Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!vmsa.technion.ac.il!ben
From: ben@vmsa.technion.ac.il (Ben Pashkoff)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Real Time Handwriting Recognition
Message-ID: <304@vmsa.technion.ac.il>
Date: 11 Jan 89 17:15:59 GMT
References: <83242@sun.uucp> <7801@boring.cwi.nl> <1059@ns.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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UCP> <2107@van-bc.UUCP>
Organization: Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa Israel
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In article <2107@van-bc.UUCP>, sl@van-bc.BITNET writes:
> In article <3871@ece-csc.UUCP> jnh@ece-csc.UUCP (Joseph Nathan Hall) writes:
>
>>I am personally dismayed at the lack of typing competence in the younger
>>generation of computer users.  I think it's inexcusable that elementary and
>>high schools allow students to take computer courses without first passing
>>SOME kind of rudimentary keyboard competence test--say, 25 wpm on a blank
>>keyboard.
> I agree wholeheartedly.
>
> My mother taught typing, shorthand and business courses at the high school
> level for years.
> When I went to high school typing was the one and only course she said I
> *had* to take and pass.
>
> Given the amount of typing I now do editing software and typing in news
> articles, I am forever grateful that I can touch type with reasonable speed
> and accuracy.
>
Doesn't it bother either of you that you and I are still using a definitely
outmoded QWERTY keyboard?? Think about it: 1) Almost all keyboards have more
than the 70-80 keys that a 'typewriter' has. 2) Why is the QWERTY designed
as such? It was originally designed in order to INHIBIT the optimal speed
of a typist to avoid the old type of typewriters from jamming. 3) Any typing
course or for that matter, any proficient typist today, does not know how
to touch type either the Function keys or a side keypad, or even a set of
arrow keys. It just is not the same. My wife types reasonably well, I never
learned, however, on a LK201 (DEC standard) which we both use daily, I am
usually much more comfortable and quicker with responses.

Look at the other discussins going on concerning input devices. The next
discussion should be on re-design of the keyboard.
___________________________________________________________________________
|                                                                         |
|      Ben Pashkoff                 BEN@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL               |
|                                   BEN@TECHMAX.BITNET                    |
|                                   BEN@TECHUNIX.BITNET                   |
|      VAX/VMS Systems              APLBENJ@TECHNION.BITNET               |
|      Computer Center              VMSA::BEN                             |
|      Technion IIT                                                       |
|      Haifa, Israel 32000          Phone:(972)-4-292176                  |
|_________________________________________________________________________|