If you're considering learning Dvorak, I'd strongly recommend considering Colemak instead. I tried Dvorak with the hope that it would mitigate RSI, but it spreads the work among fingers pretty unevenly -- I really ended up just moving the problem rather than fixing it (mostly to my right pinky).<p>Colemak is (relatively) easy to learn if you know QWERTY, and it's been life-changing for me: I can work for more hours of the day, and I suspect more years of my life with Colemak.<p>Interestingly, I tried configuring my phone for Colemak a while ago and had to switch it back. The relatively small movements you make with Colemak meant that the swipe typing thing was just about useless -- it just couldn't discriminate between words.
Learn Colemak instead IMO - I've been using it for about 7-8 years. Here are my remarks to address your gripes from a long time alt-layout typist.<p>FWIW your ability to type on QWERTY returns after a while - you just need to keep using both. It's like a switch changes although it helps to have visual queues to get back into gear with qwerty I find. Otherwise my keyboards are all blank now including a blank kinesis advantage. If I use qwerty I need to look at the keys to start typing usually.<p>And my typing speed is probably slower than it was when I was using qwerty. I was reaching 120wpm peak on qwerty, maybe could do 100wpm with colemak (haven't checked) but I type much better as I learned the new layout with discipline - eg no cheating with wrong finger on keys - and I move my hands much less so my RSI is better. You can visibly see wear on my home row - a sheen that's on those keys from pressing them more than the other keys. My co-worker says it looks like I'm hacking on the matrix because my fingers don't appear to move when I'm typing.
The author complains that his QWERTY muscle memory went away when learning Dvorak. This doesn't match my experience. I can still use QWERTY, somewhat slower than before I learned Dvorak, but not much, and since I use Dvorak 99% of the time, it's no big deal.
<i>Keyboard layout doesn't matter for typing speed</i>. There are endless videos on YouTube of people typing 90+ WPM with <i>two fingers</i>. I use Dvorak at home because it's more comfortable and I hope will prevent RSI in the future. I keep my work laptop in Qwerty because sometimes other people have to type on it. I switch between both layouts with ease. My Qwerty typing speed is slightly slower, but that has not had material impacts on my work. I much more enjoy typing in Dvorak. Everything in this article is a non-issue, and for the biggest reason for switching, preventing RSI, he admits, "it might be worth a shot."
The other computers thing rings very true.<p>I switched to dvorak in college for about two semesters, cause it seemed like it would make my typing faster. (I actually was a very good touch typist having taking a proper typing class in HS that cured my 4 finger self-learned typing habit).<p>It only took me a few days before I could actually touch type dvorak. I was really happy because it seemed dvorak was going to be great. But then I kept having to use lab computers, or friends machines and I just couldn't switch back to qwerty for a "session". This resulted in lots of hunt and pecking. If I used the machine for >15 minutes without switching the layout the qwerty would start to come back, then I wouldn't be able to use my own dvorak machine without another 10-15 minute struggle to switch back.<p>The result was that I never got as fast with dvorak as my previous qwerty speeds, and my qwerty skills were pretty much non-existent.<p>I think in my case learning the new layout wasn't the problem. The problem was learning to switch layouts quickly and despite struggling with the problem for nearly a year I eventually concluded that it was going to take me years to learn the skill of switching at will. So one weekend after spending 1/2 a day sharing a machine with my boss I switched my keyboard layout back to qwerty.<p>Although, similarly I use the exact same keyboard model at home and at work because I discovered switching between physical keyboards affects my accuracy (and therefore speed). Its not really the base character set (a-z) that is the problem, its all symbolic stuff that I type as part of programming.
Before I switched to Dvorak, I had RSI problems. I still have RSI problems, but they are much less severe and much less frequent. The difference is stark. It makes a huge difference in quality of life for me. I have also tried alternative keyboards, like the Kinesis and the Ergodox, but switching to Dvorak seems to have had the largest impact.<p>> Learning a new layout is one of the most frustrating experiences that I’ve had so far.<p>Learning anything is frustrating. Learning Dvorak, for me, was less frustrating than learning QWERTY was in the first place.
> Don't learn Dvorak<p>For me, this list resonates (I use Colemak), but I would maybe call it "Things to consider before learning another keyboard layout".<p>It's almost never a problem in my life. Someone using my computer? Switch the keyboard back to Qwerty for them. Me using someone else's? I can still do okay with Qwerty.. but I'm never using someone else's computer for longer than 10 minutes.<p>It _was_ significantly easier to learn to touch type a whole new keyboard layout than it was to un-do my terrible Qwerty habits I picked up from shit-talking people while playing Age of Empires 2 as a kid (I tried and failed for a while to touch type Qwerty).<p>For the record, I never plan on going back. I'm a big fan of Colemak.
