The Universal Keyboard

If there is anything like a universal keyboard it would seem not to be the QWERTY (or AZERTY etc., depending on the country), but instead the 12-key pad on the modern telephone. Placement of the letters varies between countries, and the missing Q and Z are jammed into a variety of places on American pads, so maybe it's not universal after all. But let's take a look at it anyway.

I have a cell phone that puts Q into the group on the 7 key; the combination is PQRS. So when putting names into memory you hit 7 four times for S. Similarly it puts Z after WXY, which is reasonable, though not at all universal.

I have another phone, semi-retired, that has Q and Z on 1. It also has punctuation on # and *, and there's nothing on zero. Then the French standard has MN on 6, PRS on 7, and I think it's O, Q, and Z on zero. And there are other national variations.

So it is universal after all? It's everywhere, but inconsistent. Even ignoring the letters, there are many ways of using the star and waffle. Standards do exist, but of course the wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

This is a work in progress (just like everything on the web). Got any ideas?

Drop me a note at ebear@zianet.com (Eric Bear Albrecht)
or visit my home page at www.zianet.com/ebear/