"A guide to alt keyboard layouts" by Pascal Getreuer is a good read if you're wondering what other good layouts are out there. In particular, he covers and explains some of the newest layouts that use modern metrics like redirects (back-and-forth), lateral stretches and disjointed bigrams. And he has a nice diagram showcasing the evolution of such layouts from 1873 to the present day; granted, only showing one analyzer's take on it, but a good one.
- "Alt Layouts Quickstart" (Google doc) is another great read for getting to know the ins and outs of alt layouts. It largely represents the views of the AKL Discord community, which is dedicated to everything Alt Keyboard Layouts and holds many of the top layout designers of today. + "Alt Layouts Quickstart" (Google doc) is another great read for getting to know the ins and outs of alt layouts. It largely represents the views of the AKL Discord community, which is dedicated to everything Alt Keyboard Layouts and holds many of the top layout designers of today.
"The Origin Of QWERTY" gives a credible and interesting account of how QWERTY came to be back in the late 1800s, with pretty pictures to boot. It's based, among other things, on the scientific paper "On the Prehistory of QWERTY" (PDF format). There are many myths around, and this paper deals with them. The actual design was much more about optimizing for U.S. telegraphists and a little about a compromise between inventors and producers; not, as is commonly believed, mainly a way of avoiding key jams!