> The promise is that it increases your typing speed and reduces the strain on your fingers.<p>> The jury is still out on whether Dvorak improves typing speed.<p>> I cannot judge if Dvorak helps with RSI issues as I never had them from typing<p>why was this article post even written?
I have been using Dvorak all my life - I never learned to touch-type with QWERTY - and for the most part I'd agree with this author's conclusions. While my typing speed is higher than average, it's not so much higher that I can confidently credit the use of Dvorak, and in any case I have never found that typing speed has any significant effect on programming productivity.<p>Contrary to this author's experience, however, I very rarely need to do any serious typing on anyone else's computer, so the fact that I become an absurdly clumsy two-finger typist in front of any machine but my own is nothing more than an occasional source of amusement for my coworkers; nor do I especially mind their reluctance to jump in on my machine and type for me. I can imagine how this would be more of an issue if you worked in a pair-programming shop, but I never have. In any case, this problem has been trivially solved for decades now, on every OS - you just enable a little built-in menu bar widget which selects the keyboard layout, and you can flip back and forth in less than a second.
I switched to Dvorak years ago and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. It has downsides (awkwardness when typing on others' machines, difficulty typing with one hand while on the phone), but the lack of pain in my hands/wrists is worth it many times over.
I switched to Dvorak about 15 years ago. I agree with others here: I switched from being a Qwerty typist with poor form, to a "correct" Dvorak typist. In the end I'm a pretty speedy typist (~130 wpm), but I can still Qwerty well enough that it isn't painful.<p>However, I think the speed-up can mostly be attributed to forcing me to have a clean slate and learn to type correctly, rather than any intrinsic advantage of Dvorak.
On Qwerty I typed the style I'd evolved since elementary school, and on Dvorak I touch-type like I'm meant to.
On the subject of using other people's computers: How do people who use a heavily customised environment -- like Emacs with modifications (like caps-lock key for CONTROL) -- cope with this?
I use dvorak as my daily driver. I'm still able to use qwerty, and while my typing speed is not as fast, it's still adequately usable.<p>However, an extended typing session in qwerty just feels...weird. I feel vaguely unbalanced, and I'm more likely to get off by one key left or right (while touch-typing). It also tends to put me in four-finger typing mode, rather than eight-finger.<p>Can any users of Colemak / other layouts who have also used Dvorak comment on whether the Dvorak->Colemak migration is worth it?
I mean, sorry that the author spent time on something that he wishes he hadn’t, but his anecdata conflicts with my anecdata and that of my spouse and various friends.<p>Learning dvorak many years ago was something I’m still glad I did. I didn’t know touch typing beforehand, and found learning dvorak relatively easy.<p>My spouse did know qwerty touch typing beforehand, and she also found learning dvorak relatively easy.<p>Some years ago I did some rough estimates of saved finger stretching based on a corpus of my own emails. I’ll never know whether I'd have typed those emails faster or slower with qwerty, but I’m absolutely convinced I did save finger strain.
Another +1 for Colemak. I tried both Dvorak and Colemak about 8 years ago. I hated Dvorak, mostly because it ruins ctrl+z/x/c/v shortcuts. Also, right pinky hurt from frequently typing 'l'. Colemak is awesome. Much easier to learn, works well with most keyboard shortcuts, and is has worked well for me ergonomically.
I've been learning the [Workman](<a href="https://workmanlayout.org/" rel="nofollow">https://workmanlayout.org/</a>) layout in the past few months. I'm using a split Ergodox board, and Dvorak didn't make much sense to me for what I wanted to do. Colemak was _almost_ there but had some really awkward movements that I wasn't enjoying. After a bit of time I now find Workman extremely comfortable, and very logical, particularly for writing prose. It has taken me longer to get the hang of coding on it, but by using a secondary layer on the Ergodox I've got some very comfortable bindings set up for my programming environment. If anyone's curious, here's my current layout (still very much WIP): <a href="https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/layouts/DZaM/latest/0" rel="nofollow">https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/layouts/DZaM/latest/0</a><p>EDIT: Oh, and it hasn't slowed down my QWERTY typing at all, I still keep a standard board on my desk as well. The reason I took up the split board with Workman was because of RSI, and swapping between the two is a good way to vary the movement of my hands.
