“QWERTY”It is the concatenation of 6 letters in the upper left corner of the main keyboard letter area
The keyboards we use are calledQWERTY。
first,typewriterOfkeyboardIt is arranged in alphabetical order, but if the typing speed is too fast, some key combinations are easy to cause key card problems, soChristopher·Christopher Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard layout. He placed the most commonly used letters in the opposite direction and tried to improve the typing speed without getting stuck.Grant Si applied for a patent in 1868, and the first commercial typewriter using this layout was successfully launched on the market in 1873.
Key position design of keyboard
The key position design of a keyboard includes two concepts, one is the English and number key position design of the main body, and the other is the design of various auxiliary key positions.
The most common design scheme of English and number keys is commonly known as "QWERTY" Coty keyboard.This is the key position scheme invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868.
As we all know, the main design purpose of Coty keyboard is to make the keystroke speed not too fast.However, there is a small mistake in many articles, which is that the key position design of Coty keyboard is not to "make the keystroke speed not too fast to cause jamming", but to "try to improve the typing speed without jamming".
There is a subtle difference between the two statements. That is to say, slowing down the typing speed is not the ultimate goal. The QWERTY keyboard is not just slowing down the speed. Although it has a speed reduction design that puts common combinations such as ED on one finger, there are also many acceleration combination keys such as ER.
In fact, the basic reason for this design lies in the structure of the mechanical typewriter. The structure of its type lever determines that when two types close to each other are pressed at the same time, they will be stuck. However, the same problem will not occur to the two types that are far away from each other. I believe there has beenEnglish typewriterPeople who use experience should have some experience.
On the Coty keyboard, some commonly used letters are placed on the ring finger, the little finger and other positions, which has always been considered as using the inflexibility of the little finger to reduce speed, but this statement does not take into account the actual situation of mechanical typewriters. The index finger is certainly the most flexible, but the keys on the index finger are also the most likely to jam,Therefore, it is natural to put the commonly used letters on the edge to ensure that they will not get stuck during high-speed typing.
Therefore, the ultimate goal of the design of the Coty keyboard is not simply to reduce the typing speed. In fact, the design of the Coty keyboard is just to improve the typing speed, but to "try to improve the typing speed without getting stuck".
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Nowadays, the qwerty keyboard has not only been used in the 101 standard keyboard of computers, but also in many smart phones, PDAs and other portable devices.Different from the original intention of the qwerty keyboard on the original typewriter, the qwerty keyboard is far faster than the traditional 0-9 number keyboard on a small device such as a mobile phone.
It is a miracle that this arrangement, which was adopted a century ago to reduce the typing speed, has become a standard.
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At first, the QWERTY keyboard was designed to reduce the typing speed. The keyboard of the typewriter was arranged in alphabetical order. However, if the typing speed was too fast, some key combinations were prone to be stuck. So Christopher Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard layout. He placed the most commonly used letters in the opposite direction,Maximize the speed of key tapping to avoid key sticking.Grant Si applied for a patent in 1868, and the first commercial typewriter using this layout was successfully launched on the market in 1873.
QWERTY keyboard: keyboard arrangement
But ironically, this keyboard arrangement, which was formed 129 years ago to slow down the speed of keystrokes, continues today.In 1986, Sir Bruce Berivin said in his article "The Wonderful Writing Machine" that "the arrangement of QWERTY is very inefficient." For example, most typists are right-handed, but using QWERTY, the left hand is responsible for 57% of the work.Two little fingers and leftring fingerThey are the most powerless fingers, but they need to use them frequently.The use rate of the letters in the middle column only accounts for about 30% of the whole typing work. Therefore, in order to type a word, you often have to move your fingers up and down.
QWERTY keyboard: There are also the following statements
QWERTY keyboard: paper tape typewriter and card typewriter
In fact, keyboards have appeared on computer auxiliary equipment in the era earlier than teletypewriters. In the era when computers could still occupy a hall, the main computer input equipment wasPerforated paper tapeandPunch cardOf course, these paper tapes and cards can't be worn out by hand. They are worn out by special "paper tape punch" and "card punch". On both machines, there is an electric typewriter that is similar to an ordinary typewriter as an input device.But relatively speaking, these two devices are not part of the computer, which is different from the teletypewriter, so we do not regard them asComputer keyboardPart of the history of development.
