What is a Computer Keyboard?
The keyboard is a rectangular computer part full of keys connected by a cable to the CPU of the computer. It's used to type texts and send keyboard commands to programs that are running in the computer at the moment. Keyboards are one of the two main input devices of the typical computer, the other being the mouse. Both are placed on top of a computer desk.
Besides keyboards for with cables, there are also wireless keyboards and virtual keyboards (which would be software, and not hardware). Virtual keyboards are commonly used in smartphones and tablets, but they can be used on PCs as well. Laptops have keyboard built into them as a single device. All of them perform the same functions.
In a keyboard, the placement of the keys is called the keyboard layout. The layout changes from language to language, and may be different even in the same language. Popular keyboard layouts for English are QWERTY, AZERTY, and Dvorak.
In some languages, like Japanese, there are more characters in the language than it's possible to express using physical keys, and so special programs, called IMEs, are used to convert a sequence of characters to a specific character. For example, an IME could covert tsunami to 津波.
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