The Letters R and L on the keyboard

Factual Questions
1

This one’s been plaguing me. Why are keyboards set up so that the letter R is on the left side while the letter L is on the right? This is especially troublesome for me anytime I have to type the word “right” or “left” as some logic center of my brain causes me to hesitate. I suppose any answer to this demands some explanation about the keyboard arrangement as a whole.

2

The whole “qwerty” arrangement came about because back in the day, those old-style typewriters couldn’t keep up with people when they the keyboard was arranged alphabetically. So they (typewriter manufacturer) jumbled up the letters to slow people down.
Of course, this is the answer my dad gave me when I was six, so it may be a little Calvin-and-Hobbes-esque.

And actually, according to ask jeeves (www.ask.com), he wasn’t that far off… well sort of.
Check it out:

And that sounds like the straight dope, but I guess that Jeeves could be wrong.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”

3

I agree with everything posted by Lexicicon!!!

4

I am not a sock puppet!!!

5

Just Kidding. :D,

Although I do.

Also Cecil can be read at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html

Sorry no linking. I’m shy on the first date.
{He doesn’t know how}

Apparently, there is some debate over QWERTY vs DVORAK.
More importantly, apparently there is also some name calling.

Maybe someone will start a thread here.

6

There is an article in the archives at http://discover.com/
that you’ll have to run a search of the archives to find (it’s not linkable).
The Curse of QWERTY by: Jared Diamond - April 1997

Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them.

7

Hey Steve-o,

Thanks for the info.

I read Jared Diamond’s impressive Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Hey look at what I did.
{I have powers}
peace

Just putting my 2sense in.

Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered.

-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)

8

Yeah, but Why do we Park on a Driveway and Drive on a Parkway !!!

Been here so long he’s got to calling it Home.

9

For heaven’s sake tom: do as I do. Type with two fingers (one from each hand, preferably). Never had that plobrem in more than 30 years of typing.

10

I don’t know, Omni, the two finger method strikes me as something for those who’ve had run ins with industrial farming equipment. I have to think the nine finger method is much less labor intensive.

11

Oh I just caught that “plobrem” Omni! Very funny. (Please tell me that was intentional.)

12

What do you think, tom? By the way, are you saving that tenth finger for what I suspect?

13

Omni, you wouldn’t know this as a proponent of the two finger typing method but you don’t use both thumbs when employing the “new school” typing method. The right one is for the space bar. The left one merely chaperones the other nine fingers.