Dvorak

S

shadow`

Guest
I was just wondering if anybody uses/has used a Dvorak style keyboard? I was just reading up on it there and it sounds like quite an interesting thing to try.

According to this site: http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~dylan/dvorak/dvorak.html

Here are some of the main advantages:
  • 1) Typing on the home row. 70% of all letters typed are on the home row of the Dvorak layout. This compares to 31% for QWERTY.
  • 2) A right-hand / left-hand / right-hand typing pattern. There are only a few words that require one-hand typing with the Dvorak layout. ("Papaya" is the longest.) There are thousands of words in QWERTY that require one-hand typing. (Try a few of these: devastated, exacerbate, exaggerated, desegregated, stargazers, stewardess, streetcars, sweetbread, aftertaste, reverberated, uphill, killjoy, million, minimum, opinion, pumpkin, lollipop, monopoly...)
  • 3) Typing with a strumming motion. The letters are arranged so that a strumming pattern, similar to the way a person would strum their fingers on a table, is encouraged. This provides more comfort to the hands. It is an often overlooked advantage of Dvorak.

Only drawback is that the keyboards are supposed to be quite expensive and well, if you're used to it, they're not very widley used elsewhere.
 
S

Shocko

Guest
I had a look when it dvorak was highlighted on /. last week... You can just change the keyboard layout with the software controler, however i didn't feel the need to try.
 
F

FatBusinessman

Guest
Problem with the Dvorak is that as the QWERTY layout is now pretty much the standard, re-learning all the key locations would do you more harm than good. Although, that being said, it would seem to be the superior layout.
 
K

Kempo

Guest
but i like being able to type bastard with one hand when im playing fps's :D means i can still look around with the mouse in my right hand :p
 
X

xane

Guest
Originally posted by FatBusinessman
Problem with the Dvorak is that as the QWERTY layout is now pretty much the standard, re-learning all the key locations would do you more harm than good. Although, that being said, it would seem to be the superior layout.
Click to expand...

Anything is superior than QWERTY, the design was intended to slow down typing !
 
S

shadow`

Guest
Top of the QWERTY 100 most frequently misspelled words is "the".

If this forum is any indication to go by, it's completely correct :)
 
S

Sar

Guest
Originally posted by camazotz


Anything is superior than QWERTY, the design was intended to slow down typing !
Click to expand...

Straight from the site in Kempos link:

Contrary to popular opinion, the qwerty design was not actually invented to slow typists down. Rather, the layout was intended to place common two-letter combinations on opposite sides of the keyboard. On manual typewriters, each key is mechanically connected to a lever that has the reversed image of a letter on it. If a typist were to hit two keys on the same side of the keyboard in rapid succession, the second lever on its way up would hit the first on its way down, the keys would become stuck together, and the typist would have to stop typing and unstick the keys. The qwerty layout was a clever design that minimized this problem. However, now that most of us use computers (or electric typewriters that don't use levers), the problem of keys jamming is no longer a consideration.
Click to expand...

:)
 
C

caLLous

Guest
I like typing "stewardesses" with one hand. :(
 
X

xane

Guest
Originally posted by Sar
Contrary to popular opinion, the qwerty design was not actually invented to slow typists down. Rather, the layout was intended to place common two-letter combinations on opposite sides of the keyboard. On manual typewriters, each key is mechanically connected to a lever that has the reversed image of a letter on it. If a typist were to hit two keys on the same side of the keyboard in rapid succession, the second lever on its way up would hit the first on its way down, the keys would become stuck together, and the typist would have to stop typing and unstick the keys. The qwerty layout was a clever design that minimized this problem. However, now that most of us use computers (or electric typewriters that don't use levers), the problem of keys jamming is no longer a consideration
Click to expand...

I used to use a manual typewriter quite a lot when I was younger and I also have RSA typing certificates, I would dispute this claim for the following reasons:

(a) sticking levers/bars only really happens when the levers are next to each other, so it is only partially true that the design used common 2-letter combos to keep them apart.

(b) any two keys hit in rapid succession will cause their corresponding levers/bars to hit each other, regardless of placement.

(c) I can think of a lot of common 2-letter combinations on the same side of the keyboard; ST, SW, DR, FR, SC, etc, however, these are not necessarily next to each other, see point (a).

For touch typing, you start by placing your fingers on ASDF and JKL; (this is why F and J sometimes have bumps on them for the index finger of each hand), the most common letters in English are E, T, A, O, N, R, I, S, H, only one of which occupies the middle keyboard on QWERTY, and only three occupy the middle (or "home") row, and one of them, A, is actually a little finger key.

Compare this to Dvorak, where you start on keys AOEU and HTNS (I think), you see immediately that most of common letters are typed without having to move the hands at all. It does not take a genius to realise that QWERTY is deliberately designed to make typing difficult.
 
L

lecter

Guest
well i have just typed this entire line using dvorak and it has taken fucking
ages
 
D

dysfunction

Guest
All you need in a keyboard is that it is

1) QWERTY so you then dont have to learn anything new!
2) All the keys work!

Anything else is a bonus!
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
Originally posted by lecter
well i have just typed this entire line using dvorak and it has taken fucking
ages
Click to expand...

but not 52 hours I'm sure
 
S

Shocko

Guest
Forum posting is a great way to get typing practise in... Even if it takes you ages to post one sentence, after a 1hour spamming spree, you'll be typing twice as fast.
 
C

cosmos

Guest
Well im sure it would be more than 52 hours when your keyboard still had the QWERTY stickers on the keys.
 
X

xane

Guest
Originally posted by Shocko
Forum posting is a great way to get typing practise in... Even if it takes you ages to post one sentence, after a 1hour spamming spree, you'll be typing twice as fast.
Click to expand...

Is the "1 hour spamming spree" in TdC units ? Otherwise that translates to a couple of days for us mere Earther mortals.
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
depends how much caffeine there was in my soap ;)
 
S

Summo

Guest
English has a capital 'E' Mister TdC. :eek: Please amend, post-haste.

(Bloody foreigners.)

;)
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
you know, I'm now tempted to leave the e the way it is just to torture j00
 
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