🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Collin,

Collin Carbno writes:
 > Some facts on the Dvorak keyboard:
 > - Dvorak keyboard users move their fingers 1/20 as much
 > as regular keyboard users. Apparently a full time
 > typist move their fingers over 20 miles per day. A
 > Dvorak user moves their fingers only about 1 mile.

I've heard this from a number of sources as well, and I believe it to
be correct. This was my primary motivation for moving to the Dvorak
keyboard.

 > - Dvorak users type 50-100% faster on average

I don't think this is correct; I can't find my original source on
speed stats, but for typists who are already fast on QWERTY, I recall
the speed increase dropping to the 5-15% range. I was quite fast on
QWERTY, and after 4 months of typing on Dvorak I'm still not as fast
(but at least in the ballpark). For new typists, I can certainly
believe they would be typing 50-100% faster on Dvorak.

 > - Dvorak users make 20% less errors on average

I'd agree here, and add an interesting note: the types of errors are
also different. On QWERTY, the most common error is substitution,
where you hit the wrong key (e.g. m instead of n). On Dvorak, the most
common error is transposition, where you hit keys in the wrong order,
usually when keying between the two hands.

In all irony, my personal experience has been the opposite. I use a
Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard, which pretty much forces proper touch
typing and using the proper fingers to hit any given key. As such,
when using QWERTY I almost never had substitution errors, but would
have transposition problems because I was typing quickly. On Dvorak,
though, the layout hasn't quite sunk into my muscle memory and I still
hit the wrong keys quite often.

 > For people using WINDOW applications changing to the
 > Dvorak keyboard is a simple setting in the control
 > panel.

One quick note here: like everything in Windows, it's
inconsistent. DOS shells inside of Windows will still use QWERTY
regardless of your control panel settings. Talk about confusing. On
the Macintosh, however, it truly is as easy as flipping a control
panel switch. I use Mac, Unix, and Windows machines in my daily work,
so I remapped my Kinesis keyboard in hardware. As such, I get the
proper behavior on all boxes since I don't have to rely on sometimes
bogus software remapping.

 > Apparently, one can learn to Dvorak keyboard in about 8 hours of
 > instruction.

I wish this were the case for those already trained on QWERTY -- for
me it was a long, slow, and very (mentally) painful process. My
fingers were so used to QWERTY that it's taken a long time for Dvorak
to sink in and feel natural.

Overall, I'm happy with the Dvorak layout, but it hasn't been a silver
bullet. I personally think a good keyboard is the best investment one
can make for both speed and comfort. I may sound like a broken record
after mentioning this on the list about five times now, but after
buying my Kinesis keyboard about 1 1/3 years ago, I'm amazed at how
much it has done for me: I can type way faster and without any awkward
stretches thanks to its vertical key rows, and I can type all the
weird Emacs key combos effortlessly thanks to having all the modifier
keys under my thumbs.

I have a web page which discusses my personal views on the Kinesis
keyboard, and I also have a Macintosh Dvorak layout which is
customized for use with the Kinesis (a few keys need to get moved
around). If you're interested, look at:

http://www.spies.com/~josh/kinesis.html

Best regards,
Josh