Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!sunic!kth!draken!ianf
From: ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman)
Newsgroups: comp.std.misc
Subject: Re: chord keyboard faster than traditional keyboard?
Message-ID: <1729@draken.nada.kth.se>
Date: 21 Sep 89 21:52:50 GMT
References: <2941@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman)
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Lines: 44

In article <2941@ndsuvax.UUCP> nukim@ndsuvax.UUCP (kyongsok kim) writes:
>
>i found one chord-kbd related article in applied ergonomics (uk)
>(1983, 14-1, pp. 55-59).  it reviewed chord kbds and its reference
>section contains a few recent papers.
>
>the conclusion is that the main adantages of chord kbd are:
>
>  1. can be operated by one hand.
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Actually a chord-keyboard that is intended to be operated by one
   hand only ought to be called input-pad or -device.

   I believe that there once was a lot of interest (primarily in the
   military research circles) for single-hand-operable input devices
   for (battle) field commanders and the like.  A number of studies
   dealt also with chord-input aspects of things like helicopter
   sticks / controls.


>back to my original question: as far as ordinary text processing is
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^       
>concerned, it seems that I still cannot find any experimental data showing
>that a chord kbd is much faster than the a traditional (sequential) kbd.

   But that's obvious, isn't it?  Chord keyboards are not used much
   (if at all) for *ordinary* word processing for much the same reasons
   why the _supposedly_superior_ Dvorak keyboard layout hasn't superseded
   the QWERTY one - the latter does the job just fine.

   That is why chord keybords are being used only in such applications
   where the built-in limitations of general-input/ standard-alphanumeric
   -layout keyboards constitute a hindrance towards given goals.

   As far as I know the modern chord-keyboard saw light at an IBM Research
   facility, c:a 1958.  I recall having once had a research paper from there,
   that dealt with ambidextrous (as opposed to one-handed) chord keyboards
   in a typewriter-like device.  Unfortunately I no longer have the paper,
   nor a clue as to what it findings were.   Try  IBM Armonk/ Yorktown
   Heights Research Library for starters...
-- 
----
------ ianf@nada.kth.se/ @sekth.bitnet/ uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf
----
--