I learned to type Dvorak about ten years ago.<p>Dvorak, by itself, won't make you a faster typist. It will help only if you're actively training for speed-typing.<p>Dvorak will cause problems with any keyboard shortcuts that depend on the positions of the keys. Control-Z, Control-X, Control-C, Control-V are now in different parts of the keyboard. So is the hjkl of Vi.<p>But Dvorak is more comfortable to type. If you don't want to move your fingers from the home row as much, it is better.<p>And unlike Carpalx (<a href="http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/" rel="nofollow">http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/</a>), Dvorak is available on most systems without extra software.<p>Learn it if you like. I strongly disagree with Frederik Dudzik: If you don't care for it after you learn it, you CAN go back. And it take less time to re-train yourself back to Qwerty.
I learned QWERTY when I was 14, in 1991. I switched to Dvorak in 2001. I could type about 100 WPM on QWERTY but suffered extinction of this skill even before I got up to speed on Dvorak (I can still hunt and peck reasonably well). After about a year I reached the same raw speed on Dvorak, but with fewer errors and less hand strain.<p>I don't know if I'd unilaterally recommend learning Dvorak, but it is a superior (and very near optimal) keyboard layout and I'm quite happy with my decision to switch, even though I didn't believe skill extinction was possible when I made the decision. (Practicing both concurrently may prevent QWERTY extinction, but I found it impossible to resist the urge to fall back on QWERTY without quitting it cold.)
I believe the whole statement saying that QWERTY layout is designed to slow typing down is probably a myth as I find the letters that stand right near each other in a word being neighbors on the keyboard just so often.
I have three keyboards on my phone: QWERTY, AZERTY and one for my native language. I can switch between the three rather easily but that's mostly because I still look at the keyboard when typing on the screen.<p>On a physical keyboard, I just don't see the point of learning a new latin layout (e.g. Canadian English layout, UK layout).<p>It's easier to use a US keyboard instead of a Canadian English keyboard because the few times you need an accent are heavily outweighed by having symbols in the wrong position to what your next computer might have.
This article boils down to "Dvorak was difficult for me to learn therefore nobody should learn it."<p>I've been using Dvorak for about seven years now, and personally I love it.<p>For the longest time, I typed on QWERTY using a glorified hunt-and-peck method. I could type decently fast, but speed aside, I knew that touch typing was something I needed to learn. Figure if I was going to learn, I might as well learn on Dvorak.<p>Extremely happy with that decision. Typing just feels natural now, and I can type fast enough. There's many people that type faster than I do -- both QWERTY and Dvorak -- but I don't think I've ever thought to myself "I really wish I could type faster."<p>The biggest challenge for me in learning Dvorak was after I had more or less "learned" the layout, there was a period where typing was still involved consciously thinking "move this finger to this key". Most of my mental effort at that point was spent thinking about where to move my fingers, which made it more difficult to think about the actual code I was writing. Moved past that phase after a few weeks and never looked back. Overall, it took about month to learn, and it wasn't too difficult.<p>The author also mentions challenges when using someone else's computer. For me that's been a mild annoyance at worst--not enough of an annoyance to be worth complaining about. And on Mac OS at least, it takes all of a few seconds to switch keyboard layouts.
QWERTY is just bad design -- it's not something you'd ever design today. You'd never put ";" right under your finger, and relegate "e" from the home row.<p>I switched to Dvorak in graduate school and it was super-worth it. It took less than 2 months to get comfortable (and I can still switch between the two layouts in 15-ish seconds of conscious attention).<p>Here's a nice way to think of it -- will you be alive for longer than 5 more years? If so, you should switch to Dvorak.
I learned to type blindly informally on QWERTY and I use only my index fingers and my pinkies. I actually move my arms a little when typing. I'm reasonably fast, certainly fast enough for anything I do.<p>I have never had any problem with wrist stain and just from trying out "proper touch typing", I feel like my way of typing is far less straining and "more natural". That could just be confirmation bias of course.<p>SURVEY:<p>Who else has learned typing similarly to me and what have been your experiences?
I make this same argument all the time. I switched to Dvorak 15 years ago, and though it did vastly improve my typing speed by teaching me to touch-type, I don't know whether it's intrinsically faster. Mostly it's just an impediment now: I can't type on other people's QWERTY keyboards, and other people can't type on mine. For any computer I sit in front of, I have to hunt-and-peck QWERTY keys unless I can switch the layout.
