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tecspec
tecspec (Rank: Doctorate)

When did the numbers on the numerical part of keyboards change?

When I stated working in 1973, I did data processing and the numerical part of the keyboard had numbers which were:
123
456
789

Keyboards are now

789
456
123

When /why did it change?

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credits: 100
Asked in keyboards, numbers, computers asked on: 07/14/2008 06:13pm
closed on: 07/18/2008 04:41pm

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Leohuberh

Leohuberh

Rank: Professor (4,385) | computers (79)

12 minutes after the question was opened (07/14/2008 06:25pm)

1

The phones evolved from a dial where you pushed it so many notches and it fell back and send a fixed number of pulses down the line moving a stepper motor to change where the next wire was. It made sense to put the one first. When they went to a keypad it made sense to put the one first because it was first on the dial.

The computer keypad came from adding machines so that people in the 60s could use the keypad just like adding machines. Adding machines evolved from old mechanical adding machines where you set the numbers with levers and then pulled a large handle down and towards you. Every position past the lever cleared advanced the gear one spot. 9 was therefore at the top so that as you passed everything. Since 9 was at the top for the old style adding machine it was kept at the top of the newer ones to keep things simple.

Both the touch-tone key pad and the all-transistor calculator were made available to the general public in the 1960s.
Calculators were arranged from the beginning so that the lowest digits were on bottom. Telephone keypads put the 1-2-3 on the top row.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator copy

Both configurations descended directly from earlier prototypes.

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Poindexter

Poindexter

Rank: Doctorate (2,142) | computers (48), numbers (7), keyboards (6)

3 hours after the question was opened (07/14/2008 09:02pm)

2

It didn't.
The arrangement of numbers on a PC keyboard hasn't changed since the first IBM PC.
However 1973 is pre-PC. What type of system were you using then? Most computer keyboards at the time didn't actually have a separate field for the numbers keys but were using the row of numbers above the letters on the keyboard. The computer must have been a mainframe with a teletype-style keyboard.
Generally speaking there are two systems of numbers keys arrangements. The PC, my Casio pocket calculator and AFAIK all other pocket and desk calculators uses this arrangement:
789
456
123
Any phone will use this other arrangement:
123
456
789

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