Why aren't the letters on the computer keyboard in alphabeti

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Why aren't the letters on the computer keyboard in alphabetical order?

Don't give anybody any ideas LOL

I learned how to type with the QWERTY keyboard.

I think there laid out in popularity of use for the standard typing hand positions taught.

I have always assumed the letters were arranged so that the most frequently used were in the middle. Especially in the age of manual typewriters this would ensure that the strongest fingers did the most of the work and leave the pinky for outliers such as q and z.

The letter a is the obvious exception. Perhaps my theory is bunk.

As Redxk said, it has to do with old fashioned manual typewriters, and there is partly a technical explanation.

On a mechanical typewriter, there are little mechanical arms that swing forward and stamp the letters onto the paper when you press a key. If two arms that are close together get pressed at nearly the same time, they can get jammed against each other, and you have to stop typing and unjam them. The order of the keys was chosen partly so that when you're typing, you won't need to press combinations of letters that might jam the typewriter so often. For example; "q" is nearly always followed by "u" in English words, so those two letters are placed so that they wouldn't jam. If you look at a standard French keyboard, you'll see that the keys are in a slightly different order, because the common combinations of letters are a bit different to English. By the time computers came along, typists had all got used to the strange layout, so it just got kept.

I wonder why E & R are so close, and E & D...

I've jammed mechanical typewriter keys together...

BTDT,

I've done that, too. It made a mess of things.

Q w e r t y u I o p a s d f g h j k l z x c v b n m

Now I know my Qwerty keys next time won't you type with me.

QWERTY was part of an evil plan to slow down people's typing.