OT Configuring the Keyboard ?

[William O'Higgins]

On Thu, Dec 09, 2004 at 09:11:36AM -0500, Geoffrey Hunter wrote:

>Incidentally, in an ideal world the 26 letters of our alphabet would
>be arranged in alphabetical order; the QWERTY order was designed to
>slow down (I kid you not) typing on mechanical typewriters to reduce
>the occurrence of key-hammer jams; it is an unfortunate legacy that
>we are still using that slow-you-down arrangement when its purpose
>has not pertained since mechanical typewriters were displaced by 
>electric typewriters, and later by electronic input.
>
>How about this for a (partial) keyboard arrangement:
>
>     A B C D E F G H I
>     1 2 3 J K L M N O   4 rows x 9 columns
>     4 5 6 P Q R S T U    = 36 characters = 26 letters + 10 digits
>     7 8 9 0 V W X Y Z
>
>3 of the vowels (I,O,U) are at the ends of the first 3 rows;
>A is at the beginning of the first row,
>E is symmetrically in the middle of the first row, 
>(which is good because E is the most frequently used vowel).

If you are going to develop a new keyboard, why not do something
radical/interesting?  How about a ten-key design like that used by
stenographers, where you never lift a finger off it's key, and you type
via chording, giving you 2^10-1 possibilities, which you would rank
based on character set by frequency.  One keyboard for all (well, most)
languages.

Just a thought.
-- 

yours,

William

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