Comments on: Ask Mike: What’s up with QWERTY?

By: Diego

Diego — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:14:29 +0000

I’d rather not to have the ‘n’ next to the ‘m’ and the ‘v’ next to the ‘b’

By: Marco

Marco — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:14:18 +0000

The qwerty key board was made by trial and error since people wanted to type with both hand, they need a way to work with both hands, it would be hard and slow if only one hand was writing the whole thing. the person experimented until it got to the perfect layout.

By: stacyj

stacyj — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:27:58 +0000

That is great! I saw my cell phone keypad referred to as a qwerty and was like what the heck is that….never occured to me to just look down!

By: V-te

V-te — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:44:14 +0000

Hello,
I too have switched keyboards. I now use Dvorak. Let me tell you that when I first switched, it wasn’t easy. But I am now into my 6th or 8th month in it, and I am happy to say that my WPM has surpassed that of QWERTY, and so has my accuracy, I can still type QWERTY, and I am glad I have switched. I really can’t understand why more people don’t switch to this more efficient layout.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:26:39 +0000

I have also been using the Dvorak keyboard for several years. Here are a few of my experiences:

On the plus side:
Using QWERTY I had several bad habits and learning a new keyboard allowed me a new start to correct them.
I find Dvorak more accurate and therefore faster.
Since I have physically changed the mapping of the keys on my laptop other people hate using my computer.
Using Dvorak mapping on QWERTY keyboards actually helps me touch type.
I can still type fairly fast (with a couple fingers) using QWERTY if I have to.

On the negative side:
I have to switch keyboard layouts in the operating system each time I other computers
It took several months to reach a comparable level of typing speed/accuracy.
I can not touch type user names/passwords to login to these computers
Keys such as XZWV are not in convenient places for keyboard shortcuts
Some games do not support Dvorak or offer remapping so using WASD in place of the arrows isn’t possible.
If I forget to logout of a shared computer, other users cannot log me out because they can not type.

All in all I am glad that I have made the change, but this is mostly because I like to be different and I absolutely HATE when things are done because “that is the way they have always been done”.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:50:50 +0000

I use Dvorak full time, and I love it! Not only is it much faster than qwerty, almost all keyboards today are in the qwerty format which means you have to know the Dvorak layout to even attempt to use it. (In other words, it forces you away from hunt and peck.)

By: jbod

jbod — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:05:58 +0000

If you do a search for ‘qwerty’ on any filesharing program (LimeWire, eDonkey, etc), you’ll find illegal kiddy-porn. Not sure a keyboard style should be renamed from ‘standard’ to ‘qwerty’, thereby renaming it after a code-word for kiddy-porn… Just my $.02.

By: ton

ton — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:58:09 +0000

lol Ryan! So Roy G. Biv invented the colors of the rainbow? BTW, Qwert Yuiop is a very strange name!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:51:25 +0000

A correction or two to my previous post… it was called “Keyboard Layout” not keyboard ‘language’. And ‘Standard’ keyboard layouts actually came in 2 versions if I’m remembering properly, Standard-US and Standard_Europe, a 2 key switch, if i remember properly. If anyone has any information in furtherance of my above comments (when some idiot started calling a Standard Keyboard a ‘QWERTY’ Keyboard, and more specifics on switchable keyboard layouts), please comment!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:13:38 +0000

Interestingly, computer keyboard ‘language’ used to be switchable in the control panel to “Standard”, Dvorak, and a couple others. It wasn’t an issue of a different physical keyboard. You just pop off the keys and replace them in their new positions. I just checked in Windows XP, but it isn’t there, so maybe I’m remembering my very old Apple IIgs system. Maybe the keyboards are still software switchable on Mac systems, not apparently in Windows.

Note that I used the term “Standard”, not “QWERTY”. I stumbled upon this article because I was wondering who decided to rename the keyboard layout to ‘qwerrty’ and when they did it. It’s a new phenomenon with the internet, every person of average intelligence is out there trying to ‘invent’ new and improved English-language words. Some not-so-bright person has renamed the ‘Standard’ Keyboard a “QWERTY” Keyboard. This is just one of the many new but not-necessarily-improved ‘words’ being thrown (rather forcefully) into the English language in the past 10-20 years..