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Anyone feel typing on the keyboard is a chore compared to typing on the phone with swipe enabled? (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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I feel swipe to type should be an option on laptops. Using keys to type is slow compared to swiping across alphabets. Remove the physical keyboard and put a 6" to 10" lcd with touch input on it.

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[–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

You guys are pretty much saying the same thing.

keyboards were designed to slow people down ... moving the most used keys out of the way

  • /u/FuglyDuck

would prevent jamming in mechanical typewritters

  • /u/Kalash

I'm not sure why the hostility calling it non-sense. It's common knowledge QWERTY was created because typewriters frequently jammed when you were quickly typing characters that were close to each other. By spacing out the letters, they effectively slowed down the typing speed and made the machine more reliable to use.

The reason for the layout is to have letters that are commonly typed together on alternating hands

This is a feature of Dvorak. QWERTY basically randomly places the most commonly used letters randomly across the keyboard.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You guys are pretty much saying the same thing.

    We're saying the opposite thing. It was designed for typing faster and prevent jamming, not for preventing jamming by being intentionally slow.

    I’m not sure why the hostility calling it non-sense.

    Well, it is non-sense. But I wasn't aware it was like a proper common misconception.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Ok I see now we are arguing semantics.

    Problem- people were having jams

    Solution- space out most commonly used keys randomly so jams are less frequent

    Consequences-

    • In theory assuming a perfect machine and a skilled typist you type slower because you have to move your fingers more

    • in practice you type faster because the jams were a much larger limiting factor than the key placement

    So they slowed it down in order to speed it up. Both of you are saying the same thing.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    But your conclusion is faulty and the speed increase doesn't just come from less jamming (which is now irrelevant anyway), but direclty from spacing out the letters.

    Typing consecutive letters next to each other often means you have to use the same finger and pressing multiple keys with the same finger is slower than using different fingers, as your "free" fingers can move into position in advance.

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