Exalt and Honor the Qwerty Continuum!
'The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas
as in escaping from old ones'.
John Maynard Keynes
Yes Ollie... Pigs Can Fly!
I was exploring outside the north edge of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Kenny was leading the pack and I was tail-end Charlie. We were accompanied on this slog by Kenny's dog Crook, a broke-tailed beagle, and his cousin's dog Ollie, a young pit bull. Ollie was an apprentice hog dog.
Inside the edge of a thicket both dogs alerted and turned around, we stopped. Their eyes were searching the ground two meters to my left. I nervously turned to look.
As I took a instinctive step backwards, a deer exploded over the bush in front of me, vaulting directly over my head. I faced upwards as it passed above me. It was a very close encounter with a deer belly... something was missing. Oh, a doe!
Crook took off after the doe baying loudly. I watched Kenny chase after the excited beagle screaming loudly, trying to call him off. Crook was on the job and clearly outrunning him. My mind went blank.
When I came back to reality my gaze landed on Ollie and I was glad to see him there. His eyes were locked on the spot where the deer had been napping. He was rocking backward-n-forward struggling to choose a course of action.
There were two possible paths. He could follow after Kenny or stick with me. Kenny was clearly angry so Ollie thought I was the safe bet. Now he was second-guessing that decision.
He looked up at me and the confused look on his face melted into a huge sheepish grin that I will never forget. An appeasement smile from an embarrassed dog.
I returned the smile and reassured him, "Yes Ollie... pigs can fly."
We chased down Kenny and eventually gave up on catching Crook while wading through a crotch-deep swamp. The beagle stayed on the trail and slowly lost his voice over the next day. He found his way back home on the third day.
Ronald Earl Walker - Dog Person
The Dvorak 2024 and 'Ye Olde Qwerty'
Well, bless your heart. The 150th anniversary of the Qwerty mechanical typewriter occurred on July 1st, 2024. That is a respectable run. Young writers deserve better.
I do exalt and honor the Qwerty Continuum in its sesquicentennial year, and humbly bring you 'Ye Olde Qwerty'. This aberration has a new human-factored physical layout and it sports the traditional typewriter letter scheme. It is the culmination of Qwerty.
Digital keyboards produced in the third decade of the 21st century have a 150-year-old typewriter at their core. Will the asymmetric structure of that keyboard with its Qwerty letter scheme persevere through the 21st century and into the next?
The act of encoding language into the conventional mechanical typewriter keyboard format is mentally stressful and physically damaging. Operating a typewriter-based keyboard for decades caused the repetitive strain injury of my left hand and wrist.
Why are writers born in the third decade of the 21st century still being shackled to an injurious 150-year-old mechanical typewriter interface? Lord help them.
I build writing instruments that are designed for human hands. For over a year, I have exclusively used my plug-n-play Dvorak 2024 keyboards. Writing feels like a natural act; it no longer causes me pain. Young writers that use a Dvorak 2024 will flourish.
Dvorak 2024 is not a paradigm shift; it is an evolutionary juncture. Forty-three years ago, the IBM PC brought word processing to the masses, but it kept writers mired on the Qwerty Typewriter Expressway. Dvorak 2024 is an off-ramp for nascent writers.
Your sons and daughters will grow to love writing when they possess the best writing instrument available. As a parent, you must advocate for your child’s right to be free from Qwerty. Elevate your clan; build them all a Post-Mechanical keyboard.
Ronald Earl Walker - Advocate for Young Writers
The Production of Mechanical Typewriters Ended
The Qwerty typewriter was first marketed on July 1, 1874. Qwerty machines were adapted for other languages and produced in many countries. Godrej & Boyce, the last maker of mechanical Qwerty typewriters, stopped production at their Shirwal India factory in 2009. Mechanical Qwerty typewriters were produced for 135 years.
When the microcomputer arrived in the workspace, typists possessed the necessary abilities to make use of the new devices. Their Qwerty skill set was crucial to the rapid adoption of the personal computer. Productivity in the office increased greatly with minimal disruption of workflow. The typewriter became obsolescent.
The quick and unflagging embrace of PCs in the workplace motivated typists. Realizing that the future had arrived, many typists paid for PC training out of their own pockets. The Qwerty Continuum… continued!
After the turn of the century, I could no longer disregard my frustration with the PC keyboard. For fifteen years I was able to write using a conventional keyboard with the Dvorak letter arrangement. Although I struggled to follow the physical arrangement of the keys, I was touch-typing to a fair degree. After many years of typing a nagging pain developed in my left hand and wrist. My time writing with that keyboard was limited by the pain.
