Is the traditional Azerty layout of 'French computers' finally poised for modifications to align with contemporary usage and requirements?
For over a century, the familiar Azerty keyboard layout has been around for more than five decades, although it came into existence rather accidentally back in 1865.
The French-language keyboard referred to as Azerty is an adaptation of the English-language Qwerty keyboard, not primarily due to ergonomic benefits. The particular layout of characters on these keyboards did not become standard based solely on convenience; rather, both Azerty and Qwerty became prevalent because they were most suitable for the mechanism of typewriters with their hammer-like keys.
Since 1865, the Azerty keyboard has withstood every effort towards rationalization, including proposals such as the ZHJAY layout in 1907, another attempt in 1976, and further efforts in 2002 and 2005. However, none of these endeavors succeeded.
The most astonishing part about the lack of evolution in our keyboard design is that the prevalent standard emerged due to an unfortunate initial decision rather than being driven by practical use.
Yet, some still dream of finally evolving our keyboard to allow, among other things, the accentuation of capital letters and adaptation to new uses and needs. The middle dot, for instance, cherished by advocates of inclusive writing, could find its place in there.
(MH with LpR - Source: France Culture/Image: Pixabay)
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