Tamas Rudnai wrote: > On 20 June 2012 12:09, Denny Esterline wrote: >=20 >> I haven't any objective measurements to help this conversation, but >> it may be useful to remember that the QWERTY layout was designed to >> _intentionally_ slow down the typists in the days of mechanical >> typewriters, where if they typed too fast the hammers would jam...=20 >=20 > Actually I always thought that they did not want to slow down > typewriters, but with the qwerty layout it was less frequent that two > neighbour hammers were typed at the same time -- and that's what > caused the 'jam' which slowed down typewriters, so actually qwerty > speed them up. Maybe I am wrong though. AFAIK you're right, but the fact remains that none of minimizing finger movements, making finger movements causing less strain or speeding up typing on a keyboard where there are no interactions between different keys was a design goal for the QWERTY layout. Some of them were design goals for other layouts, including Dvorak. Adam has a point, though... depending on where you need to type and under what circumstances, being able to type (fast) on QWERTY has advantages. OTOH, the USB hardware device that plugs between keyboard and computer may help in some of these cases, as may the PKL approach (on a USB stick, for example). Gerhard --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .