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Originally Posted by scastle
Does anyone know why we use the "QWERTY" layout for keyboards, and not the more logical alphabetical layout?
Well, apparently the first generation of typewriters had an alphabetical layout. However the mechanism inside the typewriter could not keep up with the typist and jammed repeatedly. The Qwerty layout was designed to slow typists to the point where the mechanism could cope without jamming.
Computer keyboards could cope with the speed of human typists easily, but keep the same layout purely because it is now standard.
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I was going to post this, but you beat me to it. It is true. Specifically, the hammers on old typewriters would get 'tangled up'. For now, we are stuck with one of the slowest keyboards possible. Several alternatives have been suggested since (promising ones allow you to type whole syllables in one go rather than individual letters), but since we're used to QWERTY, we seem to stick with it.
On a related note: there's several numeric keypads around. Phones usually have 1 2 3 as the top row, but calculators often have 1 2 3 as the bottom row (or left column). Neither of them is better ergonomically, but mixing them does increase error rates.
The alarm control panel in my house has only two rows 0-4 and 5-9. Silly engineers....