Page 2 of 2
Re: WPM typing?
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:19 pm
by pickle
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow people down. It was invented back in the age of typewriters when secretaries got so fast, they kept jamming the machines. So the keys were re-arranged so that as often as possible, consecutive letters would come from opposite sides of the machine & reduce jamming
I met a fellow that went to DVORAK & said it took him about a month to learn it (because he was proficient in QWERTY & like you said, had lots of muscle memory). He said once he learned it though, it was much better for him - faster typing & less strain.
I was wrong earlier - the DVORAK layout was developed to make the most common letters the easiest to type, and the least common letters the hardest to type, plus some other factors. Wikipedia has a good write-up on it.
Re: WPM typing?
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:28 pm
by califdon
OK, the old-timer just hasta chime in here.

Anyone remember typewriters? You know, the combined keyboard and printer? That's where QWERTY comes from, and like jshpro2 said, it's designed to slow you down so that two typebars wouldn't collide and jam. A good summary of 20th century typing speed records can be found at:
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Typ ... id/2040534
[hey, how's that for a subdirectory name?!]
Re: WPM typing?
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:49 pm
by alex.barylski
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow people down. It was invented back in the age of typewriters when secretaries got so fast, they kept jamming the machines. So the keys were re-arranged so that as often as possible, consecutive letters would come from opposite sides of the machine & reduce jamming
Huh...I did not know that. Interesting.
I was wrong earlier - the DVORAK layout was developed to make the most common letters the easiest to type, and the least common letters the hardest to type, plus some other factors. Wikipedia has a good write-up on it.
Nice timing. I'm waiting for a phone call so I have some free time.
Anyone remember typewriters
Umm I'm not that young...I used one several times in grade school to type up school work cause I never learned to hold a pen properly and my hand cramps almost immediately. I hated type writers though...always jamming my fingers between keys.

Re: WPM typing?
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:31 pm
by califdon
Now, if you want to talk about a
real challenge, consider the old-time Morse code operators who could listen to radio or land-line Morse at 35wpm+ and type the messages on a typewriter while smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee! True! I could do it at 25wpm at the peak of my U.S. Navy experience.
[P.S. To do the above requires a mental buffer of at least a word or two.]
Re: WPM typing?
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:21 pm
by Jonah Bron
62 WPM on the first test, 58 WPM on the second one. Cool
25WPM is fast for Morse code; I didn't know that was possible: that's a lot of tapping.
I did know that the QWERTY format comes from typewriters, but I didn't know that it was designed to slow you down. It makes sense, though. It's funny, though: typing on QWERTY feels so natural. I can't even imagine typing any other way.
The problem with typing speed tests is that you aren't usually dictating while programing, or much anything else for that matter.