Saturday 30 April 2022When talking about the format and standard of today's keyboards, many questions arise in your mind, why is the format structure of the current keyboard using the QWERTY format, and not using the ABCDEF alphabetic arrangement? Well, there are several reasons why the keyboard was created using the QWERTY layout. The following is some of the development process and also the history of the use of the QWERTY format on the keyboard.
Starting with Using a Typewriter
Long before computers and their hardware were made, the world already knew what was called a typewriter. The typewriter in its heyday was one of the prima donnas, where many people could write documents very easily without the need to write manually by hand.
In 1868, Cristopher Latham Sholes managed to find a machine that can help facilitate human work in creating documents, namely the typewriter. The creation of the typewriter certainly creates euphoria for the community, because it can create documents very easily.
The typewriter at that time was an innovation that was very useful and beneficial to the wider community. They no longer need to use handwriting to make reports, documents or letters. So that it will shorten the time to write anything using a typewriter.
When it was first created, it turned out that the typewriter did not use a QWERTY keyboard. Its use still uses a slightly randomized alphabetic order, adjusted to which characters are written a lot. With this kind of keyboard, users can write more quickly and efficiently.
Although the keyboard on the first typewriter did not use a QWERTY, and could help write and type faster, it turned out to be a problem, where when the writer typed too fast, it often caused the mechanisms inside the typewriter to overlap and get stuck with each other. . Because of this, Sholes began to change and shuffle the arrangement of words and also the character of the typewriter itself.
Current Keyboard Usage
Currently, the use of the keyboard uses a keyboard type that has been standardized by ISO (International Standardized Organization) with a QWERTY layout. QWERTY refers to the first 5 letters on the left side of your keyboard. Because it is a type that has been standardized internationally, almost all keyboards in the world use this qwerty format.
The use of the QWERTY keyboard consists of many keys, starting from the 26 alphabet keys, 10 numeric keys, 12 function keys, 4 arrow keys, and the rest are other function keys such as Ctrl, Alt, Backspace, Esc, Home, and many more. Those are the standard keys on a conventional QWERTY keyboard.
In some other types of keyboards, such as keyboards for gaming, there are many more complex functions that support gaming needs. Likewise with the design, where the keyboard design and gaming are deliberately made specifically to make it easier to control for the user.
Efficient Factors of the Typing
Process From the results of work and randomizing the characters on a typewriter, finally a random combination is obtained that can increase the efficiency of using a typewriter. The result of that overhaul is what we know today as QWERTY. QWERTY allows writers to type quickly but can reduce the mechanical disturbance of the typewriter significantly.
Selection of Most Used
Buttons The use of QWERTY when it was created basically refers to the calculation of the efficiency of typing time, and also which keys and letters are often used, and also rarely used. This makes several letters that are often used in a word or sentence made so that they are not next to each other or close together, so as to minimize interference with the typewriter mechanism.
On the other hand, buttons that represent the use of letters or characters that are rarely used are placed a bit isolated, as can be seen from the placement of the letters z and x which are difficult to reach, because these letters are rarely used.
At the time when computers began to be widely used, keyboards began to be widely produced. At the beginning of its use, the production and use of a keyboard still used the classic cable, namely a cable with a Ps/2 port (see also about the function of the port on a computer).
However, along with the development of the times, the use of keyboards began to use USB ports, there are even some keyboards that can now be used wirelessly or without cables.
QWERTY inauguration by ISO
Eventually, this randomized keyboard became widely accepted, and began to be patented. In 1973, the keyboard format, with the arrangement of the qwerty letters recognized by the World Standards Organization (ISO) became the standard format on a keyboard or keyboard.
With the inauguration and patenting of QWERTY as the standard of a keyboard, this has led to the emergence of devices, especially typewriters that use a keyboard with a QWETY format. The 1960s and 1970s were also one of the eras for the development of computers and the widespread use of computers, thanks to the development of computer networks. So the more popular the keyboard with the QWERTY format as an input device on the computer.
Even though they have the same format, however, the use of keyboards on typewriters and computers is far different, because the function of a computer keyboard is much more complex and can be used for many purposes, not just for the typing process.
And so is an explanation of the history and development of the keyboard.
Lead image from unsplash
Right om.. Before computer, we type with typewriter too🙈 my dad nd mom use it😂🙈