Gadgetory

when the typewriter was invented back in the 1960s its keys were arranged like piano keys and they were in alphabetical order as technology advanced typewriters improved and it was soon faster to use a typewriter than it was to write things out by hand typewriters are sophisticated mechanical devices but because each type bar hits the same place on the device typing too quickly causes the typebars to get stuck or jams together which would require the typist to have to go unjam the machine which is annoying in response to this a fellow named Christopher Latham Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard layout to slow typists down actually that's a common misconception the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow typists down rather it was primarily designed to minimize typewriter jamming by placing the most commonly used characters farther away from one another this led to fewer jams and therefore faster typing the QWERTY layout named of course for the first six letters that appear on the keyboard quickly gained popularity along with the introduction of the Remington number-2 typewriter which was also the first typewriter to include a shift key for easily shifting all the letters between upper and lower case after that other typewriter manufacturers began to use the QWERTY layout in their products and eventually the layout became so widespread that it's still the most common standard today but we don't use typewriters anymore with the introduction of personal computers and Printers typewriters have become almost entirely obsolete but the QWERTY layout which was designed for typewriters is not obsolete and maybe it should be there are a number of alternative keyboard layouts that have emerged over the years but most notable is the Dvorak keyboard layout which was invented in 1936 by Auguste Dvorak who named it after himself the Dvorak layout was carefully designed to increase typing speed while minimizing errors and unnecessary finger movement which can lead to repetitive strain injuries on Dvorak all the most commonly used letters are on the home row with consonants on the right and vowels on the left and 70% of all typing is done on the home row compare that to 32% on the QWERTY layout Dvorak certainly looks very logic but it's still controversial as to whether Dvorak is actually faster and better than QWERTY it seems like there hasn't really been an acceptable rigorously scientific study on Dvorak versus QWERTY with many of the pro Dvorak studies coming straight from mr. Dvorak himself but I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say yeah I think it is a superior keyboard layout I mean it was carefully designed to be that way even if Dvorak is faster and more efficient switching to it from QWERTY is not easy it's simple enough to rearrange the keys on most keyboards to a Dvorak layout and most operating systems except iOS have built-in support for Dvorak keyboards but there's still a lot of hurdles to overcome it takes months before a typist can get back to the speed they were at on QWERTY and even once you've learned Dvorak completely you still have problems a lot of software and games are designed for a QWERTY layout with little or no thought given to alternatives even the common shortcuts for undo cut copy and paste are now scattered all across the keyboard and good luck using WASD as directional keys in games also heaven forbid you should ever have to share your computer with anyone else people get really bewildered when they see this once you've learned Dvorak the best solution seems to be using a QWERTY keyboard but set-to Dvorak in software that way you can switch back to QWERTY whenever necessary you see QWERTY is already so ubiquitous by now that it's probably here to stay forever even though I believe that Dvorak is superior I still haven't switched to it I tried once and it was just too difficult for me so I gave up and that's why QWERTY is still king it's not optimal but it's good enough and it's what everybody's already used to a lot of things are that way like our entire base 10 numerical system which I talked about in this video even our own alphabet is suboptimal I mean do we really need X or Q on that note today's episode is brought to you by the letter L which of course stands for lynda.com lynda.com is an online educational resource containing thousands of video courses on a diverse range of topics including photography animation 3d modeling programming education and tons of diff software their courses are self-contained and completely comprehensive which is perfect if you know absolutely nothing about a topic but if you already know a few things and are looking to add to your knowledge Linda's got you covered there as well they've got beginner intermediate and advanced courses and each video comes with a transcript so you can easily search through them to find the stuff you don't already know plans start at $25 a month but if you go to lynda.com slash tech quickie you can get a free 7-day trial and see for yourself exactly what they have to offer thanks for watching this episode of fast as possible have you ever tried Dvorak if so what did you think leave a comment with your thoughts below and while you're at it give us a like or a dislike share subscribe do all the YouTube nonsense and we'll see you next time