The usual layout of keys on a computer keyboard is a legacy of typewriters. On the first of them, the letters were arranged alphabetically, in two rows. But with fast printing, this led to the fact that neighboring levers did not have time to return to their place and clung to each other. The keys "sticky", and the person typing the text had to interrupt work frequently.
The father of the QWERTY layout is American Christopher Scholes. He decided to arrange the letters included in the most frequently occurring digraphs as far apart as possible. So the frequency of clutches was reduced to a minimum. It took a dozen years and several dozen prototypes - two-, three-, four- and, finally, five-row machines to come to just such an option. The final version appeared in 1878.
The cars improved, the speeds of the levers increased, the clutch problem disappeared, but the layout remained. Moreover, she migrated to the keyboard of computers.
But that doesn't mean they haven't tried to replace her. University of Washington professor August Dvorak was convinced that the QWERTY layout could be improved. He noticed that typing frequently occurring combinations of letters required the placement of fingers in a rather clumsy manner. And typing such common words as “was” (was) and “were” (were) must be done with the left hand.
Dvorak patented a keyboard where frequently used letters were in the middle and top rows. Under the left hand in the middle row were vowels, in the lower and upper row - rare consonants. And under the right hand were the most frequent consonants.
"The YTSUKE Russian layout is easier. It was designed so that the letters that are used most often are placed under the index fingers.<…>There is also the so-called phonetic layout YAVERTA, or YAZHERTA, but it is more convenient for foreigners"
Despite the obvious conveniences, the Dvorak layout did not take root, like another Latin layout - Colemak. There are several reasons for this. First, the need to retrain. Secondly, the need, at least at first, to rename the keys. Also, do not discount the habit and the fact that most keyboards are sold with a QWERTY layout. You can switch to another layout, but for this you need to make an effort. But is it worth it if you have to work on different computers?
With the Russian layout, YTSUKE is easier. It was originally designed so that the letters that are used most often are placed under the index fingers, and those that are less common are placed under the ring and little fingers.
There is also the so-called phonetic layout YAVERTA, or YAZHERTA, but it is more convenient for foreigners studying Russian. Russian letters in it are located on the same keys, where the Latin ones are similar in phonetic sound: A-A, B-B, V-V, G-G, D-D, F-F, K-K, O-O, etc. True, the phonetic layout is even rarer than the Dvorak and Colemak layouts.
If not for the technical characteristics of the first typewriters, this anecdote would never have appeared, as well as the qwerty layout itself (by the name of the first six keys of the upper row of letters).
In the distant nineteenth century, when typewriters looked like sewing machines, the issue of the location of the keys was not particularly acute. Engineering thought was occupied exclusively with the technique of reproducing letters on paper. Therefore, the easiest solution was to arrange the keys alphabetically. However, here the authors were disappointed. It turned out that the letters with the most frequent letters began to shamelessly sink, clinging to each other and significantly complicating the printing process.
And if you imagine that the text was displayed at that time on the back of the sheet and you could see what was printed only at the end of the work, you can easily understand why Christopher Scholes (apparently, together with his mathematician brother) in 1868 compiled a new layout for printed cars. Since Scholes could not imagine that the era of mechanical typewriters would sink into oblivion faster than his own creation, he reorganized the layout so that the most frequently used letters were spaced as far apart as possible.
The principle was simple - not to allow the most frequently used letters to cling to each other. Simply put, spread them on different sides of the keyboard, or even better, scatter them in different rows.
The problem of letter jams has been resolved. Now the fingers simply do not have time to press the keys so quickly that the letters get stuck. They will have to work hard, typing ordinary English words. This is how QWERTY was born - a layout that is still installed on 98% of computers around the world, although there is no longer any need to "imprison" the most common letters.
Of course, QWERTY did not immediately conquer the English-speaking world. But, having conquered the world once, she is not going to leave it, although today you cannot find a mechanical typewriter in the afternoon with fire.
A significant help in promoting the new layout was the invention of the blind ten-finger method in 1876 by Frank McGurin, a court stenographer, specifically for QWERTY. At that time, the ability to quickly and effectively master the layout was a decisive success factor. Typists capable of working on any layout were sorely lacking.
