WEB DESK: Have you ever looked at the keyboard and wondered why it is not in alphabetical order? Many myths have been linked in this regard but a Japanese study has found the root of it.Â
The first myth says that the keyboard is designed in order to allow fast typing, this idea is quite sensible as the designers may have kept the different degrees of utilization of each letter and an attempt to split them between hands. In this way, we type quickly and one hand is not working more than other.
The second myth is the opposite of first as it alleged the style, QWERTY was designed to slow typists down to stop them from jamming. Additionally, it is still unclear that separating necessary keys make typing slower or faster. Similar to first myth, the second myth has also disapproved.
However, truth has been revealed, the current design of keyboards is from morse code transcribes.
A Smithsonian reporter, Jimmy Stamp, who went through the Japanese study, explained the mystery.
“The QWERTY system emerged as a result of how the first typewriters were being used. Early adopters and beta-testers included telegraph operators who needed to quickly transcribe messages. However, the operators found the alphabetical arrangement to be confusing and inefficient for translating morse code. The Kyoto paper suggests that the typewriter keyboard evolved over several years as a direct result of input provided by these telegraph operators.â€
Note: the article was originally published on rd.com
