« ralentir » : ça c'est le raccourci ou la légende urbaine. Il parait que ce n'était pas l'objectif avouer mais juste d'éviter les combinaisons courantes qui faisaient se croiser les tiges des machines à écrire... (accessoirement, c'est vrai que la réussite sur ce point ralentissait vu que les doigts devaient faire un peu plus de distance à vitesse égale.)
Le ralentissement est convoqué par exemple dans un billet de 2015 sur widesparecer.blogspot.com... « The historical record only confirms this. The typewriter began commercial production in 1873. In 1880 (and with the same fundamental design), Remington was advertising "sixty to seventy words per minute". Other sources confirm that 60 words per minute was a realistic figure for most anyone with enough practice. But the typewriter was an immediate commercial success and very soon there were expert typists who were very fast. In the next decade typing speed tests became quite popular, and speeds well over 100 words per minute were common-place. In 1889, Mr. McBride of Ottawa Ontario typed 179 words in one minute (albeit the same sentence repeated over and over). The early machines were clearly capable of far more speed than any normal typist would ever require.
Sholes had no reason to slow down the typists, and in any case, QWERTY did not slow them down.
But there is a grain of truth in the myth. The problem though, wasn't in the keys, but the type-bars. These were the arms of metal that reached out and struck the ribbon against the paper to stamp each letter. Anyone who has every operated an older typewriter knows that these bars could sometimes get stuck against each other. Most type-bars could do this if you typed them at exactly the same time, but for type-bars that were right next to each other, a near miss was enough to cause a jam.
[...]
Another (contradictory) notion is that you could slow down typing by avoiding common letter pairs on two fingers next to each other, because those are very easy to type quickly. However, the most popular letter pair of all, E and R, are right next to each other, typed with the third and second fingers, the most coordinated fingers. These keys can be typed very rapidly.
If slowing down the typist was a design goal, then by any theory, Sholes clearly did a horrible job.»
Pour ma part, je veux bien pardonner à Sholses & Remington qui avaient des contraintes mécaniques à gérer.
Sur la même page de blog, on termine en expliquant que Sholses ne s'est pas arrêté en si bon chemin et a fini par commettre une disposition ultime qui n'est pas sans rappeler le résultat de Dvorak (les différences s'expliqueraient d'une part par les contraintes mécaniques toujours présentes, et d'autre part par des priorités autres : il était important que la disposition soit plus facile à apprendre qu'à être ultime, et on ne connaissait pas encore les TMS)
Cette disposition, XPM, ne sera malheureusement pas produite à cause du brevet déposé en 1889 peu avant le décès de Sholes. (clin d'œil aux défenseurs de la brevetabilité à tout va...)
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." ― David Hume
[^] # Re: Clavier informatique
Posté par Gil Cot ✔ (site web personnel, Mastodon) . En réponse au journal Des concepteurs qui ont éteint trop tôt leur cerveau. Évalué à 4.
Le ralentissement est convoqué par exemple dans un billet de 2015 sur widesparecer.blogspot.com... « The historical record only confirms this. The typewriter began commercial production in 1873. In 1880 (and with the same fundamental design), Remington was advertising "sixty to seventy words per minute". Other sources confirm that 60 words per minute was a realistic figure for most anyone with enough practice. But the typewriter was an immediate commercial success and very soon there were expert typists who were very fast. In the next decade typing speed tests became quite popular, and speeds well over 100 words per minute were common-place. In 1889, Mr. McBride of Ottawa Ontario typed 179 words in one minute (albeit the same sentence repeated over and over). The early machines were clearly capable of far more speed than any normal typist would ever require.
Sholes had no reason to slow down the typists, and in any case, QWERTY did not slow them down.
But there is a grain of truth in the myth. The problem though, wasn't in the keys, but the type-bars. These were the arms of metal that reached out and struck the ribbon against the paper to stamp each letter. Anyone who has every operated an older typewriter knows that these bars could sometimes get stuck against each other. Most type-bars could do this if you typed them at exactly the same time, but for type-bars that were right next to each other, a near miss was enough to cause a jam.
[...]
Another (contradictory) notion is that you could slow down typing by avoiding common letter pairs on two fingers next to each other, because those are very easy to type quickly. However, the most popular letter pair of all, E and R, are right next to each other, typed with the third and second fingers, the most coordinated fingers. These keys can be typed very rapidly.
If slowing down the typist was a design goal, then by any theory, Sholes clearly did a horrible job.»
Sur la même page de blog, on termine en expliquant que Sholses ne s'est pas arrêté en si bon chemin et a fini par commettre une disposition ultime qui n'est pas sans rappeler le résultat de Dvorak (les différences s'expliqueraient d'une part par les contraintes mécaniques toujours présentes, et d'autre part par des priorités autres : il était important que la disposition soit plus facile à apprendre qu'à être ultime, et on ne connaissait pas encore les TMS)
Cette disposition, XPM, ne sera malheureusement pas produite à cause du brevet déposé en 1889 peu avant le décès de Sholes. (clin d'œil aux défenseurs de la brevetabilité à tout va...)
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." ― David Hume