Layouts, the search for alternatives to “five” or why JTSUKEN will remain popular

A frequent stumbling block in human life, one way or another connected with a computer, is the keyboard. It is generally accepted that a modern keyboard layout, which is the direct descendant of typewriter layouts, is ineffective for various reasons.
The race began with the advent of electric typewriters; the reader remembers Dvorak 's attempt . Here I want to talk about attempts to improve the Russian keyboard layout, and also explain why I call all alternatives “attempts”.

Layout


Scholes, the inventor of the first more or less sane typewriter, arranged the letters and numbers in alphabetical order in two rows. The disadvantage of this step was expressed almost immediately: when printing, the levers clung to each other, and two rows were too small and wide for the hands. The new three-row solution looked like this: It's still not familiar to us QWERTY, the alphabetical order is traced. Next, an attempt was made to a four-row keyboard layout: Note the difference in the position of the R and P keys from the modern version. Finally, a year later, in 1873, the keyboard acquired its familiar look to this day.
- 3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M


A E I Y U O
B C D F G H J K L M
Z X W V T S R Q P N


2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 — , ' |
Q W E . T Y I U O -
A S D F G H J K L M
& Z C X V B N ? : R P


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JTSUKEN


The most common argument of opponents of this keyboard layout: it was created in the USA in the century before last, depending on the imagination of opponents, even the entire Masonic lodge was engaged in its development. Before the Revolution, it had the appearance of YIUKEN and was called the "Standard Keyboard", as, for example, Mendeleev writes . The layout does not have the letter "ё", the numbers 0, 1 and 3, the latter is easily obtained through the capital letter "Z". A semicolon is also useless; it was set with a combination of a period and a semicolon. For minor changes, the layout has been preserved to this day.
"YTsUKEN" became the basis for national layouts: Ukrainian, Tatar, Bashkir and so on. Possessing a keyboard with the “YTsUKEN” layout, you can practically type in almost any language in the space of the former USSR, the base of which is Cyrillic: it’s enough to keep in mind only a few differences for a set of national characters.
There is a typewritten computer keyboard layout, we will consider it a subset of the usual. It does not differ in the arrangement of letters (there is no “ё”, perhaps), just the fourth digital row carries the punctuation marks functionality, and the numbers are dialed with the crypto pressed - because the numbers in the text are less common than punctuation marks. In Windows, it is called "Russian (typewritten)" and is preinstalled by default.
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For people studying Russian as an additional language, there are phonetic layouts of YAERTA, YAGERTA, in the USSR for the reverse situation there was JCUKEN.
Criticism of classics is a popular topic. See how the little finger of the right hand gets tired relative to the little finger of the left; think about it, because the index fingers do the main work - the power of the blows is higher, which again gives away the typewritten past, which also took far away "ё". Medium, the main row works poorly, the load increases. Due to the fact that we use Western computer keyboards, which are designed for 28 Latin letters against the latitude of the Russian soul by 33, there are no many “quotes”, all kinds of “Christmas trees” and other interesting characters, you have to put a comma in two keys; No one in the world has produced and assembled keyboards that take into account the length of the Russian alphabet. “Pron”, “porn” are typed with almost one finger - it’s uncomfortable, huh?
On the other hand, do not be afraid of the American past, the primacy of the invention and the beginning of mass production of typewriters belongs to the United States, so it is not surprising that the layout is from there. Additional characters for Windows and Mac are easy to get Ilya Birman's wonderful and well-known Typographic layout .
But there is nothing to be done about the fact that many characters are spaced specifically to slow down printing. They just did it not as an insidious Zionist conspiracy, but in order for the typewriter mallets to get back in time.

Even faster


As already mentioned, in the 30s with the advent of electric typewriters, Dvorak August was worried about the creation of an improved layout, this fact is well known.
In 2006, a certain Coleman improved his achievements in the framework of computer realities and called it “Colemak”. As you can see, it even looks a bit like a regular “QWERTY”.
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The Soviet man clearly knew what he needed from life, carried out the five-year plan in four years, respected GOST and did not engage in experiments with the Russian layout.

Speaker


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The “Announcer” layout is best known as an alternative Russian layout.
I will not repeat all the words, as it were, of the God of the Shahidjanian, but I will say that in some organizations prone to experiments, for example, some design studios, this layout is used as part of a mandatory-optional.
Look also: index fingers are used again, and little fingers rest. But the hands alternate when typing. A dot and a comma are wisely located.
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The official site is not functioning.

Zubachev's layout


In 2007, someone Dmitry Zubachev created his keyboard layout. The project died out already in the 2008th year. In fact, this attempt is the most famous of the small ones, there are still many of them, but they did not receive such a response.
The layout site is currently down.

So is the game worth the candle?


The author of this article is an opponent of all inventions of the Protasovs . We bring all the advantages and disadvantages to the forehead.
Pros:
  • Promises faster typing and comfort for the hands.

That's all, really. Is it worth it? I can bring a lot of minuses:
  • It is necessary to change the standard system settings.
  • The alternative is poorly supported by software and hardware manufacturers, you will always have to change settings often.
  • In the learning process, you will need a keyboard with a non-standard layout. But you can’t look - I couldn’t find it, and if there is something like that, it will be more expensive than a regular keyboard for eight dollars. The wealth of multimedia keyboard choices is lost.
  • The simplest solution is to order or buy a set of stickers for the keys and stick them in the right order, but this is again a specific operation.
  • A keyboard layout is like walking. You have to relearn "walk" like an one-year-old child. This may take several months.
  • Retraining back to JTSUKEN or another alternative will also take several months.
  • Without a native car with such settings, you will be left without hands. The student will need his own keyboard to work with the right order of stickers. Yes, you can keep a cheat sheet on hand, but this is inefficient, and standard JTSUKEN will be confusing.
  • You do not need to relearn to another layout, which is already 8% more effective if the level of typed text is limited to a post on the Tumbler or Twitter.
  • Layouts Dvorak and Colemak uses, according to various estimates, about 2% of those typing in the Latin layout. We never dreamed of, the number of "alternative" is extremely small, alternative layout sites do not function.
  • This deviation from the standard with all the ensuing consequences, problems are not obvious, but they may arise.
  • All tests listed are unofficial. Tests show an increase of 5-20%. This is very small in comparison with the efforts expended; during the same time, it was possible to rerun the course of YTsUKEN several times, which would give a much more tangible increase.
  • The search for the optimal layout is laborious and requires physiological studies. The difference between the ordinary and the “ideal” will never be above a few percent. The authors of the alternatives do not publish almost any reasoning for their research. It is impossible to create an ideal, the search for the best will never stop. Each time you will change to a new, improved by 0.2%?

I would not mind improving what I'm typing now, let the manufacturers release a Russian keyboard with more keys. The best Russian keyboard layout is waiting for its inventor, but at the moment the alternative ones have not received any fame.

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