This post is addressed to those who, unlike me, use all their ten fingers to type out a message on their computer (laptop or desktop) QWERTY keyboards. Of course, it is also addressed to those who have an iPad and use it, with how many ever fingers as they feel comfortable with on the, again, QWERTY keyboard. In the interest of full disclosure, I have an iPad and use it, at least for the limited purposes of sending emails, messages and reading e-books, but I use only two fingers.
As I do not have a touch-screen mobile phone, I do not know whether this post is addressed to people having one such gizmo (I do know, however, that most people use only one finger, their thumb, on these things).
Given below are photographs of the QWERTY keyboard (a small segment of it), of a desktop (the first three), a laptop (the next two) and the Apple iPad (the last shot). Of course, you do not see any evolution, the letters of the alphabet are unmoved from their original position. You find your ‘Y’ in the very same place relative to the other letters as you did in your grandfather’s Remington or Godrej typewriter. The letters ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘H’, and ‘J’ are steadfast in holding on to their positions.
But, this is not the evidence of lack of evolution that I am writing on in this post. There, of course, is the history of efforts to change the configuration to suit the frequency of letters appearing in a text, all doomed. In the olden days, in keyboards that need to be pressed hard physically, to be forced to use one’s pinky frequently, as for ‘A’ was proof enough of the intended sadism! But, in the age of touch sensitive keyboards, that charge melts away.
Then, in what sense am I saying that the QWERTY keyboard has not evolved? Look carefully at the keyboard of the desk top. You would see a raised ‘_’ below the letter ‘F’, and so also below the letter ‘J’. When you are doing ten-finger typing, if your fingers lost touch with the keyboard, these small protrusions helped your fingers get back their bearings, just by the feel of it. No need to look at the keyboard. Your right index finger sought out the ‘F’ and the left, the ‘J’.
Now, this is the lack of evolution in the keyboard – look at the last photograph, a screen shot of the keyboard in an Apple iPad, which is touch-sensitive. You see the image of the raised ‘_’! This is fully dysfunctional! This is like the ‘Appendix’ at the junction of the large and small intestines in the human digestive track. Some say it serves some function and some say it does not. I fall in with the latter, except for the fact that it got me to type out this post on my laptop, but without using the raised ‘_’!
It really is surprising that Apple wrote that one line of additional code to denote that useless ‘_’. iPad, and possibly Apple, has reached an evolutionary dead end!
Raghuram Ekambaram
6 comments:
Believe me Raghuram, I typed out a whole virtual abc to z on the photo you've provided and I could. So the keyboard is fine as far as I'm concerned. Now I don't use the numbers much and so is the case with the other keys. Perhaps Apple people had that in mind - people like me who are fast on fingers as far as the alphabet is concerned. I type pretty fast with all my 10 fingers without having to look at the keyboard. The virtual keyboard you provided looked good to me.
Oh, Matheikal,you didn't catch the point I made. Check your desktop / laptop keyboard; you would find a small protruding '_' below 'F' and 'J'. It is a tactile clue that helps setting one's fingers in their appointed positions on the keyboard.
You find this mark also on the keyboard of the iPad, which is a touchscreen and there can be no protrusion. The screen can give no tactile clue, none. Then,what is the meaning of that '_'? And to make another point, the button for the ';' symbol is not at its location on the material keyboard, making the '_' mark underneath'J' inappropriate.
The point is very similar to people saying 12 Noon, as thought here can be any other noon. I hate redundancies. Trust the point I tried making is now made.
RE.
Ok, Raghuram. For the first time in my life I found those marks beneath F and J. But that only proves my point: they are redundant to those who have learnt typing.
Not exactly Matheikal; they are most crucial to the professionals who had learnt typing the old way: "asdfgf ;lkjhj", typing the above sequence a million times to start with.
The mark helps them fix their forefingers on the right buttons, sight unseen.
RE
i had not noticed them. i learnt typing in my teens. the teacher did not start me on asdfgf.. he started with gut fur hut etc. may be i will make less mistakes now that i know this !
Pala,
To tell the truth, not a single one to whom I had pointed this out had noted it earlier!
That small mark is useful only to those who start off setting their fingers on the middle line of the keyboard.
RE
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