional inefficiency. Since early typewriters tended to jam if adjacent keys were hit concurrently or nearly so, commonly used combinations (such as t-h) were separated to reduce the likelihood of such jams. Also, the arrangement of keys favors left-handed typists at the expense of the more numerous right-handed ones. The result is a suboptimal design, which has led to many subsequent attempts to re-introduce a more efficient configuration; however, the converging vested interests of typing teachers and generations of typists taught touch-typing on the QWERTY keyboard has prevented their widespread adoption, so the design is likely to stay with us for some time despite its flaws.

For those interested in the history behind this issue, the Wikipedia page on QWERTY is worth a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY.

Answer 2

A combination of factors led to the evolution of the keyboard as we know it today. The earliest typewriters were not terribly "precision" instruments, so adjacent keys struck nearly simultaneously could cause "tangles" in the works. This was an inducement to have letters often found next to each other in words be physically separated on the keyboard; even so to be difficult to strike quickly. Someone did once propose a much more efficient keyboard layout; even modifying a mass-produced manual typewriter to use it, but the typewriter couldn't keep up with an experienced typist. Probably the last good chance to "evolve" to a more user-friendly (no that still wouldn't be alphabetical) lay-out was missed in the era of the IBM "Selectric" typewriters. It would have not been difficult (technologically) to program the "spinning ball" to any format preferred. It's all about timing. The "QWERTY" format is now so deeply entrenched in the business and home computer communities that odds are; it's here to stay.

Answer 3

Type your answer here..the reason is because the most common letters are where your fingers are which makes it quicker to type and the least common letter like x,z,and q are further out of reach because you don't need them as much

Answer 4

The keyboard of a computer is modeled on the keyboard of a typewriter, because lots of people already were trained to use a typewriter and we did not want to have to adapt to a different keyboard. The keyboard of a typewriter was originally designed to slow down the user, by means of its cunningly random arrangement of letters, because if you typed too quickly on a typewriter, the keys would jam. That problem does not exist with computers, but we are stuck with the qwerty keyboard.

Answer 5

The typical 'QWERTY' keyboard is a holdover from the days of mechanical typewriters. The disordered layout was developed to avoid a fast typist from jamming the typewriter when neighbouring 'arms' the characters are mounted on, clashed together when pressed in rapid succession.

So, common character pairs, like TH, ST and QU were split up, with the QWERTY arrangement (though slightly different back then, than now) considered an optimal one to avoid jams.

Since it was a well established convention, by the time electronic keyboards were invented, they kept the layout so people could easily transition from one to the other.

Answer 6

The computer keyboard keeps the same format as Typewriters, as the early users of computer keyboards for word processing etc. were already familiar with the position of the keys.

The QWERTY arrangement of early keyboards were designed that way as they were originally mechanical devices, used on typewriters. The idea was to stop the hammers containing the type face, from hitting each other and causing a jam. By arranging the keys that are used most, to come from opposite sides of the keyboard, it avoids them crashing together and jamming up.

This system was invented and first used by a Mr Sholes from Milwakee Wi. at his machine shop. He patented the idea in 1878

Contrary to popular belief this was not to slow typists down, but to enable faster speeds to be reached, as you didn't have to keep stopping to unjam the machine.

Answer 7

The QWERTY keyboard layout was made so typewriters wouldn't get jammed as often. I guess people got used to it and that's why computers have QWERTY keyboards today.