The earliest keyboard may have appeared at the beginning of17th century, when some people in Europe invented typewriters with immature formats, and keyboards were applied to these typewriters. 1868, Christopher latham Shoals, an American who is known as the "father of typewriters", obtained the typewriter model patent and the typewriter operation right. In the following years, people designed practical modern typewriters and standardized the basic keyboard mode for the first time, that is, the present "QWERTY" keyboard appeared. But at present, the widely used computer keyboard is usually called "keyboard".
On the computer keyboard we are using now, the English letter keys from A to Z are not arranged in order like phonetic symbols. At present, the arrangement of English computer keyboards widely used all over the world is called "QWERTY" (these six letters are the first six letters in the first column of the keyboard), which is actually inherited from the typewriter keyboard in the past. This arrangement is the continuation of typewriter design, mainly to prevent the mechanical rods of typewriter keys from colliding with each other when typing.
Keyboard appeared in the electric typewriter invented by Christopher latham Shoals as early as 1868. At that time, the keyboard consisted of 26 buttons arranged alphabetically. When typing, the key pressed will trigger the stick to print on paper. After people are familiar with the application, the typing speed is accelerated, and the typing speed of the mobile word holder can't keep up with that of human hands. They often overlap and even beat each other and get damaged. To solve this problem, Christopher latham Shoals tried to slow down the typing speed. He designed the more commonly used keys outside and the less commonly used keys in the middle, which is the common keyboard today.
qwerty keyboard
Why should the keyboard be standardized to the current "QWERTY" keyboard key layout? This is because, at first, the keyboards of typewriters were arranged in alphabetical order, and typewriters were mechanical typing machines. So if the typing speed is too fast, some key combinations are very prone to key sticking problems. Christopher latham Shoals solved the problem. He invented the layout of QWERTY keyboard. He put the most commonly used letters in the opposite direction, trying to slow down the typing speed and avoid getting stuck. Christopher Larsen Shoals applied for a patent for this design in 1868, and the first commercial typewriter with this layout was successfully put on the market in 1873.
However, in actual use, it is found that the layout efficiency of QWERTY's keyboard keys is very low. For example, people are usually right-handed, but the keyboard with QWERTY results does make the left hand bear 57% of the workload. The little finger and the ring finger of the left hand are both weak fingers, but they should be used frequently. Letter lines only account for about 30% of the whole typing workload and are placed in the middle column of the keyboard. Therefore, in order to type a word, people often need to move their fingers up and down.
1888 An open typing competition was held in the United States. A court stenographer named Ma Jialin typed blindly according to a clear fingering division. The speed is very fast, and the error is only three ten thousandths, which surprised everyone present. According to the records, Ma Jialin won a prize of 500 dollars at that time. Since then, many people have begun to follow this typing method. Typing technology for the blind has become popular in the field of professional typing, and schools specializing in training typists have begun to appear in the United States.
dvorak keyboard
Due to the extensive use of the above-mentioned blind typing technology, the typing speed of typewriters can basically meet the needs of daily work. However, a Washingtonian named dvorak invented a new keyboard arrangement method in 1934. The keyboard with this design makes the left and right hands alternately tap the keyboard, which can shorten the training period by half and increase the average typing speed by about 1/3. The principle of Dvorak keyboard layout is as follows: 1. Try to let the left and right hands alternately hit the keyboard to avoid one-handed combo; Second, shorten the average moving distance of verbal attack keys as much as possible; Third, arrange the most commonly used letters in the position of the guide keys.
Windows has built-in support for DVORAK keyboard. Click Control Panel-Keyboard, enter the input method regional setting option, and then click Add to set the input method regional to English (USA), and find American English -DVORAK in the keyboard layout/input method column.
Malt keyboard
Later, mault designed a more reasonable and efficient "malt" keyboard than the "dvorak" keyboard. Mault changed the original staggered arrangement of keys, and the Back key and other keys that were far away from the center of the keyboard were easier to reach, and the thumb was used more frequently when typing. However, the malt keyboard has not been widely used.