Analyzing my breakdown, I came to understand that the traditional asymmetric typewriter arrangement of the keys is an impediment to natural motion. The Dvorak letter scheme will not be perfected until the mechanical typewriter keyboard configuration underlying it is replaced with a human-factored arrangement of the keys.
That Dvorak keyboard did not exist; therefore, I designed and tested the first variant disclosed on the fifth page of this website. I built a “dumb” prototype out of two keyboards, which were cut up and glued together to make a tactile testbed. That enabled me to affirm the ergonomic correctness of the new physical keyboard layout. That testbed is shown in the photo gallery on the next page, alongside my 1991 Keytronics Dvorak keyboard.
Searching the USPTO database, I found "Bio-Mechanical Keyboard Structure and Method" (Herzog et al. - U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,903). My keyboard cannot be produced within Herzog's claims, they are structured prohibitively. Searches of foreign patent databases produced nothing referencing Herzog. I worked on a patent application for years.
Through the USPTO pro bono program I found a patent attorney to help me improve my application for a utility patent. During this process I became aware of my responsibility to produce single-hand Dvorak keyboards. I have willingly taken up the mantle from my fellow veteran August Dvorak.
Intellectual property protection for a product in world-wide distribution is possible, if the inventor secures patents with every patent office in the world, and is prepared for litigation in every jurisdiction that a patent is held. Good ideas are often doomed by their inventors getting caught up in legal battles. Multinational companies have a long history of using civil courts to kill any new idea that threatens their bottom line. I do not have deep pockets.
When my lawyer finally sent me the first draft of the patent claims I rewrote them and sent them back, he dropped me like a hot potato. Pro bono professionals have no tolerance for kibitzing. That ended my quest for a patent and saved my budget. Furthermore, I realized that demanding royalties for the Post-Mech keyboard is bad form.
The Dvorak 2024 is not being imposed upon the world by a Harvard-educated functionary. This website was created to foment bottom-up evolution. It teaches writers across the world how to build a 21st-century writing instrument. In early 2025, I will begin selling personalized keyboards for your enjoyment. I encourage all capable hobbyists to build and sell them. Join 'The Post-Mechanical Trust', I will help you make a few bucks and change the world.
I declare my inventorship of the Post-Mechanical and transfer ownership of that IP to the public domain.
Ronald Earl Walker - Selfless Inventor
Does the Mechanical Typewriter Linger on Forever?
American writers are indoctrinated into the 19th-century Qwerty typewriter tradition; I am a rare exception. In 1970, I rejected the Qwerty typewriter. In 1992, I began using a Dvorak simplified keyboard with my PC. August Dvorak and William Dealey designed a superb two-handed letter scheme last century. I have used it for 33 years.
Dvorak writers are marginalized by the orthodox guardians of institutional inertia. In the workplace, I have struggled with management to secure the use of my personal Dvorak keyboard. My local public library has denied me the use of my personal writing instrument when I use the public access PCs... 'You can't bring your own keyboard'.
I am the first PC user in the world to enjoy a modern writing instrument. Billions of PC users worldwide continue to type using a 150-year-old mechanical typewriter interface. I invite all writers to join me now. Your children will find that writing with Dvorak 2024 feels natural; one hand points one way the other hand points another way... Snap!
The Dvorak 2024 keyboard evolution will put young writers on the front line. Your smart child will thrive as a writer when when they use a 21st-century keyboard. Nonetheless, they will be forced to abandon their cherished writing instrument at the schoolhouse doors. Without a top-down directive, the system will feel duty bound to pound your precocious 'square peg' into a common round hole. Education factories have narrow comfort zones.
Ronald Earl Walker - Infallible Futurist
The State of the Post-mechanical Keyboard Practice
There are six keyboard designs. Each two-hand model has alternative 'legacy' firmware for those unfortunate souls who are hopelessly banjaxed by Qwerty. Please adopt the new keyboard and save your left hand from stress.
At the end of 2024 I discovered a better way use the keyboard case 3D modeling software. The new cases are slick-fitting. One original TKL model remains in the legacy case. All other keyboards in my collection are in new cases. That took a lot of design work and 3D printing time. Scrapped a lot of imperfect attempts to make new cases.
I scrapped several keyboards to recover the switches. Made two new single-hand compact keyboards with those switches. The all three of the compact model PCBs needed modification to fit inside the new cases.
Changes in the availability of micro-controllers forced a redesign of the PCBs. The Elite-C controllers may be at end-of-life. The April 2025 compact designs are compatible with the Maple Computing Elite-C and Elite-Pi controllers. The full-sized post-mechanical keyboards designs use the Elite-Pi. The 60% keyboard can be made with an Elite-Pi.
Email Dholydai for instructions to how modify the pre-April 2025 PCB designs, if need be.
Ronald Earl Walker - Tired of Building Keyboards