What do you think about this program http://www.comfort-
software.com/alphabetical-ordered-keyboard.html ?

With this program we can make not only alphabetical ordered keyboard
but any layout (without having to buy a new keyboard :).

•  1
  New Members

I'm not familiar with that software, so I can't offer an opinion on
its functionality.

That said, I think the topic of purely alphabetically arranged
keyboards has come up before here. I don't think that arrangement of
keys would offer any benefit over qwerty in terms of ease of use,
economy of finger movement, etc. It would probably be worse to switch
over from qwerty to an alphabetical arrangement because at least with
qwerty there is an element of familiarity.

I'm not sure why the grandmother mentioned in the text would have an
easier time emailing with this arrangement of keys. Presumably a
grandmother would be fully familiar with the qwerty keyboard.
Even "hunt-and-peck" typists would have an easier time with qwerty if
that's all they have ever hunted and pecked on.
-Peter

--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, "koshkinsoft" <koshkinsoft <at> ...>
wrote:
>
> What do you think about this program http://www.comfort-
> software.com/alphabetical-ordered-keyboard.html ?
>
> With this program we can make not only alphabetical ordered
keyboard
> but any layout (without having to buy a new keyboard :).
>

•  1
  New Members

I think that the point about the grandmother is that there are still
people out there who haven't come to grips with computers (believe it
or not). My father is one - although in his case I have no doubt that
he will remain ignorant of computers till the day he dies.

Anyone who has had zero experience of keyboards but has learnt
the 'abc' - most if not all English speakers - would find hunting-and-
pecking on an alphabetically arranged keyboard much easier than a
QWERTY. And given that it has been shown (e.g. at
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/counts.html) that an alpha layout is
no worse than an QWERTY, there's no harm done if that person isn't
likely to use more than a single computer.

When we English-speakers, at least in my neck of the woods (England)
are taught the alphabet, it is reinforced by means of a rhyme that
goes:

ABC,
DEFG,
HIJKLM;
NOPQ,
RSTU,
VWXYZ.

Therefore it would make sense to me to have the line breaks at these
points:

ABCDEFG
HIJKLMNOPQ
RSTUVWXYZ

And so, with the help of MSKLC (Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator,
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx) I made a
keyboard layout that has this format.

If interested, you can get it here:
http://www.typocheck.co.uk/dvorak/layouts/

--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, "pbrun01" <pbrun01 <at> ...> wrote:
>
> I'm not familiar with that software, so I can't offer an opinion on
> its functionality.
>
> That said, I think the topic of purely alphabetically arranged
> keyboards has come up before here. I don't think that arrangement
of
> keys would offer any benefit over qwerty in terms of ease of use,
> economy of finger movement, etc. It would probably be worse to
switch
> over from qwerty to an alphabetical arrangement because at least
with
> qwerty there is an element of familiarity.
>
> I'm not sure why the grandmother mentioned in the text would have
an
> easier time emailing with this arrangement of keys. Presumably a
> grandmother would be fully familiar with the qwerty keyboard.
> Even "hunt-and-peck" typists would have an easier time with qwerty
if
> that's all they have ever hunted and pecked on.
> -Peter
>
>
> --- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, "koshkinsoft" <koshkinsoft <at> >
> wrote:
> >
> > What do you think about this program http://www.comfort-
> > software.com/alphabetical-ordered-keyboard.html ?
> >
> > With this program we can make not only alphabetical ordered
> keyboard
> > but any layout (without having to buy a new keyboard :).
> >
>

•  1
  New Members