Just as a mind exercise, I spent a couple of hours learning to type with the Dvorak keyboard layout last night. After noticing my ZXCVQW shortcuts would be all over the place and not all that practical one-handed with a mouse, I gave the Colemak layout a shot for a few hours tonight (it retains those keys, plus punctuation, in the same place as QWERTY).<p>What I found really quite suprised me:<p>- It's way easier to re-train yourself than I thought it would be (faster, at least...it still requires a massive amount of concentration)<p>- QWERTY is beginning to feel horribly inefficient (I'd read before that your fingers do less walking with Dvorak but I never appreciated just <i>how much</i> more. It feels like even less movement with Colemak.)<p>What are your experiences with alternative layouts?
In college I ran across a guy who used genetic algorithms to shift the keyboard around based on his own typing patterns. He took code he typed, blog posts, emails, IMs, everything and logged it and after two weeks of collecting he then ran it through as the data source for genetic algorithms, assigning numeric values determining the viability of the arrangements based on distance a hand has to travel, etc.<p>He found DVORAK was a very good layout, but he came up with another one which was extremely odd and unusual. I played around with it but found that I never had the time to retrain my hands, I was always in the middle of a semester and thus not really free to be less productive.<p>This is a good blog post but not what I specifically discovered: <a href="http://bit.ly/17e6G" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/17e6G</a>
It took me about two weeks to learn Dvorak well enough to type at a reasonable pace. I don't think I type any faster, but it's much more comfortable than QWERTY so I enjoy typing more.<p>OS X has a Dvorak keyboard map that switches back to QWERTY while you're holding down the command key. I don't know if there's an equivalent for Windows.
I have used Dvorak full-time for 5-6 years now. Back in high school, a friend of mine discovered Dvorak and a few of us switched cold-turkey; everyone else switched back within a week, but I'm still going! It took about two weeks for me to be comfortable with it. If you're like me, it's the punctuation that will screw you up the most when switching.<p>I'm an Emacs user, but I learned Emacs after I learned Dvorak, so I don't find the keybindings to be awkward. I do some strange things, such as using Escape as the Meta key (with my left thumb on the chord letter).<p>Vim, however, is hard to use (e.g. "HJKL" are in the "JCVP" positions), which may be part of the reason I gravitated to Emacs. For games, I either rebind the in-game commands, or I switch to QWERTY while I'm playing (e.g. "WASD" being in the ",A;H" positions is just no good).
I've found that Yoga is more effective in preventing wrist pain. Also I don't think typing speed is typically the limiting factor in coding speed. Even if it was, maybe switching to a less verbose language would be more useful than switching keyboard layouts, in my opinion.
I taught myself Dvorak many years ago during lunch breaks using this tutor (I think the webpage was much simpler back then, though the content looks the same)..
<a href="http://www.gigliwood.com/abcd/lessons/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gigliwood.com/abcd/lessons/</a><p>Although I could type quite well from an early age (despite the ZX Spectrum's rubber keys) I never learnt to touch type Qwerty. Learning Dvorak forced me to touch type and rest on the home keys properly. Using a "normal" keyboard also meant I couldn't cheat and look at the keys when using Dvorak.<p>Probably due to now touch typing, Dvorak is faster for me (and more comfy). I'm forced to use Qwerty often enough however that I can switch between the two fairly easily.<p>I'm in the UK but use the US-Dvorak layout as that is standard with Windows. I'm therefore missing the pound sign but ALT-156 gets me through the odd occasions I need it. I have tried the UK version on Linux but couldn't find the exact same layout for Windows and am too lazy to re-create it myself. The US version is good enough for me.<p>I tend to use the old DOS style keys for cut/copy/paste (Shift-Delete, Ctrl-Insert, Shift-Insert) due to the odd xcv layout others have mentioned. I learnt emacs after the switch so the layout seems fine to me. I haven't taken the time to learn VI.<p>Windows is a little awkward as switching layout with the taskbar icon only changes the active window and changing the default input language seems to miss things like the start menu.<p>I think an ergo keyboard is the next step (I can feel my wrists are pushed into a slightly unnatural position) but am yet to try one. This makes a lot of sense to me also but again I'm yet to try it..
