Stuck on the Keyboard-We have to get out of it!
I often wondered why they have made the English Keyboard so difficult to remember and type.
Except for the numbers all the letters are arranged in a haphazard order.
In a computer keyboard F1 to F12 function keys are programed in a such a way to do many functions in Linux.
Shift Control, Alternate and Del and combination of these keys do have a special utility value.
Rest of the keys are reserved for letters which has no meaning if one wants to type in Chinese or Sinhala.
To type a Sinhala document one has to make many adjustments to fit into over (56) fifty six phonome/s.
So I never bothered to remember the shortcuts or learn typing in Sinhala.
Doing things in the mother tongue should be a natural thing but the English keyboard has made it such a hassle.
Because of the computers Sinhala keyboard has long been retired to the attic.
I am not saying that the Sinhala keyboard was a good type front or typeface.
It is even worse than the English keyboard.
It was designed to suit printing industry of the time with nothing in relationship to computers, their functions or memory.
It is as an old design as English keyboard.
I did a little research on the design of the original of the typewriter and found that it was designed to be difficult and very slow from the very beginning.
The reason being that in the original design if one typed fast the keys used to get jammed.
The design was anti-human (as far as the speed of the fingers and hands are concerned) and anti-computers by default.
I think we need to revisit this issue and redesign the keyboard with user friendly typeface.
This can be done now with the touch sensitive screen and tablets are on the market.
One does not have to redesign a hardware (Keyboard) typeface.
If we take the screen it is a blank sheet or blank slate.
The slate was the one we used when learning to write with fingers when computers were not heard of.
That skill was useful when I started surgical skills and suturing techniques.
Hand is much versatile than a computer.
At a time when educators in USA are lurking to abandon the hand writing skills of young ones, a serious thought should be given to the redesigning of the virtual keyboard of the tablet.
We have to abandon the present keyboard to begin with.
We have to reinvent the wheel of success taking into consideration, the skills of both hands, speed of the computer and its adaptability to new way of doing things.
I do not think this will evolve in USA but most likely in Japan and China.
The tablet would add insult to injury unless we design a virtual keyboard on the tablet face with use of all the fingers and both hands.
My suggestions for the future.
Give up the old keyboard in a staggered basis.
I have a few design suggestions until the new features get established.
Have two typefaces, one old typeface, the other taking into consideration of the alphabet of a given language with may keys as the screen can accommodate.
I am pretty sure young ones will opt for the latter and will abandon the old keyboard in no time.
For the hardware, I have many innovative suggestions, taking tablet as the future digital slate of education.
1. Both sides of the tablet should have screens and the battery and computer circuit sandwiched between the two.
One face should be the typeface.
Right and left hand sides be used for well designed functions and a guide what is in store of a very simple tablet.
Just like in Ubuntu Unity but I like the overall design of the Pinguy face.
The virtual keyboard should be accessed from the corners and it should stay in the middle in a lengthwise orientation.
The other side should be made into an eReader.
If one types a paragraph and turn around the tablet, the content should be visible like a newsreader or a book face on the other side.
One side is the work face, the other side is the output or the proofreader side.
The reverse side could be used as a photo-editor, camera and many more functions.
There is no limit given the capability of the processor.
For more robust design it should be made like a clam shell (like a laptop) with four input and output faces.
The two functions mentioned above as the bare bone architecture and additional faces for more advanced work like video editing which needs lot of memory and graphic functions.
If we get out of the box and the current keyboard restriction altogether the versatility of the tablet is limitless and enormous.
We must get out of, on the tabletop design of the PC and all waterproof new design should work even underwater.
Even if you drop it on the pool by accident it should work provided the batteries and circuits are well insulated deep inside, in its core.
Yes, we have redesign the wheel and come out of the Box mentality.
The design capabilities and options are limited by only the imagination of the mind.
Instead of thinking of star wars we must make the most versatile tablet on this planet.
There is also one more important ingredient for success.
It should be cheap enough and affordable.
It should not look like an ipad a nice gadget but out f the reach of many.
I am pretty sure this will not happen in Sri-Lanka with a politically frozen nation.
Not in USA too.
But it will come from China and will rule the world in another 10 to 15 years time.