“Teletypewriter”It's on keyboard+monitorInput/output deviceBefore the appearance of the main interactive input and output device of the computer, you can think of it as a printer with a keyboard on the top cover. The words typed by the user and the results output by the computer will be printed on the print output port in front of the keyboard.
Teletypewriter isMainframe(MAINCOMPUTER) andSmall computerSMALLCOMPUTER is the most important computer interactive input and output device in the era.Since the mid-1970s, with the maturity of the display design, teletypewriter has gradually withdrawn from the computer world, while the keyboard has become an independent device.
In this period, due to the small size of personal computers, the popular design is to directly use the keyboard on the host computer. This is the structure of the famous APPLEII series computers.But as IBM PC began to introduce the huge hard disk to personal computers at that time, in the mid-1980s, independent keyboard became the mainstream design.
Early keyboards were almostMechanical keyboardTo be precise, it is a mechanical contact keyboard. This keyboard uses electrical contact as a sign and mechanical metal spring as an elastic mechanism.This kind of keyboard was very popular at that time because of its hard feel, long key stroke, quick and clear change of key resistance, and its feel was close to that of a typewriter keyboard.
However, the two biggest disadvantages of the mechanical contact keyboard are that the mechanical spring is easily damaged, and the electrical contact will oxidize after a long time of use, leading to key failure.Therefore, after the 1990s, the mechanical contact keyboard gradually withdrew from the historical stage.
At the beginning, it was replaced by electromagneticMechanical keyboard。The electromagnetic mechanical keyboard is still a mechanical keyboard, but it is different from the mechanical contact keyboard in that it does not rely on mechanical force to connect two electrical contacts, but closes the electrical contacts in a micropotentiometerPlace amagnet, viamagnetic forceTo turn on the current.
Compared with the mechanical contact keyboard, the service life of the electromagnetic mechanical keyboard is much longer, but it still fails to solve the problem that the mechanical movement part of the mechanical keyboard is easy to be damaged. Therefore, the electromagnetic mechanical keyboard did not survive in the market for long, and was soon replaced by the non-contact keyboard in the late 1980s.
Therefore, non-contact keyboards are different from the previous "contact keyboards". Unlike "contact keyboards", they do not rely on the mechanical connection of conductive contacts to obtain key signals, but rely on the electrical parameter changes of the keys themselves to obtain key signals.Since mechanical contact of contacts is not required, its service life can be much longer.
The main non-contact keyboards are resistive keyboards andCapacitive keyboard。The capacitive keyboard is more widely used because of its simpler process and lower cost.AndMechanical keyboardIn contrast, its two biggest characteristics are that the spring made of elastic rubber replaces the mechanical metal spring, and at the same time, the electrical connection of the mechanical keyboard is changed to the capacitance change caused by the change of the distance between the bottom of the key and the two capacitive plates at the bottom of the keyboard to obtain the signal of the key.
Compared with mechanical keyboards, the touch of capacitive keyboards has changed a lot, becoming soft and resilient, which is why many articles say that today's keyboards are capacitive keyboards. But in fact, this touch does not come from the capacitive structure, but from the replacement of rubber springs for mechanical metal springs, which is notCapacitive keyboardThe reason why it is a capacitive keyboard.
Because of its principle, each key must be made into an independent closed structure. Such a keyboard is also classified as "closed keyboard".
For most keyboard articles, the capacitive keyboard has come to an end, but in fact, their mistakes are also here, why?Here is a key point. We will continue when we talk about the structure of the keyboard.
QWERTY keyboard: keyboard position design
The key position design of a keyboard includes two concepts, one is the English and number key position design of the main body, and the other is the design of various auxiliary key positions.The most common design scheme of English and number keys is commonly known as "QWERTY" Coty keyboard.This is the key position scheme invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868.
As we all know, the main design purpose of Coty keyboard is to make the keystroke speed not too fast.However, there is a small mistake in many articles, which is that the key position design of Coty keyboard is not to "make the keystroke speed not too fast to cause jamming", but to "try to improve the typing speed without jamming".
There is a subtle difference between the two statements. That is to say, slowing down the typing speed is not the ultimate goal. The QWERTY keyboard is not just slowing down the speed. Although it has a speed reduction design that puts common combinations such as ED on one finger, there are also many acceleration combination keys such as ER.
