5.0164 Rs: Etaoin Shrdlu; Qwerty; Dvorak (3/46)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 20 Jun 91 16:10:19 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0164. Thursday, 20 Jun 1991.
(1) Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 21:27:57 EDT (23 lines)
From: David Sewell <dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: Etaoin Shrdlu
(2) Date: 19 Jun 91 23:10:02 EST (10 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: 5.0160 Rs: POGO; QWERTY (again); What Next?
(3) Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 22:20:21 PLT (13 lines)
From: Paul Brians <BRIANS@WSUVM1>
Subject: QWERTY vs. Dvorak
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 21:27:57 EDT
From: David Sewell <dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: Etaoin Shrdlu
The whole linotype discussion provokes me to share this story.
When I was a graduate student at UC San Diego in the early '80s, in the
course of learning the Unix nroff/troff typesetting package I played
around with typesetting various invitations and announcements. When my
wife was expecting a baby I designed a birth announcement that read, in
the mock-up, "Meg and David Sewell are pleased to annouce the birth of
Etaoin Shrdlu"--with the journalist's practice of using that as a dummy
for a name yet to be filled in.
I took the mock-up to a local printer's to ask about whether they could
copy it onto card stock. The woman at the desk looked it over and said,
without batting an eyelash, "What an interesting name! Is it a boy or a
girl?"
In her defense, any La Jolla printer has probably set stranger baby
names...
David Sewell, U of Rochester
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: 19 Jun 91 23:10:02 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: 5.0160 Rs: POGO; QWERTY (again); What Next? (4/79)
I stand corrected on the history of QWERTY (and know no place other than
HUMANIST where I could be sure of being corrected so deftly and swiftly
on so many subjects), but remain curious about ETAOINSHRDLU. The
consensus seems to be that it is a frequency table: but who thunk it up?
how accurate? has anyone done studies recently on a large scale to
evaluate?
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 22:20:21 PLT
From: Paul Brians <BRIANS@WSUVM1>
Subject: QWERTY vs. Dvorak
Dvorak advocates have claimed for years that their keyboard could over-
come the obstacles created by the traditional QWERTY layout, but there
have been few attempts to test the thesis scientifically. I was
interested recently to read the results of one such study which found
that novice typists trained in Dvorak did no better, and sometimes
even a little worse, than novice typists with the same amount of
training in QWERTY. I regret that I don't remember where I read this,
but it may provide some consolation for those who regret not being
willing to retrain themselves.