QWERTY

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

QWERTY (pronounced /ˈkwɝti/) is the most common modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer and typewriter keyboards. It takes its name from the first six letters seen in the keyboard's top first row of letters. The QWERTY design was patented ^[1] by Christopher Sholes in 1874^[2] and sold to Remington in the same year, when it first appeared in typewriters. The asteroid 6600 Qwerty was named in its honour.†

Contents 1 History and purposes 2 QWERTY and accents 2.1 US-International Layout 2.2 UK-Extended Layout 2.3 Extended characters 2.4 Microsoft Word 2.5 Compose key 3 International variants 3.1 Belgian and French 3.2 Czech 3.3 Scandinavia 3.4 Faroese 3.5 German 3.6 Hungarian 3.7 Icelandic 3.8 Italian 3.9 Lithuania 3.10 Portuguese 3.11 Romanian 3.12 Spanish 3.13 Turkish 4 Alternatives to QWERTY 4.1 Dvorak 4.2 Colemak and others 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

History and purposes

The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the 1860s by the creator of the first modern typewriter, Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee. Originally, the characters on the typewriters he invented were arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar which struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, once an operator had learned to type at speed, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars, and also frequently blotting the document.[1] A business associate of Sholes, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to speed up typing by preventing common pairs of typebars from striking the platen at the same time and sticking together. The effect this rearrangement of letters had on maximum typing speed is a disputed issue. Some sources assert that the QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing speed to further reduce jamming.^[3] Other sources assert the rearrangement worked by separating common sequences of letters in English. Ostensibly, the hammers that were likely to be used in quick succession were less likely to interfere with each other.^[4]

The home row (ASDFGHJKL) of the QWERTY layout is thought to be a remnant of the old alphabetical layout that QWERTY replaced. QWERTY also attempted to alternate keys between hands, allowing one hand to move into position while the other hand strikes a key. This sped up both the original double-handed hunt-and-peck technique and the later touch typing technique.

An unfortunate consequence of the layout, for right-handed typists, is that many more words can be spelled using only the left hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right hand. This is helpful for left-handed people.[2] It is also helpful for those on a computer where the right hand is primarily used for the mouse leaving the left hand as the primary hand to type with.

The first network email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson to another computer in his office. In the author's words [3], "Most likely the first message was QWERTYUIOP or something similar" - QWERTYUIOP being the top row of the keyboard.

The longest International English words typable using only the top row of letters are proprietor, perpetuity and typewriter. In American English the word teetertotter (known elsewhere as a see-saw) is longer.

QWERTY and accents

QWERTY is designed for English, a language without any accents. More and more people have to work in countries where computers are sold with QWERTY keyboards, and consequently meet issues when having to type an accent. Until recently, no norm was defined for a standard QWERTY keyboard layout allowing the typing of accented characters, apart from the US-International layout.

Depending on the operating system, however, there are many possibilities for typing Latin characters with accents.

US-International Layout

The US-International layout is a QWERTY layout, slightly modified for allowing an easy access to Latin characters with accents or more generally diacritic characters. The punctuation characters ' (simple quote), " (double quote]), ` (back quote), ^ (circumflex) have a different behavior compared to the usual QWERTY layout because they are dead keys. The new user will be surprised when wishing to type one of the characters because nothing will be displayed on the screen. Indeed, in order to type a punctuation character, the user has to type first the punctuation key then the space bar. The advantage of this type of keyboard is that, being normalized, it resides on most of computer systems, and the user just has to tell the operating system to use it. Nothing has to be installed.

While the US-International layout allows typing many accented characters, not all ASCII characters are necessarily available (for instance, the characters ª¯±·¸°), and many of them are available only in a convoluted manner. For instance, it is difficult to find an easy way to retrieve the Yen character (¥) or the ø. Another inconvenience of this layout is that even though it is claimed to be international, its limitation to the 8 bit ASCII character map (and not UNICODE) makes it impossible to type correctly in certain languages like Romanian, or Turkish, which use letters like ş, ţ, ă, etc. The ASCII system also doesn't contain mathematical characters like ∀, ∃, ⇒, Greek or Cyrillic characters.

UK-Extended Layout

Windows XP SP2 and above provide the UK-Extended layout, which behaves much the same as the standard UK layout except that ` (back quote) becomes a dead key used to insert grave accents. AltGr+2 becomes a dead key used to insert umlauts (since " is above the 2 on a UK keyboard) and AltGr+^ inserts circumflex accents. AltGr plus a vowel inserts an acute accent (as on the standard UK layout), while AltGr+c gives ç (c-cedilla). As with the US-International layout, UK-Extended does not cater for certain languages such as Romanian, Turkish, or Greek. However, for the British user it may be more intuitive than US-International, since " and £ remain in their customary British positions.^{[citation needed]}

Extended characters

Main article: Alt codes

On the Microsoft Windows and DOS operating systems, all characters can be reached via the ALT + <number> combination, typed on the numeric keypad. For example, ALT + 130 and ALT + 0233 generate the "é" character.

