Editing BEAKL (section)

==History==

The BEAKL theory of keyboard layout optimization was first discovered by Xay Voong in 2016. It is the accumulation of years of studying keyboard layout designs and personal goal to find the perfect layout.

Voong first got interested in alternative layouts when as a young man, he learned about the merits of Dvorak over QWERTY. Even though he was satisfied and adept with using Dvorak for 15 years, nevertheless he remained curious to search for an even better layout. He was aware of the flaws of Dvorak and observed how other people have attempted to improve upon it.

The early 2000s was a golden era of the advancement of keyboard layout research. Voong discovered many websites about alternative layouts, layout optimization programs, and layout comparisons. During this period, he has also attempted to manually create his own layouts and compared against others. Unfortunately he was not satisfied with the results.

Until 2016 when several right circumstances converged that the bright idea for BEAKL emerged and flourished. First, he found a speed typing site that showed the speeds of individual fingers. From this, he saw that the pinky finger, even the home pinky key, was slow and less than optimal. Second, he found an easy-to-use optimization program called AdNW/Opt that facilitated in instantly creating layouts according to his theories and experience. Third, a fellow keyboard enthusiast, Ian Douglas, visited his personal forums, with whom together they had deep and broad discussions about keyboards, ergonomics, and effort scores. Their constant mutual exchanges of traditional and radical ideas rapidly advanced BEAKL as it developed and progressed into new territories.