I have been using Dvorak for the past 20 years. The only real issues are login screens where you are surprised by the layout (windows will use dvorak when locked but not when logging in) and companies that don't allow installing my own custom driver (needed for when I type in Polish). 20 years ago I would be scoffed at if I left server console in dvorak but I haven't used any server physically (not remotely) in over a decade.
I'll give my own experience here.<p>I switched to Dvorak by using a model M with movable key caps back when I was a teenager. It really was one of the most frustrating experiences with muscle memory I have ever had--in fact it felt painful to receive continual mismatch of intent and results. I think it took me 2 weeks to write sentences without conscious pain, and about 3 months to get to a moderate speed.<p>Even so, I still type dvorak for more than a decade now.
My writing speed isn't really comparably faster with dvorak, but I do believe that it does reduce wrist strain. Ortholinear layouts further reduce some strain for me.<p>When it comes to QWERTY, I still use it plenty on touch screens, and as a touch typist, I can still do it if I'm on a cheap logitech rubber dome keyboard. Though after a short while I feel like muscles are strained in my hands on physical keyboards.<p>It is near impossible for me to type QWERTY on a mechanical keyboard or a macbook keyboard. The touch feel I have is so attuned to that layout (despite not having the legends on the key caps in dvorak) that I am continually making mistakes or reverting back to dvorak mid sentence.<p>I don't regret my decision at all, though my coworkers are intimidated by it.
Switched to Dvorak last Christmas, over the break from work.<p>The bad:
- I’m still not as accurate with non-Python punctuation as I was on QWERTY.
- no support on iOS
- people need to change my layout if typing on my machine<p>The good:
- noticeably more comfortable typing
- can be faster for some things
- I have been forced to touch type as I don’t use any Dvorak printed keyboards, this has contributed to me typing faster and is generally useful.
- I don’t really use other people’s computers
- my thumb QWERTY typing on my phone appears to be totally different muscle memory so this hasn’t restricted my learning at all
- macOS has a quick switcher for keyboard layouts which makes it very easy to change for other to use my computer.<p>Overall it has been very positive, and I’d recommend to anyone who is likely to type for their whole career (for prevention of RSI), and who can take a month of being unproductive at typing. The learning process was frustrating, but with 2 weeks off work over Christmas - practicing a little each day - I didn’t feel like it slowed down my programming once I was back at work. It slowed down my slack/email, but it was manageable and only temporary.
Forgive any ignorance on my part; I'm not a dev, just a lurker with a moderately above average familiarity with tech.<p>I mostly type with 6 - 8 fingers, with my attention split 50/50 between the keyboard and the screen. I can type around 50 wpm, more or less, though I probably average around 30. While I'll concede that typing faster would be a boon, how much faster can one realistically type before they start to outrun their inner voice? When I'm typing up emails or narrative reports for work, I regularly stop and consider what I'm going to write, with frequent revisions. Typing papers is just as start/stop, if not worse. I can think at a certain speed, but having my hands go much faster than that seems like wasted effort. What am I missing? Is it simply a RSI (repetitive strain injury; had to look it up) thing? I can see the obvious benefit if you do a lot of transcribing, but beyond that...I'm not entirely sure. Might someone help me out?
<i>I did not foresee that my QWERTY muscle memory would be replaced by Dvorak, making it frustrating to use other people’s computers — I had to search for keys and type with two fingers at an annoyingly slow pace. This made me aware of how often you use other people’s computers.<p>This also happens when someone else needs to use your computer, which involves a mandatory explanation of why you are using a different layout and switching it for every time the typist changes (which is frequent when collaborating on one computer).</i><p>This is the reason why i don't over-configure my vim or anything else. If you do so you can get lost on not your own machines easily. Also coming to someone's computer which has some weird configs(vim remapping of esc and caps lock anyone?) is extremely annoying.
I've always had a dream of writing an OS plugin that would determine if you're typing QWERTY of Dvorak from your pattern of keystrokes and then switch over to the appropriate layout. V2 would go back and fix your garbled text.
I switched to dvorak for RSI reasons about two years ago and have now switched back to qwerty. If dvorak (plus split programmable keyboards, vim, etc) made any difference to my symptoms, it was at least not enough to be noticeable (though it is hard to say since the symptoms vary in intensity).<p>One of the things I'm considering as a possible explanation for my issues is that all of the changes I've made have made my usage patterns smaller and more repetitive, and that going back to more inefficient methods slow me down and force me to move my arms in bigger movements might actually be less painful.