<a href="http://www.tlb.org/keyboardchop.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.tlb.org/keyboardchop.html</a>
I haven't tried an alternative layout, but I do use a Kinesis countoured keyboard and that has made typing less painful for me. My hands rest very naturally on the keyboard and there's less distance to travel when tapping the keys.
<a href="http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage_pro.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage_pro.htm</a>
I've been using the Dvorak layout for at least 9 years, and with the right hardware I've been able to get around the weird ZXCV placement. I currently use a 2030 from <a href="http://www.typematrix.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.typematrix.com</a> . It has function key mappings that place cut, copy, and paste directly below the ZXCV portion.<p>Also, you may want to try the Capewell-Dvorak layout by Michael Capewell at <a href="http://www.geocities.com/smozoma/projects/keyboard/layout_capewell.htm?20098#CapewellDvorak" rel="nofollow">http://www.geocities.com/smozoma/projects/keyboard/layout_ca...</a> . Mr. Capewell has an evolved layout as mentioned by trickjarrett, but the Capewell-Dvorak layout attempts to be a simple correction to some glaring issues in Dvorak like the inconvenience of the ZXCV placement, typing G and H on the same finger, placing A under the pinky and O under the ring finger, etc. I haven't had the time to spend to learn it, but I think it would be well worth the endeavor for someone just learning their second layout.
There is quite a bit of evidence that Dvorak superiority is a myth:<p><a href="http://www.reason.com/news/show/29944.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.reason.com/news/show/29944.html</a>
<a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists" rel="nofollow">http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-...</a>
I use Dvorak, and have for about two and a half years. At this point, the benefits seem sufficiently obvious that I wouldn't go back to Qwerty. It took me maybe two or three weeks to get reasonably proficient with it, and after a month or so it was a non-issue. (It's a completely different matter if your primary keyboard layout is German or something, though.)<p>FWIW, I use Emacs (heavily), and Dvorak works quite well with it -- all the C-x C-v C-c C-s etc. stuff isn't all clustered on the left hand, which is usually also the hand pressing Control.<p>Also, as a data point: I don't have any problem switching between Qwerty and Dvorak as necessary, though now the former feels like a parody of a good keyboard layout. (Seriously. Semicolon, home row. J, home row. Why?)
I've been using colemak for the last 3 months and the result has been very positive:
- The wrist pains I used to have disappeared (since that was the main reason to switch, the switch is a definite succes)
- It took me about 1 month and an half to regain my normal speed (my biggest problem was the inversion of 'r' and 's')<p>I never really managed to type in a proper way (though I did touch type with 7 fingers, I didn't have my fingers in the proper row and the proper position), since starting colemak I started having a correct finger position since it just feels more natural to keep your finger in the home row when so many letters are there.
I switched over to the Dvorak layout about 2 months ago and I'm getting pretty good with it, but still am not up to speed mostly because when trying to 'think' type I end up making alot of mistakes. I'll do really well with a little concentration on typing but as I focus on the thinking I tend to make what I'll call mistake streaks where I'll get the same letter wrong 3-5 times before getting it right.<p>My Qwerty fingers are completely gone and I find it a pain to use since I learned to touch type in the early 90s and now have to lift my hands and look at the keyboard all the time when using that layout on someone elses computer.<p>Keyboard shortcuts and punctuation have been my least favorite parts of the switch. I still get them wrong all the time and not having the shortcut keys on the left hand is a bit of a pain.<p>I'm going to stick with Dvorak in the hopes that I things get better as I move forward. I switched mostly as a preventative measure to avoid the RSI issues I see in this industry alot, but I can't yet recommend switching to others.
I really tried using DVORAK layout in 2003. The short cut keys and the punctuation were bad, but the worst part was that I would lose about a month's worth of progress if I took a week to two weeks vacation from DVORAK (when stuff we due in University). Also, I hated having to remap FPS games all the time, so I eventually just decided 60 wpm with QWERTY was good enough.
