I never said QWERTY "just happened--" I said it was an "accident of history," based on the belief that some people nowadays have stopped using manual typewriters, and they nevertheless still use the QWERTY keyboard. I.e., because of the way history unfolded, we are now locked into using a non-ideal keyboard configuration. I am dubious whether this model, however, would apply to the codon conventions.
Jacob On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 10:44 AM, David Schuller <dj...@cornell.edu> wrote: > On 03/19/13 10:34, Jacob Keller wrote: > > Never one to shrink from philosophizing, I wonder generally why the codon > conventions are the way they are? Is it like the QWERTY keyboard--basically > an historical accident- > > > QWERTY didn't "just happen." It was designed. Don't kids today know how to > use Wikipedia or Google? > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY > > "Still used to this day, the QWERTY layout was devised and created in the > early 1870s by Christopher Latham > Sholes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Latham_Sholes>, > a newspaper <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper> editor and printer > who lived in Milwaukee <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee>... > The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") > so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. Contrary to > popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, > [5] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#cite_note-5>, but rather to > speed up typing by preventing > jams.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#cite_note-why-4> > " > > -- > ======================================================================= > All Things Serve the Beam > ======================================================================= > David J. Schuller > modern man in a post-modern world > MacCHESS, Cornell University > schul...@cornell.edu > > -- ******************************************* Jacob Pearson Keller, PhD Looger Lab/HHMI Janelia Farms Research Campus 19700 Helix Dr, Ashburn, VA 20147 email: kell...@janelia.hhmi.org *******************************************
