Re: thal moved to new location

[Jim Gettys <jg at laptop dot org>]

On Mon, 2006-09-25 at 14:58 +0300, Amr Gharbeia wrote:
> O
> I do not dare place letters before that frequency study is done.
> However, these are things I would like to see changed:
> 
> 1. The period "." and comma "،" without Shift combinations, and ","
> demoted and moved above one of the numerals. Its use is restricted to
> numbers only
 <2. د moved towards the center. This key is very unreachable for us
> left-handed. We are 5% of any population.

The Wikipedia estimate is 8-15%. There has been a stigma associated with
left handedness, which had caused underestimates.

> 
> Most of the keyboard is arranged so that similar-looking letters go
> next to each other. This is far from being efficient. Would you know
> anyone who statistically can come up with a good statistical study of
> letter frequencies in Modern Standard Arabic, Khaled? Anyone?

Actually, it is as much or more letter pairs as letters: a simple
frequency analysis is insufficient.  Would be good to track down some
people with serious knowledge in the ergonomics/keyboard area.  Khaled,
this sounds like a question to ask of Ted Selker.
                              - Jim


-- 
Jim Gettys
One Laptop Per Child