OT: keyboard layouts

[Henry Spencer]

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003, Taavi Burns wrote:
> > ...Almost all the "we should switch"
> > arguments also support "switch to Maltron, not Dvorak". 
> 
> Indeed, I see that point.  Given that Maltron uses the basic qwerty
> letter layout...

Uh, come again?  It most certainly doesn't.  The home row, for example,
is ANISF DTHOR, with E on the left thumb and space on the right thumb.

Some Maltron keyboards do come with a Qwerty mode as well, but that's
explicitly a compatibility kludge.  (Note, keyboards shaped vaguely like
the Maltron keyboard are not necessarily Maltron keyboards.)

> Question: who made the Maltron such that it's that much superior to
> a Dvorak layout?  Has anyone tried using the physical Maltron keyboard
> with a Dvorak letter mapping?

Why would you bother?  Use the Maltron shape with the Maltron layout.

> > the Dvorak layout; if you could shoehorn some approximation of it into a
> > Qwerty-based physical layout (which I'm unsure of), the result is quite
> > likely to be better than Dvorak. 
> 
> I'm saying that after looking at a picture of the Maltron keyboard,
> I don't think there's any way to convert a standard keyboard short of
> a hacksaw and soldering iron.  The physical metaphor is wrong.

Correct, but that's backwards from what I was suggesting, which is
adapting the Maltron layout to the standard physical shape.  I'm not sure
it is reasonably possible, mind you, because of the thumb problem. 

> > Preferably a factor of ten.  It has to be at least a factor of two to get
> > people excited.  10% just isn't enough when there are major compatibility
> > issues. 
> 
> Noting that the compatibility issue is a human one.  The machine can
> trivially remap the keyboard's logical layout.

True, but so what?  The human issue is a large one, actually a bigger
barrier than a hardware issue would be.

> On a slightly divergent note, I'm still quite perplexed as to why
> having the most commonly typed letter _not_ on the home row is not
> such a performance hit as one would expect.

Note that the most commonly typed *key* is space, which has a whole thumb
dedicated to it in either Qwerty or Dvorak, and is in the home position
for that thumb in Maltron.

That said, yes, E is the commonest letter and it's not in the home row,
but only about one character in every ten is an E, so by itself it does
not make a huge difference.  And Qwerty does put it on a strong finger,
and in a location where it's not a long reach.  (Maltron's E on the left
thumb is clearly better, mind you...)

> Neverminding that
> the studies you cite say that there's negligible improvement, I'm
> quite curious as to why that is.

Basically, because the Qwerty layout is not a bad one (for an electronic
keyboard -- some of its problems, like the assignment of A and the shifts
to the little fingers, loom larger on manual typewriters), and the
improvements to be had by rearranging it simply aren't huge. 

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org


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