Why are Keyboards Lopsided?

I notice most of the laptops out there these days have the touchpad about 2 inches left of center. Is this somehow more efficient for right-handers to use? Kind of ironic they'd take this into consideration, given what a total flop the ergonomic keyboards like Dvorak turned out to be. And what are Lefties to do?

Or is it somehow a result of having a separate "numberpad" on the right? As in, touchpad is located at the center of the "qwerty" section alone, not the total keyboard?

Which makes sense, I suppose, but for the fact that even the models WITHOUT numberpads are still doing it! Maybe it's not as pronounced, but they definitely do it an inch or at least half an inch in almost all cases. Even my Dell which LOOKS centered, turned out to have a 0.8-inch skew when I actually sat down and measured it!

This all seems to be very recent. What gives?

 

Not sure how off center yours is but looks like they try to center them between G and H keys. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143914

 

Mine is actually between the H and J keys. Which is ALREADY 0.8" too far to the left - if it were between G and H it would be even MORE lopsided!

But since most laptops DO have it more skewed than mine, perhaps Dell split the difference between true center and that "below G and H" idea of the competitors?

If the peeps in that other thread find it offputting on a Dell, they should go see what all the others look like!

I am definitely under the impression touchpads used to always be dead center on the case. How recent is this trend?

 

I've seen several threads where people want to disable the touchpad because their thumbs accidentally brush it when typing. I'm just guessing that manufacturer's have attempted to find a place that works for the most number of people no matter how they rest their hands when typing. I see no other reason to reposition the touchpad from center which would be most visually pleasing.

 

Actually, I think you were closer the first time. I can see the logic of centering it between the G and H keys -- which are by their very nature off-center themselves (3 extra "keys" on right, so G and H are basically 6 and 7 out of 15, not 12; J is dead center, at least on my bird).

Just never really noticed until recently. Where are pointer sticks located? Between G and H, or between H and J? I guess dead-center (above the J) wouldn't even be an option, seeing as it they are always put "between" keys.

At the very least, I assume touchpads and pointer sticks are in line with each other on those models which have both? (and just why DO they have both???? - question for another time...)

Back to the lopsided keypad itself, this seems to be caused mainly by the big enter key on the right. Anyone ever seen a keyboard with it on the LEFT?

 

If enter was on the left, then the keyboard would not be QWERTY, would it?

 

Why not?

It's basically a typewriter keyboard with an enter key and a few other things (cursors, ctrl, alt) round the edges.

I see no reason an enter key on the left would disqualify it from being "qwerty".

And i see no reason why some Lefties haven't produced such a keyboard. I mean, compared to the reworking involved in that DVORAK.....

 

Do like I do, get a usb mouse and have fun. ed

 

qwerty is designated as an ISO standard with te enter key o nthe right side. Thus moving the enter key to the left diqualifies it from the ISO qwerty standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_9995