[E] QWERTY was not designed to intentionally slow typists down (was: Unicode normalisation [was Re: [beginner] What's wrong?])

[Coll-Barth, Michael]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Finney

>> This is an often-repeated myth, with citations back as far as the 1970s.
>> It is false.

>> The design is intended to reduce jamming the print heads together, but the goal of this is not to reduce speed, but to enable *fast* typing.

>> It aims to maximise the frequency in which (English-language) text has consecutive letters alternating either side of the middle of the keyboard. This should thus reduce collisions of nearby heads — and hence
>> *increase* the effective typing speed that can be achieved on such a mechanical typewriter.

When I was in high school, mid-70s, the instructor, an elderly women, said the same thing, the placement of the keys were designed to minimize collision of the heads.  I don't remember what she called the various parts, but they all had technical names.  I vaguely remember hearing the myth of slowing down typists when Dvorak's keyboard became available for PCs, '80s(?), and that this 'new' layout removed that incumbrance.