I use a keyboard that is hardwired to Dvorak. I have another normal QWERTY keyboard on my desk as well, and when somebody comes to my desk, they can use the other keyboard. Works perfectly well for pair programming too.
>Learning a new layout is one of the most frustrating experiences that I’ve had so far. Muscle memory built up from touch typing on a QWERTY Layout for years meant that during the learning phase, I would constantly press the wrong key. My brain didn’t like that feeling — this is what I imagine a stroke victim must feel when relearning a basic skill.<p>Learning a new skill as an adult can be be like this. If you would have given up after hitting the wall on something as minor as learning Dvorak, you're going to miss out on a lot of life.
I switched to Dvorak, but other people tended to object when I changed the keyboard layout on shared machines, so I had to learn to type QWERTY again too. So long as what I'm typing doesn't start 'ma' or 'am' then I can usually figure things out.<p>It's definitely been worth it for me -- my trigger was RSI-like symptoms, which have been in remission since the switch. I would have been 23 when I switched and I'm 37 now, so I've been typing on Dvorak for the vast majority of my professional life.
Kinda the same reason why I only used an Ergodox EZ for a couple days. I realized that collaboration is hard and also wasted too much time configuring it. Restrictions do free sometimes.
Colemak is where it's at because cut/copy/paste and the punctuation is all still in the same place as QWERTY but on Dvorak that's all fucked which makes it an impractical nightmare.<p>I still use qwerty on my keyboard but I started learning both to try them out. I accidentally left my phone's keyboard layout in colemak and didn't realize until months later when a friend tried to use it. It's kinda funny how your brain just adjusts.
Left my work Mac on in the office... Got in the next morning and saw my prankster coworker at my desk. I call out to him, what the hell are you doing. Sheepishly he flashes a toothy grin and says, "M____, why do you use Dvorak?"<p>Without skipping a beat, I reply, "precisely for this reason".<p>Security by obscurity. ten seconds of my life: totally worth the three months of effort I put into learning it decades ago.
I learned to type on Dvorak for fun during my CS degree, and realized very soon that it would be perfect for 2 thumb phone typing, as it focusses on left-right-left-right action, versus the left-left-right-right of Qwerty.<p>But on a work computer, where other people should be allowed and able to do some minor operations on your machine, it's too much of a hassle.<p>I will add that the initial learning period was infuriating but more than anything a pretty fun challenge.
Using Dvorak can be a conversation starter. You'll get lots of nerd cred from the right people but plenty more weird looks from everyone else. I used it in high school, but I eventually got tired of dealing with the hassle of setting it up on each new installation or the headache of using others' machines (I could still type QWERTY well enough but would make mistakes as muscle memory crept in)
I'd learned Dvorak using a Kinesis keyboard. I use both Dvorak with the Kinesis and QWERTY with a standard keyboard. The slight difference in profile is enough that I've never had interference, and use both comfortably. That said, it hasn't been an enormous speed increase; I'm roughly equally as quick with either.
I've been using Dvorak for about 20 years and am still happy with it, so I have no plans to switch to another layout or back to qwerty. My qwerty speed and accuracy have suffered a bit but I still use it on my phone to send SMSs, so it's still fresh in my mind and has never degraded significantly.
I learned to touch-type in high school, so switching to Dvorak 17 years ago only took about a month. I was on the verge of RSI problems when I switched, no RSI issues since. Dvorak saved my career. So "don't learn dvorak" falls on deaf ears over here. Good luck with your crusade, though. :)
Must be just me but when I tried to learn Dvorak I got literally nauseated. Never felt so sick from doing something so simple/hard. He mentions stroke victims' struggle but for me it was like having a vision impairment like upside down vision. Otherwise I would have probably kept going.
I can switch back & forth between Dvorak and QWERTY. Maybe it was the years of piano practice that gave me the ability to learn the former without losing the latter.<p>Anyway, I’m happy with the result. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was a big win for my RSI.
I adapted to the dvorak layout without too much trouble... but I often have to type on other people's keyboards which was quite difficult to manage cognitively... so I had to revert. Good luck though, hope you find some relief.
If you want to do it hust for typing speed, it seems pointless. I typed fast on azerty and now I am typing fast on qwerty. (around 145-155wpm).<p>But when does typing speed actually matter?
We found NitroType a great way to teach kids to type. Maybe adults too?<p><a href="https://www.nitrotype.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.nitrotype.com</a>
I switched to emacs after two decades of vi. It drove me crazy, and I had to switch back - maybe it’s true what they say about old dogs and new tricks.