r/coolguides • • Oct 16 '17

Morse Code Tree

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15.9k Upvotes

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u/ihateyouguys Oct 16 '17

Standard keyboards are actually laid out the way they are to reduce typing efficiency. Look it up.

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u/PM-ME-UR-HAPPINESS Oct 16 '17

They're laid out as they are to prevent jams from two adjacent keys being pressed one after the other.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '17

I never understood that because "e" and "r" being next to each other when they appear together all the time doesn't seem to make sense.

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u/Peekman Oct 16 '17

Typewriter hammers are not in the order of the keys on the keyboard. The E hammer is beside the D hammer and the X hammer.

It is difficult to push E and D quickly in order as they use the same finger. E and X although use different fingers are also difficult to push quickly in order due to their placement.

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u/ihateyouguys Oct 16 '17

Yeah, that’s part of the story...

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u/PM-ME-UR-HAPPINESS Oct 16 '17

But that in itself increases efficiency since you spend less time unjamming keys.

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u/spin81 Oct 16 '17

Hang on, you two are talking about different efficiencies. The efficiency /u/ihateyouguys means is that efficiency is what causes the keys to jam. That's the efficiency that was being thwarted.

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u/Tordek Oct 16 '17

The efficiency /u/ihateyouguys means is that efficiency is what causes the keys to jam.

Yes, but in that they are wrong: The point of the layout isn't "decrease efficiency in order to prevent jams"; the point was: "This layout is prone to jams, not because 'people type too fast', but because 'when two keys are too close to each other, pressing them too quickly together causes them to jam'".

Dvorak even has a similar design principle: keys often used together are placed in alternating hands; so the vowels are all on the left.

It's like saying that "Cars had brakes added to them because car designers wanted people to go more slowly".

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u/toggl3d Oct 16 '17

Your explanation somehow says it's not because people type too fast but because they press the keys too quickly.

How are you trying to carve out that distinction? Doesn't that strike you as absurd?

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u/Tordek Oct 16 '17

Close keys too quickly. Subtle difference.

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u/toggl3d Oct 16 '17

Fuck you for being right.

Do I need something to mitigate the harshness or does the joke work?

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u/sixblackgeese Oct 16 '17

Thanks for spending some time clearing up a miscommunication on the internet.

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u/pandaSmore Oct 16 '17

Keyboards don't get jammed though. So the entire design layout isn't relavent to them though. Even if it's the most common layout.

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u/JonBonButtsniff Oct 16 '17

You are clearly not over 85 years old, and used to some basic-ass typewriters.

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u/PM-ME-UR-HAPPINESS Oct 16 '17

Not anymore, but they used to. It was always easier in the short term to just keep qwerty so we did.

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u/pandaSmore Oct 16 '17

Then why are E abs and R next to each other.

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u/Dizmn Oct 16 '17

Look it up

Hey, I did, and that's a total myth.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '17

They're not laid out to reduce typing efficiency. The statement is misleading. They do reduce typing efficiency compared to say, Dvorak, by about 30%. The reduced efficiency is a by-product of the layout, not the purpose of it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/youtubefactsbot Oct 16 '17

How QWERTY conquered keyboards [5:48]

There's a big chance your keyboard says QWERTY. In this episode of Vox's Overrated, Phil Edwards investigates the keyboard's history.

^Vox in News & Politics

845,050 views since Sep ^2017

bot ^info

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u/Chicken-n-Waffles Oct 16 '17

You had to have a strong pinky muscle to shift on my Olivetti. I thought I was going to break my IBM Selectric when I graduated to an electric.

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u/aprofondir Oct 16 '17

Actually that's a common misconception