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It seems to be silly question, but i really wonder 'Why keyboard keys are not placed in alphabetical order?' Is there any specific reason?

Dhanapal
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This is a good question with no simple answer.

Most people think the reason is that for touch typists the most often used characters are typed with the fingers that are stronger. This is not really true. You can easily check this yourself with a Letter Frequency table and a Touch Typing diagram.

The real reason is:

If you hit two keys that are next to each other on a mechanical typewriter simultaneously or in quick succession they lock up and the typewriter can even get damaged.

So the designers tried to spread out the keys which were close in often used words or phrases to minimize this effect. Mechanical typewriters are long gone, but the layout stayed because touch typists are used to it.

Ludwig Weinzierl
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    Of course the side effect of this is, keyboards are actually designed to slow down the speed you type at. – Richard Slater Jun 18 '09 at 09:36
  • @Richard Slater: Exactly, and this is where alternative keyboard layouts come into play. – Ludwig Weinzierl Jun 18 '09 at 09:48
  • Hmm, I've heard this said hundreds of time, but I've also heard it said that it's a common myth... – Mark Henderson Jun 18 '09 at 21:19
  • Maybe, but it's not as easy to prove or disprove as the letter frequency myth... – Ludwig Weinzierl Jun 18 '09 at 21:49
  • I don't agree that spacing the keys out would actually make you slower. If anything, using keys that are further spaced apart allows you to type faster since you can use alternating fingers and can be already pressing the next key when the previous is on the rebound. – Kamil Kisiel Jun 18 '09 at 22:23
  • Exactly Kamil. While the "odd" ordering makes typing slower for beginner typists (because they can't find the right keys quickly until the layout is learned) for those that could type faster then the machinery could cope with (because of the print levers colliding/jamming) in the alphabetical arrangement it actually allowed them to go faster than they otherwise would. – David Spillett Jun 18 '09 at 22:53
  • I think the suggestion that it's a myth is a myth. :-) – Graeme Perrow Jun 19 '09 at 00:32
  • I think we need to get MythBusters onto it! – Mark Henderson Jun 19 '09 at 02:07
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I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but all the letters required to spell the word "typewriter" are on the top row. Think "product demo".

RainyRat
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Because on the originals typewriting machines the most frequently used letters were spaced away to avoid mechanics pieces to be tired quickly.

Maxwell
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It is fascinating how Wikipedia and Google are difficult to use sometimes:

google for: reason for keyboard layout

First one that pops up will be QWERTY on Wikipedia, and there's a short story explaining the layout from several points of view.

Rook
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