:fu qwerty: (Dvorak keyboards)
 

Most people when they hear the name Dvorak think of either a composer or a blank wall. However, Dvorak can also stand for a keyboard key arrangement.

So, what is the Dvorak arrangement, you ask? It looks like this:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8...eyboard4hr.gif

Now, why on Earth would you want to use it, you ask? Well, the regular qwerty systemw as developed for typewriters soon after they came out. People were typing so fast that the keys jammed, and rather than just build a better typewriter, they re-arranged the keys in an inefficient way to reduce typing speed. Hence the qwerty system was born.

Of course, by causing one's fingers and hands to strain to reach common keys, this leads to higher incidences of carpal tunnel (30% higher occurance over Dvorak according to wikipedia). Also, although it takes a fair amount of practice, it leads to exceedingly high WPM and cuts down on wrist strain. This would be the part where I would brag about how it has increased my WPM, but I'm still learning it.

This keyboard arrangement requires no additional hardware of any sort, and is very simple to set-up. On the software end, follow these simple steps. On the hardware end, you could either by some snazzy key labels, or if you're cheap like me, use a marker and write the Dvorak key mapping on the right corner of the key.

So, does anyone else use this system? If not, would you consider learning it for the advantages it offers?

And yes, this entire thread post was typed using a Dvorak keyboard.

I've made WAY worse typos than that on my qwerty. =P

Irrelevant.

I would consider trying to convert if I had a job that involved alot of typing, but its not worth it for what I do.

I've been typing for years at a pretty decent rate, and I haven't developed any hand problems yet. A steady girlfriend would probably help decrease my chances of carpal tunnel more than using a different keyboard configuration, actually.

This would be of no use to me, as I can't type to begin with. I could try to learn with this keyboard, but I would probably still fail.

I don't quite see the need to convert, since I'm quite comfortable with the qwerty system as is.

My typing style is rather unorthodox as my hands tend to fly around the keyboard piano-style and thus helps me master the touch-typing system quite well. None of that "home keys" crap for me.

Wait, to get this straight, the Dvorak system was the original keyboard layout but because it was too efficient, they changed it to the less efficient layout that we now use today?

That's kind of a stupid move for society. If the Dvorak keyboard leads to a higher WPM rate, then a standardization of it from the beginning would had resulted in an increase in efficiency and productivity every industry that uses computers (read: everything). If we used the Dvorak, perhaps the world would look like the Jetsons now.

Looking at that keyboard gives me a headache.

There is no need for me to convert, I can type in excess of 80WPM using my own special method of typing that I taught myself.

Damn right!

New World Symphony!

http://faculty.uwstout.edu/pruettm/p.21NewWorld.gif

Is it really that more efficient?


And Qwarky is a douche.

Close. The QWERTY layout was designed to spread apart frequently used pairs of letters to prevent that sort of jamming, cutting down on the time spent unjamming the type bars and supposedly making it faster to type overall.

Of course, that's not generally a big problem any more. :)

I wonder if it's possible to learn Dvorak and still retain your Qwerty skills. I'm somewhat interested in learning it, but times like right now when I'm at work, I'd have to be using Qwerty.

Still, I might have to try this out at home.

Urban myth. That design flaw was corrected shortly afterwards, so the jamming problem quickly became a non-issue. There was plenty of time to introduce other keyboard layouts before Qwerty became the standard, and in fact there WERE alternate key layouts at the time. None of them were any better than the original.

There is also very little evidence to suggest any significant gains over Qwerty. The amount of effort it takes to relearn how to use a keyboard for Dvorak, the hassle of having to convert software, and having to carry your own special keyboard around because you use your own special typing system far outweighs any nominal efficiency gains.

Dvorak gets paraded around every now and then, but it's really a load of crap. If it were really head and shoulders above Qwerty, it would have superceded the old standard by now. The fact of the matter is, once you know where all the keys are, it really doesn't matter where they are, and it's trouble for the sake of trouble to try and buck the standard.

I learned QWERTY originally, then tought myself DVORAK a few years later. It took a total of 3 hours to learn DVORAK and match my QWERTY typing speed, so it wasn't any big deal at all.

As far as using QWERTY goes, its about the same as it ever was, even though I rarely use it unless at a public computer. It sometimes takes me i minute or so to get back into using QWERTY, but after that I'm pretty good.

I've always wanted to learn the single-handed DVORAK layouts, though I've been too lazy so far. Basically, there's one layout for just the left hand, and one for just the right hand. They can be useful, for instance, if you want to be able to type and use the mouse at the same time. Or I guess also for typing on two computers at once, but who in the world would want to do that? Besides the terrorist in that Stephen Segal movie...

I've been typing in QWERTY proficiently for the past 7 years, with roughly 85 WPM. I don't plan on converting anytime soon, if at all.

I learned a bit about the dvorak in school... but we were given a different reason for qwerty's popularity.

We were told the qwerty came out first, and that everyone was used to it, so even though dvorak was a better system, no one was willing to change.

The way I learned it is that the Dvorak system was first used and people were becoming so fast at typing on it that the typewriters were being jammed and such. Thus, they changed to Qwerty.

I've never tried using a Dvorak keyboard, though. It would take some time, but I don't need to type blazingly fast anyway. So, I guess I'll stick with Mr. Qwarky Qwerty.

"QWERTY" is the most efficient in my native language just because. Our Qwerty differs from the English one quite a bit anyway.

There are other and betters than Dvorak available, but I guess it's an alternative if one really feels the need to type even more faster for some queer purpose.

We're not using QWERTY, we're using QWERTZ. The French even use AZERTY, which is just as awesome.

Sorry, but "DVORAK" just doesn't cut it. And while we're talking about efficiency: I like how adjusting to a entirely different keyboard layout and writing new letters on the keys is "efficient" in your book. Get a life, Dvorak emos.

;-)

Capo:
.__.

Trigunnerz:
I knew someone was going to do that sooner or later in this thread. it just had to be you, didn't it?

Nehmi:
Well,a fter typing Dvorak style for a few days, using a Qwerty keyboard on my lappy feels a bit weird. However, in a few minutes my qwerty WPM returned to what it was before the switchto Dvorak.

Rock:
All I know is my wrists used to hurt after doing *typetypetype* when I did my Technical Writing project (32 pages lol), and with a Dvorak keyboard, they don't hurt after an equivalent amount of *typetypetype*

Rock: Dvorak was designed to be more effecient. Its not that being different is more effecient, its that it was designed to be more effecient. I don't know if they hit the mark or not, but that was their claim.

Dvorak sounds interesting although it was only an insignificant point in class.

If any typing errors occur, then it's due to being on my laptop where the keys definitely jam (not physically though). I can type pretty fast with QWERTY already (ooh "QWERTY" took less than a second to type!) although I can respect how the keys on a DVORAK setup would make for less stretching.

Trying to type up words on that layout though made me pause mid-word to find where the key is I'm also afraid that I might permanently screw up the key mapping or lose any QWERTY proficiency....and since that's the norm the people will make fun of me for having a slow typing speed. Then I'll say: "I'm trying to learn DVORAK"..and then those people will slowly walk backwards.

I've been using a QWERTY keyboard for as long as I can remember, and after I learned to type, I can generally maintain approximatly 100WPM (corrected for errors).

I've had to use a couple different types of keyboards, but I found after QWERTY, the easiest one to use is on the FMS (Flight Management System) console in cockpits:

http://www.avsim.com/pages/0904/crj/fms.jpg

Just because when they're in order from A-Z, it's alot easier to find the character you're looking for :)