Ben Bacarisse <ben.use...@bsb.me.uk> writes: > alister <alister.w...@ntlworld.com> writes: > <snip> >> <pedant Mode on> >> the design of qwerty was not to "Slow" the typist bu to ensure that the >> hammers for letters commonly used together are spaced widely apart, >> reducing the portion of trier travel arc were the could jam. >> I and E are actually such a pair which is why they are at opposite ends >> of the hammer rack (I doubt that is the correct technical term). >> they are on opposite hands to make typing of them faster. >> unfortunately as you found it is still possible to jam them if they are >> hit almost simultaneously >> <Pedant Mode Off> > > The problem with that theory is that 'er/re' (this is e and r in either > order) is the 3rd most common pair in English but have been placed > together. ou and et (in either order) are the 15th and 22nd most common > and they are separated by only one hammer position. On the other hand, > the QWERTY layout puts jk together, but they almost never appear > together in English text.
This last part came out muddled. It's obviously wise to put infrequent combinations together (like jk), but j and k are both also rare letters so putting them together represents a wasted opportunity for meeting the supposed design objective. Swapping, say, k and r, or splitting jk but putting e in the middle would surely result in a net gain of "hammer separation". -- Ben. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