In fact, the basic reason for this design lies in the structure of the mechanical typewriter. The structure of its type lever determines that when two types close to each other are pressed at the same time, they will be stuck. However, the same problem will not occur to the two types that are far away from each other. I believe there has beenEnglish typewriterPeople who use experience should have some experience.
On the Coty keyboard, some commonly used letters are placed on the ring finger, the little finger and other positions, which has always been considered as using the inflexibility of the little finger to reduce speed, but this statement does not take into account the actual situation of mechanical typewriters. The index finger is certainly the most flexible, but the keys on the index finger are also the most likely to jam,Therefore, it is natural to put the commonly used letters on the edge to ensure that they will not get stuck during high-speed typing.
Therefore, the ultimate goal of the design of the Coty keyboard is not simply to reduce the typing speed. In fact, the design of the Coty keyboard is just to improve the typing speed, but to "try to improve the typing speed without getting stuck".
In the 20th century, the invention of electromechanical typewriter made it no longer an important problem that the type arm of mechanical typewriter was jammed, and many high-speed typing keyboards came into being.The most famous one is DVORAKDvorak Keyboard 。
The Dvorak keyboard is a key position scheme designed by Professor AugustDvorak in 1930. Since the mechanical structure of keys is no longer considered, the key layout is completely designed according to the ideal keystroke rate distribution.The stroke of finger movement is much smaller than that of Curty keyboard, and the average typing speed is almost doubled.However, like many things, the power of habit is hard to resist. Until now, the Dvorak keyboard has only been used in a few professional occasions.However, for those who want to try, you can try the Dvorak keyboard solution that comes with Windows.
QWERTY keyboard: non English keyboard scheme
The keyboards of various languages are basically changed from the English keyboard. Most of the keys are arranged in a way similar to the English keyboard, with only minor differences. For example, the dollar sign on the British keyboard has become the pound sign, while the mother and child Y and Z on the German keyboard have changed positions.The English keys of various Far East language keyboards are not very different from non-standard American English keyboards, but there are obvious differences in some auxiliary keys.For Chinese users, the most easily seen non American language keyboard may be common in the second-hand marketJapaneseCompared with the standard English keyboard, most of its keys are the same, but there are obvious differences in the position of some punctuation marks, which leads to the mismatch between the key logo and the actual content when using some punctuation marks in the English system.
Another concept of key position design is the design of accessory keys. From the earliest IBMPC83 keyboard to the mainstream 108 key Windows98 keyboard, it has been updated for several generations, but there is no fundamental change on the whole.Although some of them, such as compact design, are not successful in terms of market reaction.It can be seen that the current keyboard position design has been tested by many years of practice and has become a very mature ideal design.
Self defeating cross direction key design
The so-called cross shaped direction keys refer to the cross shaped arrangement of independent direction keys on the keyboard. This design was originally intended to be more similar to the traditional 83 keyboard design in image, but the actual effect is quite poor.
The earliest cross key is the first generation of MicrosoftHuman engineering keyboardHowever, it has become the design that has been scolded most by people in this generation of famous products. The cross shaped key position looks very beautiful, but when it is actually used, it will be found that the fingers of this key design will be squeezed together. It is extremely inconvenient in daily use or in the game, especially in the racing game.So Microsoft changed back to the original design in the second generation products.
However, the funny thing is that Microsoft, the originator, has no longer used the cross direction key, but recently some domestic manufacturers have picked up this self defeating design again and publicized it as one of the characteristic designs.It is strongly recommended that you do not consider this, otherwise you will have enough pain after buying it back.
Structure of QWERTY keyboard
As we mentioned earlier, today's keyboards are not realCapacitive keyboard, so what kind of keyboard is it now?Let's take apart a keyboard to have a look.
An ordinary ultra-thin keyboard can be disassembled into multiple parts after the screws on the back are removed.The first is the keyboard, the upper cover plate, and the key cap of each key embedded in it, which is the main contact part of the user.