The competition, arranged in 1888, which ended with a convincing victory for McGarin, decided the fate of QWERTY, and at the same time the blind method. From that moment on, all leading companies began to produce QWERTY typewriters, and all typists began to use the blind method.
The Russian analogue of QWERTY - YTSUKE, alas, is no better, since it is based on the same principles.
But why then is this layout installed on 98% of computers? The question inevitably arises: what is set on the other two percent?
The fact is that in 1936, a professor at the University of Washington, August Dvorak, decided to return to the origins of the standard layout and scientifically substantiate the need for a new one. The result of his research was a new layout bearing the name of the author. Its principle is maximum convenience for the typer. However, the issue of layout has long been a matter not of ergonomics, but of economics. The study of August Dvorak was discredited, the layout was ridiculed, the results were forgotten.
Answered by Sergey Kulikov
Informatics teacher
The usual arrangement of keys on a computer keyboard is a legacy of typewriters. On the first of them, the letters were arranged alphabetically, in two rows. But with fast printing, this led to the fact that neighboring levers did not have time to return to their place and clung to each other. The keys "sticky", and the person typing the text had to interrupt work frequently.
The father of the QWERTY layout is American Christopher Scholes. He decided to arrange the letters included in the most frequently occurring digraphs as far apart as possible. So the frequency of clutches was reduced to a minimum. It took a dozen years and several dozen prototypes - two-, three-, four- and, finally, five-row machines to come to just such an option. The final version appeared in 1878.
Christopher Sholes and his typewriter
The cars improved, the speeds of the levers increased, the clutch problem disappeared, but the layout remained. Moreover, she migrated to the keyboard of computers.
But that doesn't mean they haven't tried to replace her. University of Washington professor August Dvorak was convinced that the QWERTY layout could be improved. He noticed that typing frequently occurring combinations of letters required the placement of fingers in a rather clumsy manner. And typing such common words as “was” (was) and “were” (were) must be done with the left hand.
August Dvorak develops a new layout
Dvorak patented a keyboard where frequently used letters were in the middle and top rows. Under the left hand in the middle row were vowels, in the lower and upper row - rare consonants. And under the right hand were the most frequent consonants.
With the Russian layout, YTSUKE is easier. It was designed so that the letters that are used most often are placed under the index fingers.<...>There is also the so-called phonetic layout YAVERTY, or YAZHERTY, but it is more convenient for foreigners
Despite the obvious conveniences, the Dvorak layout did not take root, like another Latin layout - Colemak. There are several reasons for this. First, the need to retrain. Secondly, the need, at least at first, to rename the keys. Also, do not discount the habit and the fact that most keyboards are sold with a QWERTY layout. You can switch to another layout, but for this you need to make an effort. But is it worth it if you have to work on different computers?
With the Russian layout, YTSUKE is easier. It was originally designed so that the letters that are used most often are placed under the index fingers, and those that are less common are placed under the ring and little fingers.
There is also the so-called phonetic layout YAVERTA, or YAZHERTA, but it is more convenient for foreigners studying Russian. Russian letters in it are located on the same keys, where the Latin ones are similar in phonetic sound: A-A, B-B, V-V, G-G, D-D, F-F, K-K, O-O, etc. True, the phonetic layout is even rarer than the Dvorak and Colemak layouts.
Previously, "My Planet" talked about how.
Every day we face dozens of secrets. And in order to find them, it is not at all necessary to spy on someone else's personal life and fish out someone's skeletons from closets. Just looking around is enough.
One of the household mysteries right now is at your fingertips. Why are the letters on the keyboard arranged in such a strange order? 
Let's try to figure it out.
Do you think you are fast at typing on the keyboard? Do you make a lot of mistakes? Perhaps if the letters were in alphabetical order, things would be much more productive? Japanese researchers asked this question and tried to find out why, instead of the “normal” arrangement of keys, the whole world uses the QWERTY (or in the Russian version YTSUKEN) layout. Documents have been raised, answers have been found, and in parallel, two popular myths about the origin of the modern keyboard have been debunked.
