Ms technology vocabulary qwerty
Murphey Harmon
January 2009
Computer 7-3
QWERTY
Qwerty is the common layout of computer keyboards we use today. It takes its name from the first 6 letters presented on the keyboard. The design was patented by Christopher Sholes in Milwaukee during the early 1870s, and then sold where it first appeared in typewriters. The first message ever sent over internet based email is rumored to be QWERTYUIOP, for the letters that occupy the top row on Sholes' keyboard design, which has remained in use since it first debuted.
Sholes purposely changed the arrangement of the keyboard to slow down fast typers who typed on his slow machine. Typing faster than the maximum speed for the type writer resulted in it jamming. Other keyboards like the Dvorak keyboard were invented for speed typing, but due to the already widespread use of the qwerty keyboard, none have entirely caught on. Unlike the Qwerty keyboard, the Dvorak keyboard is designed so all the most commonly used letters in that English language are in the middle row. Common letter combination are also positioned in a way so they can be typed quickly. Non-english keyboards often use different keyboard layouts, entirely separate from qwerty and dvorak, which were both designed assuming English would be the primary language.
