Computer and Keyboard History & the XPeRT Solution - 2003
Short Computer History: 1830s Analytic Engine, 1936 Turing Machine, 1st PC by Xerox, ...

Keyboard History

Standard Qwerty Keyboard Origin:
Late 1870's

In 1872, Remington produced the first mechanical typewriter, patented by C. Latham Sholes. Soon typists were going so fast that they were able to jam the keys which flew up to hit the typewriter ribbon. In the late 1870's: the "improved" Qwerty layout was designed to slow down typing, so those pesky keys would not jam anymore. Here is the speed trap we are stuck with today, 130 years later.

In the Standard / Qwerty keyboard layout above, the most frequently used letters in English are shown in red: ETASORNI. How many common letters are at convenient inner finger locations on the middle row? None. Where is A? At the awkward left small finger location. Where are rarely used letters J and K? On prime real estate. No wonder it's slow: Alphabet soup.

Electric Typewriters: 1930's

In the 1930's electric typewriters were invented. What a great opportunity to improve on the keyboard layout. Sadly, effortless action on keys, including shift, was not sufficient to draw new customers. They had to have Qwerty too!

In 1936, August Dvorak patented a new layout to: (a) Reduce finger reach and strain by putting common letters on the home row (in red), (b) Avoid awkward use of key pairs (digraphs), to improve speed. Here's the Dvorak keyboard:

Design criteria sound good, so what's wrong with this keyboard? Almost all letters move from their familiar Qwerty locations! (Also, A + S are at a small finger locations. N, R + O are not much better ). Dvorak is superior to Qwerty, but even US #0A446B typing tests were not enough to convince the world to change. Relearning typing on the Dvorak layout may take a month. Some enthusiasts use it today, but it has not become the standard.

Personal Computers: 1970's

A lot of things have been invented since the 1800s: Electricity, radio, airplanes, computers. ... Slow old Qwerty has survived them all.

Although personal computers now have the power of former mainframes, we continue to be hobbled by an entirely obsolete user interface like the Qwerty keyboard.

Alternative Keyboards: 1990's

In the 1990's, at least two keyboards were patented with the aim of reducing finger reach and strain and to a lesser extent, minimizing the effort of change from Qwerty. Unfortunately, the main emphasis was on the middle or home row. Six frequent letters moved from Qwerty locations, making these new keyboards still hard to learn.