Myth 1: QWERTY layout was designed for speed typing and because of the low "popularity" of individual letters
This version is the most common and quite logical. At first sight. But practical studies have shown that if the subjects used exclusively a specially designed keyboard with a different arrangement of letters for some time, they got used to it. And the dialing speed practically did not differ from working with QWERTY.
Myth 2: the keyboard is a descendant of the typewriter, and there the QWERTY order helped to avoid “freezing”
This version was completely opposite to the first. Its essence was that the unusual and "illogical" layout of the keys on the typewriter was supposed to slightly confuse typists. They could not print at high speed and, accordingly, the typewriter did not freeze. And everyone was happy. But the counterargument to an interesting theory lies on the surface: rote memory. That was proved by the experiment from the previous paragraph. Over time, we adapt to any conditions, so you can learn to type quickly and almost blindly on an "illogical" keyboard.
Truth: Thank you morse code
It turned out that the first prototypes of modern keyboards were provided with just the same alphabetic layout. And they began to "test" them on telegraph operators. Testers who had to quickly transcribe messages found the alphabetical order annoyingly awkward. And in order to work more efficiently with Morse code, they offered their own version - QWERTY. The proposal was heard, and after a few years all telegraphs switched to QWERTY. And behind them is the rest of the printed world.
The progenitors of today's computer keyboard are typewriters, which you might have seen in old movies. The first of them appeared in the 19th century. There were many models, but they all worked on the same principle. Keys were placed on the surface of the machine. Keys with a certain letter set the hammer in motion. The hammer on the top had a three-dimensional matrix of the same letter as on the key. He hit the tape. The tape was impregnated with paint, and was located between the hammer and paper, on which each letter was imprinted. The hammers took turns drumming on the paper, typing entire texts.
The first successful typewriters were the invention of K. Scholes. The letters on such copies were arranged alphabetically on two rows. All of them had the same size, taking the form of only capital letters. There were no numbers on this keyboard. They were successfully replaced by some letters of the English alphabet. People typing on such typewriters over time, gaining skill, began to type faster than before. And suddenly it turned out that the machine could not work at such a print speed. 
And the thing is that the hammers, imprinting the letters, must have time to return to their original position. And they didn't succeed. Moreover, they often began to get confused and intertwined, and it took precious time to separate the hammers, and often, because of the interweaving, the machine simply became unusable.
It turns out that the English alphabet is rich in neighbor letters, they are used more often than others. When sequentially pressing the neighboring keys, the hammers could interlock and jam.
Manufacturers thought about this problem and decided that it was necessary to create a new keyboard on which the letters would be located differently. Special tables were studied that showed the frequency of use of various combinations of letters in words. Those letters, the combinations of which were encountered most often, were located on the keyboard far from each other. Now the hammers of these letters worked without intersecting.
Working on such a keyboard allows you to type at high speed, in addition, this layout, which is still used by the whole world, allows you to work with all fingers. You probably already know her too. They call it QWERTY. Look at the top row of keys. The first five keys from left to right are labeled with these letters.
There are no complex mechanisms of hammers on the computer keyboard, and it would seem that such an arrangement of letters is not at all necessary here, but everyone is so used to this layout that they simply use it without thinking about why the letters are arranged in this way.
Many scientists are still developing new layouts that will help type text even faster, while the load on the hands will be less.
A. Dvorak, a professor at the University of Washington, came up with his own version of the layout. The most common letters occupy the middle and top rows in it. On the left hand are frequent vowels, and on the right - frequent consonants.
The professor claims that the load when using his keyboard is gentle. Just imagine that for a whole working day, fingers, using the professor's layout, overcome a path of 2 km on the keys. On the classic QWERTY layout, such work will take a longer distance of 7 km.
Pay attention, in addition to English letters on the keyboard, Russian letters are also placed in a special order. They are arranged according to the following scheme: the index fingers work with the most used letters of the alphabet, and the ring and little fingers get all the rest.
But the Russian layout also has its drawbacks. To place punctuation marks, you often have to use a combination of two keys. Try to put, for example, a comma, and you will be convinced of it. Perhaps that is why many guys, when exchanging messages on the Internet, often simply do not use them.
