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Numeric keyboards layout

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Topic: Numeric keyboards layout

Posted By: Gerinski
Subject: Numeric keyboards layout
Date Posted: August 08 2014 at 06:16

This has nothing to do with music but I wonder if anybody knows the answer to this question, I found some theories on the net but none very convincing actually.

Numeric keyboards in computers and calculators have a layout with 1-2-3 on the bottom row, 4-5-6 in the mid row and 7-8-9 on the top row. ATM machines, bankcard payment terminals in shops, phones, my remote device for internet banking, TV or video remote controls and some other devices have the opposite layout, with 1-2-3 on the top row and 7-8-9 on the bottom row. This is quite annoying since I need to type my PIN (for banking for example) in the different kinds of keyboards depending on the situation, and it's not the first time that I key a wrong PIN because my fingers just follow the habit without actually looking at the numbers.

I assume that calculators were the oldest of all such devices, so does anybody know why when it came to phones, ATM machines, bankcard readers etc a reverse layout was adopted?

Replies:

Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: August 08 2014 at 06:38

Interesting question, I've never thought about this before.

My wife used to train people to type numbers quickly using the numeric keyboard, I'll ask her.

Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: August 08 2014 at 07:06

I found a possible answer, which seems plausible, on Wikipedia:

"The arrangement of digits on numeric keypads is different from that of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_keypad" rel="nofollow - telephone Touch-Tone keypads , which have the 1-2-3 keys on top and 7-8-9 keys on the third row, instead of the reverse used on a numeric keypad. It is thought that the layout was arranged this way for the early telephone keypads so that the addition of the alphabetical characters found on most telephones followed the digits numerically.^{[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" rel="nofollow -}

Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: August 08 2014 at 07:23

^ I would think that early phone numeric-only keypads came before letters were also assigned to the keys (not sure though).

However I found some more interesting info http://www.vcalc.net/Keyboard.htm" rel="nofollow - here . It's still annoying though...