Below the upper cover is a rubber film. There is an elastic key cap at the position of each key. This part is the main elastic element of the keyboard. The feel of a keyboard is mainly determined by the character and material of this part. Therefore, its shape design and rubber composition are secrets of major keyboard manufacturers.It should be noted that not all manufacturers use such an integrated rubber film. Some manufacturers, such as BenQ, are accustomed to using separate rubber springs for each key on some keyboards. This design is more conducive to maintaining the unity of each key feel, but the production process is more complex.
Below the rubber film, there are three layers of overlapped plastic films. The upper and lower layers are covered with film wires. There are two contacts at each key position, while the middle plastic film does not contain any wires. The upper and lower conductive films are separated and insulated, while the key contact position is provided with a round hole.
In this way, under normal conditions, the upper and lower conductive films are separated by the middle layer, and will not be conductive.However, after the upper membrane is pressed, it will be connected with the lower membrane at the opening position, thus generating a key signal.
It can be seen that today's keyboard is actually a contact keyboard. Although its shape is quite different, its basic principle is the same as that of the mechanical contact keyboard. It relies on the mechanical conductive contacts to generate key signals together.Not at allCapacitive keyboard。
In fact, the real name of this keyboard is "membrane contact keyboard", which is a mechanical contact keyboard.Like the mechanical contact keyboard, it has a short life and is easy to be damaged. However, because the rubber spring replaces the metal spring, its feel is better than the mechanical contact keyboard and is close to the capacitive keyboard. Although its life is not as long as the capacitive keyboard, it is much longer than the mechanical contact keyboard.
The real capacitive keyboard is based on the non-contact capacitive conductive trigger principle, so the circuit structure is much more complex than the film contact keyboard, andCapacitive keyboardEach key of the is a closed structure, and its overall cost is much higher than that of the open film contact keyboard.So now, except for a few high-end special keyboards, there are no real capacitive keyboards on sale.
In addition to the film contact keyboard, there is another mainstream keyboard“Conductive rubberContact keyboard ", which is characterized by only one layerConductive film, there are two disconnected contacts at each key position, andRubber springThe lower part of is made of conductive rubber, and when pressed, the two contacts will be connected.
It can be seen that the principle of this keyboard is very similar to that of the calculator keys.In fact, in the early days of personal computers, this design was often used on some ultra-thin laptops.Only compared with the membrane contact keyboard, this structure has a shorter life, so it has gradually disappeared except for some special purposes.
In the upper right corner of the keyboard, there is a circuit board together with the film. This circuit board is the core part of the keyboard. The conduction signal transmitted from the conductive film will be input to the calculation chip on the circuit board through the wire. This chip will find the corresponding key through a key layout table inside the chip according to the wire numbers on the upper and lower surfacesASCIICode, output it through the interface.
This way of obtaining key codes by looking up tables is called "non coded keyboard", and the opposite is "coded keyboard". The ASCII code of this keyboard is directly generated by the digital circuit of each key.Compared with non coded keyboards, coded keyboards are expensive and difficult to redefine, so they are now rare.Capacitive keyboardBecause of its working principle, most of them are coded keyboards, which also proves that the current mainstream keyboards are not capacitive keyboards from another perspective.
QWERTY keyboard: ASCII code
ASCII code, i.e. "American National Standard Information"Interchange code”(American Standard Code for International Interchange).I believe it is not strange for those who have learned programming, but for those who have not learned programming, there may be a need to introduce them.
ASCIIThe code is a combination of two earlier coding specifications, ANSIX.3.4 and ISO646. In 1970, the coding specification adopted by the National Committee for Standardization of the United States stipulated that 128 basic English charactersBinaryCoding rules, such as the code of capital letter "A" is 65, and the code of space is 32.After the introduction of ASCII, it gradually replaced other old codes and became the unified standard of computer codingInternational Organization for StandardizationISO was recognized as an international standard in the 1980s.
Since ASCII only stipulates 128 most commonly used English characterscharacter setWith the increase of, there are many kinds of coding methods that are expanded on ASCIIUnicodeCoding is one of the more complex ones. It is a 32bits coding scheme developed on the basis of standard ASCII NO.5 and ISO10646.ISO10646 is a coding scheme developed on the basis of ISO08859-1ASCII256 character standard developed on standard ASCII NO.5Extended ASCIIEncoding), including all current computer characters, but due to its huge size, it has developed a 16 bitUnicodeIts complexity is much smaller than that of ISO10646, but it does not include some very rare characters