This system requires memorizing the character codes, use of Character Map, or having a table of the codes nearby. Moreover, a four-key combination can be time-consuming, especially when it is needed in order to access frequently used characters. Since the system is dependent on having a separate numeric keypad, it requires the "Fn" key to be held down on most notebooks.

Microsoft Word

The Microsoft Word and Windows Live Messenger designers made it possible for the user to access accented characters in a more intuitive way. All characters with accent are available using CTRL + <punctuation> then <letter>, for instance:

• é = CTRL + ' then e
• à = CTRL + ` then a
• ç = CTRL + , then c

For unknown reasons, Microsoft did not make this behavior available throughout Microsoft Windows, or even in other Microsoft Office programs.

Compose key

Systems with X11 generally have, at least as an option, a compose key which when pressed composes the next two (or more) keypresses into a single character. The keys are pressed in sequence; the compose key is not held down. For instance, the sequence Compose, a, ' (apostrophe) generally produces á; Compose, t, h generally produces þ; Compose, e, - (hypen) may produce the Unicode character ē. The precise sequences available are dependent on system configuration.

Apple's OS X uses a similar system: The user presses the Option key and the key for the base character simultaneously, and then presses another key to add the desired accent.

International variants

Minor changes to the arrangement are made for other languages.

Belgian and French

Belgian and French keyboards interchange both Q and W with A and Z and move M to the right of L; they are known as AZERTY keyboards. However, the French Canadian layout is a QWERTY layout.

Czech

Czech keyboards use QWERTZ keyboards. They exchange the Z and Y like the German one, yet uses a "kroužek" u (ů) to the right of L and (ú) next to P. The row which is normally reserved for numerals in other layouts is used to produce the diacritics ě, š, č, ř, ž, ý, á, í, é. The shift key is used to create numerals in this system. Uppercase diacritics are found, using a word processor, by holding shift, keying the equals sign and the related letter. Thus shift + =, shift + Z gives a Ž. Please note that other punctuation marks and symbols also vary from the English version. There are also layout variants which are more or less close to the original US QWERTY layout; one of them puts Y and Z at their original positions, Czech - QWERTY.

Scandinavia

Danish and Norwegian layouts only switching Æ, Ø, and Å where Swedish and Finnish have their corresponding letters Ä and Ö.

Faroese

Faroese keyboards add Æ and Ø next to L, and Å and Ð next to P. Tilde, umlauts and circumflex are accessed by pressing Alt Gr + Ð, Å and Ø respectively.

German

German keyboards add an umlauted Ü to the right of P, with Ö and Ä to the right of L and interchange the Z and Y keys both because Z is a much more common letter than Y in German, the latter seldom appearing except in borrowed words and because T and Z often appear next to each other in the German; consequently, they are known as QWERTZ keyboards, and occasionally "kezboards".

The Swiss and the German keyboards are not similarly designed.

Hungarian

Hungarian keyboards change the Y and Z as the Czech do, also there is an insert at the end of the upper row, after P, namely the double-accented O ("Ő"), and the accented U ("Ú"). The home row is the same as the US-International but it is longer than usual: it consists of the keys ASDFGHJKL É Á Ű. Lastly, an accented I ("Í") is added at varying places, usually left of the Y (which is on the bottom row, see beginning of paragraph), shortening the left Shift key.

Icelandic

Icelandic layouts add Ð to the right of P, Æ to the right of L, Ö to the right of 0 in the top row and Þ to the rightmost place in the bottom row.

Italian

Italian typewriter keyboards, but not most computer keyboards, use a QZERTY layout where Z is swapped with W and M is at the right of "L". Computers use a QWERTY keyboard with è to the right of P and ò to the right of L. Semicolon (;) key can be pressed using shift + comma (,).

Lithuania

Lithuania keyboards use a layout known as ĄŽERTY, where Ą appears in place of Q above A, Ž in place of W above S, with Q and W being available either on the far right-hand side or by use of the Alt Gr key. Depending on the software used, the Lithuanian symbols can also be positioned in the place of digits: 1 for Ą, 2 for Č, 3 for Ę, 4 for Ė, 5 for Į, 6 for Š, 7 for Ų, 8 for Ū and = for Ž.

Portuguese

Portuguese keyboards maintain the QWERTY layout but add an extra key: the letter C with cedilla (Ç) after the L key. In this place, the Spanish version has the letter N with tilde (Ñ), the Ç, which is not used in Spanish, but is part of sibling languages like French, Portuguese and Catalan, which is placed at the rightmost position of the home line, beyond the diacritical dead keys and keys such as question mark (?), inverted question mark (¿) and inverted exclamation mark (¡).

Romanian

Romanian keyboards have a QWERTZ layout, swapping Y with Z. ă and î are added to the right of the letter P, while ş and ţ are added to the right of the letter L. â replaces the backslash character. Changes are also made to the upper number keys, the numbers remain the same, but some of the symbols are shuffled. The most notable change is that hyphen (-) is swapped with slash (/).

