keyboard

[emsidoodles]

why are the letters on the keyboard arranged how they are...why QWERTY? xXxXx

[mikeyp]

When designing the keyboard for the first time, the makers arranged the keys so that the most used ones are more easily accessible. For example, e, is just above where your fingers should rest.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, the keyboard was originally very different when typewriters were first invented. The problem was that - as typists became more proficient and faster - the metal legs would get stuck to each other! The current layout was chosen specifically to get around that problem. Now that we have electronic keyboards without lumps of metal moving up and down, perhaps we should put things back the way they were! 

[yorks2510]

It also goes back to the days of the mechanical typewriters, which used physical "arms" with a letter on the end to hammer the letter on to the paper through a ribbon. When the original keyboards were designed, they were arranged alphabetically. However, the typists of the day got so fast that when they were typing, the most-used letters would all be in the same region, and the same as if you have ever pressed lots of keys on a manual typewriter at the same time, the hammers clogged up. So they redesigned the layout of the keyboard so that the most used letters were evenly spaced across the keyboard (but also taking account of design issues, so it doesn't quite work out that way). Then, when they designed electronic keyboards, they stuck with the same design, as that was what people were used to by then.

A clumsy answer, but the best I can do.

Hope this helps

[Quizmonster]

Click http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Q/QWERTY_keyboard.html

for a web-page on the subject which suggests the idea I offered above is only vaguely plausible but unproven. The page also refers to the Dvorak keyboard which has never caught on. However, I believe that when speed-typing competitions were held in the past, users of the Dvorak system were almost invariably faster.

[Quizmonster]

When I referred to "the idea offered above", Yorks, I was, if course, referring to my response, not yours...though they are largely the same. We were obviously caught up in a bit of synchrography, as yours was not there when I started on mine.

[yorks2510]

I was just about to respond in kind when I saw your answer - as yours was not there when I started on mine - but I suppose for two people to come to pretty much the same conclusion at the same time adds some weight to whichever it is - fact or urban myth (although I am tempted to think that it is actual fact, as I can't think of another reason for the dumb-assed arrangement of keys - even though my fingers do just fine, and can't imagine now changing...!)