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

[Random832]

On Sun, Apr 17, 2016, at 21:39, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Oh no, it's the thread that wouldn't die! *wink*
>
> Actually, yes it is. At least, according to this website:
> 
> http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/Dvorak/history.html

I'd really rather see an instance of the claim not associated with
Dvorak marketing. It only holds up as an obvious inference from the
nature of how typing works if we assume *one*-finger hunt-and-peck
rather than two-finger. Your website describes two-finger as the method
that was being replaced by the 1878 introduction of ten-finger typing.

> The QWERTY layout was first sold in 1873 while the first known use of
> ten-fingered typing was in 1878, and touch-typing wasn't invented for
> another decade, in 1888.

Two-finger hunt-and-peck is sufficient for placing keys on opposite
hands to speed typing up rather than slow it down.