Spanish

Spanish keyboards add ñ and Ñ characters to the right of the L instead of the semicolon (;) and colon (:) characters.

Turkish

Turkish layouts add Ğ and Ü to the right of P, Ş and İ to the right of L, Ö and Ç to the right of M. Circumflex accent can be added by typing shift + 3 preceding the letter to which accent is added. There are no Turkish QWERTY typewriters mainly because it's less ergonomic for Turkish and Turkish F layout is a mandatory standard in typewriters.

As for the computer industry, while it is possible to find QWERTY keyboards as well as F keyboards in the market, the former is much more popular.

Alternatives to QWERTY

Dvorak

Because modern keyboards do not suffer from the problems of older mechanical keyboards, the QWERTY layout's separation of frequently used letter pairs is no longer necessary. Several alternative keyboard layouts, such as Dvorak Simplified Keyboard arrangement (designed by Dr. August Dvorak and William Dealey and patented in 1936), have been designed to increase a typist's speed and comfort, largely by moving the most common letters to the home row and maximizing hand alternation. Some studies have shown that alternative methods are more efficient, but Dvorak and other alternative typists most often cite comfort as the greatest advantage. QWERTY's inventor, Christopher Sholes, patented a key arrangement similar to Dvorak's, but it never became popular.^{[citation needed]}

Some researchers, such as economists Stan Liebowitz of University of Texas at Dallas, Texas and Stephen E. Margolis of North Carolina State University, claim that QWERTY is really no less efficient than other layouts; however, their study has been disputed by advocates of the DVORAK key setup.[4] Some believe that there is evidence to support the claim that Dvorak is faster. The world record for typing speed was made on a Dvorak keyboard.[5] Opponents claim that August Dvorak stood to gain from the success of his layout, and that he may have perpetuated this "efficiency myth" to increase his financial gains. Other QWERTY advocates claim that for a QWERTY typist to switch to Dvorak or another layout requires more effort than initially learning to touch-type, because of having to retrain the fingers' muscle memory; however, the opposite claim is also made because the Dvorak layout is supposedly more intuitive.

Computer users also need to unlearn the habit of pressing certain key shortcuts, e.g.: Ctrl + C for copy, Ctrl + X for cut, Ctrl + V for paste, on Microsoft Windows, as X, C and V are next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard). However, some programs and operating systems allow the use of alternate layouts combined with QWERTY shortcuts; for example, Apple's Mac OS X offers a "Dvorak-Qwerty" keyboard layout that temporarily reverts to Qwerty while the Command key is held down.

Opponents of alternative keyboard designs most often point to QWERTY's ubiquity as a deciding factor, because the costs incurred by using the supposedly inefficient layout are much less than those of retraining typists. It is not unusual to find Dvorak typists who also touch-type the QWERTY layout for convenience, since QWERTY dominates the keyboard market. The tension between the Dvorak efficiency and the QWERTY ubiquity illustrates the problem of collective switching costs, assuming QWERTY's relative inefficiency.

Colemak and others

In order to address these concerns, and because of the effort and difficulty involved in switching from QWERTY to Dvorak -- conversion typically takes several weeks -- there have been a number of attempts to design optimised keyboard layouts based partially on QWERTY with a smaller number of keys rearranged. Of these, the most popular is Colemak, with an estimated 1600 users.^[5] Its users claim that it is much easier to learn for existing QWERTY typists than Dvorak, as only seventeen keys change position to achieve the necessary optimisations. It also preserves the positions of common shortcut keys such as Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.

See also

• ASDF
• Colemak
• Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
• Keyboard layout
• Maltron keyboard
• Path dependence
• Repetitive strain injury
• Touch typing
• Velotype
• WASD

References

External links

• Article on QWERTY and Path Dependence from EH.NET's Encyclopedia
• Free QWERTY typing tutor with free touch typing speed test available
• Dvorak vs QWERTY Tool A tool to compare the efficiency of Dvorak and QWERTY.
• The Curse of Qwerty by Jared Diamond or here.
• The Fable of the Keys Disputes The Curse of Qwerty.
• Article disputing the validity of The Fable of the Keys
• The QWERTY myth.
• The QWERTY Connection, historical information
• Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard
• Typewriter Words
• "Why QWERTY was Invented"
• Keyboard typing recommendation
• Where Once was a Comma Designer Artemy Lebedev's take on keyboard layout and the history of QWERTY.
• JLG Extended Keyboard Layout for US Freeware, QWERTY compliant keyboard layout + Unicode and accentuated characters.
• Arabic Online Keyboard based on QWERTY(ISLAM-91)

v • d • e Keyboard layouts
QWERTY based	QWERTY  · AZERTY  · QWERTZ
Alternative layouts	Dvorak  · Colemak  · Maltron  · Svorak  · Plum
Non-Roman	Hebrew  · Urdu
For mobile devices	FITALY
Historical	Blickensderfer (DHIATENSOR)  · HCESAR