Keyboard configurations

Keyboards have changed a lot over the course of time. One of the configurations is Dvorak.The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is a keyboard layout patented in 1936 by Dr.August Dvorak and his brother-in-law, Dr. William Deeley. Over the years several slight variations were designed by the team led by Dvorak or by ANSI. It puts a lot of the most used keys in the home row and the most used combinations are easy to use as well. Dvorak proponents claim the Dvorak layout uses less finger motion, increases typing rate, and reduces errors compared to the standard QWERTY keyboard. This reduction in finger distance traveled is claimed to permit faster rates of typing while reducing repetitive strain injuries though this has been called into question.

The standard that we use now is called QWERTY. The name comes from the first six keys appearing on the top left letter row of the keyboard and read from left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in 1873. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in use on electronic keyboards due to the network effect of a standard layout and a belief that alternatives fail to provide very significant advantages. The use and adoption of the QWERTY keyboard is often viewed as one of the most important case studies in open standards because of the widespread, collective adoption and use of the product. The actual reason the keyboard is used mainly popularity, many people say that there are better configurations of keyboards that are faster and better for your hands.

The Colemak keyboard layout is another alternative to the standard QWERTY layout, offering a more incremental change for users already accustomed to the standard layout. It builds upon the QWERTY layout as a base, changing the positions of 17 keys while retaining the QWERTY positions of most non-alphabetic characters and many popular keyboard shortcuts, supposedly making it easier to learn than Dvorak for people who already type in QWERTY. It shares several design sensibilities with DVORAK, such as minimizing finger path distance and making heavy use of the home row. An additional defining feature of the Colemak layout is the lack of a Caps Lock key, an additional Backspace key occupies the position typically occupied by Caps Lock on modern keyboards.