this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Whether you, like me, beleive that QAZWSX keyboards make far more sense, especially in a machine learning world, I think we all agree a layout designed to circumvent jamming typewriter keys doesn't make sense in modern society on modern devices.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It makes perfect sense, we've been using it forever, it's the standard, almost every person that's taken a typing class for the last 150ish years (in the English speaking world), has done so on a qwerty keyboard. Why bother changing something that just works?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Just because you're used to something, doesn't make it good.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What evidence do you have that QWERTY is bad?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Honestly, it's a mere shower thought, so I didn't come prepared with notes and statistics in hand, what I will say is the amount of screen real estate is by far the worst issue.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Use something else, try coming back.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Sure, and we've tried a lot of alternative layouts over the decades.

None of them stuck around, by and large. Some have ultra-niche followings, sure. But overall, the latin-script world has stuck to (Q|A)WERT(Y|Z). For a reason!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

True. But the rule of thumb is that in order to replace an existing working solution, a new model needs to be at least ten times better in quantifiable ways. Otherwise it's worth staying with the established solution.

What's ten times better than qwerty?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever tried to type on your phone in landscape while still seeing the content? That's 8 times better in itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"Have you ever tried to do this thing you'll never actually need to do?"

It sounds a hell of a lot more like you're trying to automate text communication

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Wait, you've never had to type on your phone in landscape? Never played a game and had to type a message in chat? Never had to type while watching a video? Never had to do something in terminal and the text wasn't legible in portrait? 🥹

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
  1. no, 2) qwerty is fine for that, literally 0 need for AI interpretation, 3) no, not that I can't just switch to a pc keyboard for 4) no
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

People rode horses for millenia until someone built a car.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Because touch screens are very different from typewriters and having to precisely press tiny keys without making full use of their capabilities is extremely inefficient.