From ANDREW BEATTIE
I would like to make three points about Michael Price’s article on keyboards
(‘It’s time to make type easy’, Forum, 12 January). I believe that his conclusion
is incorrect: the qwerty keyboard was certainly designed, after much statistical
study, to separate frequently used letters, but the object was not to slow
down typists but to permit them to type faster without the keys jamming.
If he wants a fast, efficient, easy to use keyboard, then investigate
the Agenda by Microwriter, which has a keyboard that uses chords of keys
to create characters and, surprisingly, is easier to learn and faster than
a qwerty keyboard – it even has the ‘e’ placed under the index finger as
Price suggests.
And on the subject of easy to use keyboards, does anyone make a telephone
with the keypad the right way up, with the same layout of the digits as
every calculator?
Andrew Beattie Basingstoke, Hampshire
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