Editing 2137: Text Entry

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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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In this comic, Randall remarks upon something that he considers to be an absurdity of modern living; that in spite of our amazing advances in technology, there still exist user interfaces in 2019 where a person has to "pick letters" to type, a somewhat clunky and inefficient method of text entry. This can be seen when doing searches in a TV guide menu or in menus for streaming options like {{w|Netflix}} or {{w|Hulu}}. Some of these menus may allow for voice searches or support {{w|bluetooth keyboard}}s, but the traditional method is still to select letters via a cursor. Many controllers for devices only have a few buttons, which makes it necessary to use schemes such as scrolling around a picture of a keyboard to laboriously select letters, making this extremely inconvenient and annoying to users. The fact that these haven't been replaced with better interfaces comes as a surprise to Randall, hence him  believing it to be the second most weird thing in 2019. [[Cueball]] is probably looking up ''{{w|Our Planet}}'' which was a popular Netflix series when this comic was released. Cueball has spelled out "O U R [space] P L" so far.
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{{incomplete|Created by a DVORAK LOBBYIST. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
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Randall references the "{{w|Score (game)|high score}}" in an {{w|arcade game}}. When achieving a high score in an arcade game, the user typically is able to enter their name or initials into the machine. These are entered by picking letters one by one (and usually under a time limit, for extra fun <s>and/or stress</s>), as the comic mentions.
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[[Randall]] is remarking on the "weirdest" things about the year 2019, the year that this comic was posted. The weirdest thing is obviously that {{w|Donald Trump}} is president. Although [[Sad comics|several comics]] may have relation to Donald Trump becoming president, this is the [[Sad_comics#Text_Entry|first time ever]], he has been mentioned by his full name (Trump is in [[1939: 2016 Election Map]]) in a standard xkcd comic. So Randall is taking a new approach in his stand against Trump, which began before the election with [[1756: I'm With Her]]. But also back then only his opponent was referenced.
  
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The title text mentions the keyboard system {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}}, a [[:Category:Dvorak|recurrent theme]] on xkcd, which is a keyboard layout patented by {{w|August Dvorak}} and {{w|William Dealey}}. As the Dvorak layout is optimized for more efficient typing with two hands, it is unlikely that using it would be more efficient than a standard {{w|Qwerty}} when limited to cursor entry methods. Another drawback would be that the Dvorak layout is visually unfamiliar to most people, even to many Dvorak typists who rarely look at their keyboard and instead rely on muscle-memory to find keys. As such it could be confusing for users to use for TV selection menus compared to either the more visually familiar {{w|Qwerty}} layout or showing letters in alphabetical order. Alternately, Randall may be referring to Dvorak’s placement of frequently used letters clustered in the center as a potential slight improvement over the linear A-Z layout of such interfaces (a half-measure offered ironically, of course).
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However this comic is really about the second "weirdest" thing in 2019, which is the continued use of a user interface where a person has to "pick letters" to type. This can be seen when doing searches in a TV guide menu or in menus for streaming options like {{w|Netflix}} or {{w|Hulu}}. Some of these menus may allow for voice searches or support {{w|bluetooth keyboard}}s, but the traditional method is still to select letters via a cursor. Many controllers for devices only have a few buttons, which makes it necessary to use schemes such as scrolling around a picture of a keyboard to laboriously select letters. [[Cueball]] is probably looking up "{{w|Our Planet}}" which was a popular Netflix series when this comic was released. Cueball has spelled out "O U R [space] P L" so far.
  
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Although the focus of this comic is on the text entry method, Randall prefaces the comic with what he considers to be the actual weirdest thing about 2019: that [[Donald Trump]] is the president of the United States of America. Randall had previously expressed support for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the comic [[1756: I'm With Her]] which preceded the 2016 US Presidential Election. In that comic he did not mention Trump.
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Randall references the "{{w|Score (game)|high score}}" in an {{w|arcade game}}. When achieving a high score in an arcade game, the user typically is able to enter his name or initials into the machine. These are entered by picking letters one by one (and usually under a time limit, for extra stress and/or fun), as the comic mentions.
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The title text mentions the keyboard system {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}}, a [[:Category:Dvorak|recurrent theme]] on xkcd, which is a keyboard layout patented by {{w|August Dvorak}} and {{w|William Dealey}}. As the Dvorak layout is optimized for more efficient typing with two hands, it is likely that using it would be more efficient than a standard {{w|Qwerty}} when limited to cursor entry methods. A drawback would be that the Dvorak layout is unfamiliar to most people, and it could be confusing for users to use for TV selection menus compared to either the more familiar {{w|Qwerty}} layout or showing letters in alphabetical order.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
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[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
 
[[Category:Politics]]
 
[[Category:Politics]]
 
[[Category:Video games]]
 
[[Category:Video games]]
 
[[Category:Dvorak]]
 
[[Category:Dvorak]]
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[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Trump]]
 
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[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
 

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