Why do you have computer keyboards?

Answer 1

The QWERTY layout was created in the early 1870s by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor and printer, who, with the help of his friends Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule, built an early typewriter and filed a patent for it in 1867.

The first model used a piano like keyboard with 2 rows of keys arranged in alphabetical order like this:

3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M

However, it had 2 problems - 1: the keys were mounted on metal arms, which would clash and jam if neighboring arms were pressed simultaneously or one after the other, and 2: the user had to open the paper carriage to fix the jam.

Sholes tried to perfect the invention over the next 6 years, and eventually came up with a layout similar to the modern QWERTY:

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - ,

Q W E . T Y I U O P

Z S D F G H J K L M

A X & C V B N ? ; R

Shole's backer, James Densmore, sold manufacturing rights to E. Remington and Sons, who modified it further. The layout became popular with the Remington No. 2 typewriter, the first one to include a shift key for both upper and lower case letters, and later with the advent of personal computers.

Part of the reason why the QWERTY layout works is also because the letters are arranged in diagonal columns. The idea that the QWERTY layout is meant to slow typists down is incorrect - it's instead meant to prevent jams when the typist is typing rapidly.

Answer 2

A keyboard is considered an input device. You need to be able to give the computer commands, typing keys are considered commands. For example if I type the letter "T" I am telling the computer I want it to display the letter T on the screen. Likewise the mouse is also an input device, clicking buttons, or links tells my computer to do the action attached to that button/link.

Computers also use output devices such as a monitor, or speakers. Output devices work with your senses, to help you interact with your computer. Right now only sound/sight are commonly used as output devices.

Answer 3

The keys Q,W,E,R,T and in some cases Y are put there because when the computer/keypad were invented they were very slow. Many people would type so fast the computers jammed. So they made the keypad with the 5/6 most used letters on the left to slow right-handed people [most people] down and stop the computers freezing up.

Almost, but not quite.

It wasn't early computers freezing up, it was mechanical typewriters.

Every key was linked by rods and levers to an arm with a letter at the end of it. Pushing the key would cause the arm to tilt forward and make an imprint on the paper.

If the keys you pushed in tight sequence would activate two adjacent arms they ran a high risk of getting entangled.

What the QWERTY keyboard did was to put rarely used letters in between the more commonly used letters and thereby reducing risk of the typing arms jamming.

When electrical typewriters and computers came along the habit was so deeply ingrained that we stuck with it, despite the fact that the original reason no longer existed, and that a keyboard with the most commonly used letters placed centrally would be faster, easier and more ergonomic to type with.

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Not so much deeply ingrained habit as training. Most of the early office computers were used by people who had trained on manual typewriters. It's also noticeable that certain functions and control codes reflect manual typewriter principles: "Shift" originally literally moved the mechanism slightly to bring the capital letters into play; Line Feed and Carriage Return were manual typewriter functions in a more literal sense than on computers.

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Whether putting the most commonly-used letters centrally really would help anyone is a moot point. Apart from everyone having to re-learn their typing, the most common letters in any language are not necessarily so in any other, even with the same alphabet.

PS don't tell Microsoft - they tinker about with things enough for the hell of it as it is! :-)

Answer 4

There was this crazy guy who was an efficiency researcher.

When the Typewriter was first invented he did a study and eventually designed what we now call the qwerty key board.

The idea is that when you rest your fingers on the "home" keys these are the most used keys, the close keys are next and the least used are furthest away.

A book was written about him and his family called "Cheaper by The Dozen" I read it in the 1970s and it was old then. Wow I'm old.

Answer 5

Because somebody didn't like the alphabet and wanted it differently

Answer 6

The keyboard is called Qwerty because the first 6 letters are Q W E R T Y which spells qwerty.

Answer 7

Because that is what is mostly sold and they are used to the layout.