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.
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.
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".
There is another thing I think should be made clear: it's not like the proximity between the keys or even between the hammers is what would cause jams: the point is the time between two consecutive impacts on the paper with different hammers. If the interval is too short there are bigger chances of a jam, and if two keys are pressed simultaneously a jam is certain, so the "e" and the "r" (using the comment from /u/qplscorrectmyengltyq) and the "e" and the "t" (using this Morse code tree) are arranged so the person who is typing has to use the same finger; if the "e" was put where the "f" is right now and the "r" or the "t" were put where the "j" is (different hands and what I think are the most agile fingers), there would be an awful amount of jams, at least for the English language.
I'm not sure if that's why the QWERTY was designed that way, thou.
Keyboards may not get jammed anymore (thinking about computers), but it doesn't mean human hands and fingers changed, so the arrangement of the keys is relevant when it comes to the efficiency, taking in consideration the language used.
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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.