The QWERTY keyboard was not designed to keep a typewriter from jamming.
This seems to be debunking a straw man–the arguments I’ve heard are that it doesn’t put common combinations on adjacent keys. For example, T and H are adjacent on Dvorak but separate on Qwerty. S and H are hit with home row keys of the same hand on Dvorak, but opposite hands on Qwerty. G and H are adjacent on Qwerty, but since they’re hit with opposite hands, they’re less likely to be pressed in a single fluid rolling motion.
Edit: the comments on the article actually explain this pretty well.
I had certainly heard the claim before, most memorably in the manual to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, but also on miscellaneous 90s websites advocating for Dvorak. So it may not be rebutting something people still say, but it’s worth mentioning probably.
This seems to be debunking a straw man–the arguments I’ve heard are that it doesn’t put common combinations on adjacent keys. For example, T and H are adjacent on Dvorak but separate on Qwerty. S and H are hit with home row keys of the same hand on Dvorak, but opposite hands on Qwerty. G and H are adjacent on Qwerty, but since they’re hit with opposite hands, they’re less likely to be pressed in a single fluid rolling motion.
Edit: the comments on the article actually explain this pretty well.
I had certainly heard the claim before, most memorably in the manual to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, but also on miscellaneous 90s websites advocating for Dvorak. So it may not be rebutting something people still say, but it’s worth mentioning probably.