I've been using Dvorak for about three years (+ Caps Lock -> Backspace for about six months).<p>I find complaints about keystrokes in emacs to be overrated. I think the problem people have is that even though the keystroke for, say, "go to beginning of the line" may be "CTRL-a", in your brain it manifests as a separate keystroke and will require distinct time to re-learn, even after you've mastered a. Not a lot of time, but time.<p>I play Angband sometimes (in the laptop keyboard configuration), and for that I always go back to QWERTY, because I don't "press the letter p to pray", I "press the Pray key", and having that remapped and trying to relearn everything is just silly.<p>Personally, I'm not sure I recommend switching. But if you do switch, I do recommend keeping it. The anecdotal wrist pain mitigation evidence is anecdotal, but since nobody's done a study, it's all we have to go on.
I switched to Dvorak about 10 years ago. I never regained my full QWERTY speed (which was 100+ WPM--from what I hear, the faster you type, the harder it is to regain your full speed. I type fast enough that I don't care that much, but it's still annoying), and always find it annoying when I have to use a QWERTY keyboard. I found no particular demonstrable benefit (more ergonomic, better speed), except that it's more aesthetically pleasing... your fingers don't fly around as much. If you type QWERTY after typing Dvorak, you feel like you're trying to make your fingers fly around some computer for a 1950s science fiction movie (exaggerated, pointless).<p>Overall, I don't really regret it or think it was a good decision. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't bother, but I'll be using Dvorak for life.
I've been using a modified Dvorak for about 5 years.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=351137" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=351137</a><p>I had never been a great typist with QWERTY, so while I noticed obvious performance gains after some time, I can't attribute them to the layout switch. I got proficiency faster, but if you are already good at QWERTY this is irrelevant to you.<p>It did feel more comfortable from very early on, and this I do attribute to intrinsic advantages of Dvorak.<p>My error rate with parens/brackets/braces used to be high until I put them in matching fingers of the opposite hand, in the numbers row, unshifted. Even though this makes numbers harder to type, it's a net gain since I don't type in many numbers when programming. And I make less mistakes with them too.
I used a different layout based on dvorak optimized for the german language. You get very, but it sucks if you have to use a different computer, then you hack with two fingers.
I switched back. If you only use your own computer go for it. Otherwise I wouldn't do it.<p>Rockin Regards,
Marco
One of the main reasons I stick with QWERTY is because it is not uncommon that I will switch to a German keyboard layout when talking with German friends. Dvorak and Colemak are English-optimized and so switching to or from them has a much higher mental cost than switching from English QWERTY to German, which closely resembles QWERTY.<p>I think I'll try it out, anyways. There's already a bit of re-learning that has to be done when switching from English to German, so maybe in practice it will be easy. I already notice that I sort of context-switch, so maybe my brain will seperate the layouts sufficiently so that it's no harder than switching like I already do.
I used Dvorak for a while but I wasn't really happy with it and went back to QUERTY because it was different enough that I found it annoying switching a lot. That was when I had to use a number of different desktop machines though.<p>Now I mostly use a primary laptop and I've been playing with Colemak which I've found surprisingly easy to get into. I would advice doing a typing tutor for a while though before you take the jump to use it for work related stuff. This means you can train your hands to a decent speed in "game" mode.
I use a DataHand keyboard where the layout you use would not make a big difference because every key is easy to hit. Unfortunately they just stopped producing these things...
I could possibly be inclined to be interested in an alternate keyboard layout, but the prospect of adapting my Emacs keybindings makes me curl into the fetal position.
They are great if you only use a few systems. However if you are working on other people's systems or some other case where you are not the sole user of the machine, it is difficult to deal with switching between QWERTY and Dvorak; which is the main reason I do not use Dvorak. A friend uses Dvorak exclusively and it works well for him - he only touches his own systems.
For the people who have made the switch: Is there a real benefit to be had for people who are currently fast to very fast typists in QWERTY (say.. 80wpm+)?<p>Mostly I'm curious about typing performance more than RSI type issues.
Well, let's see here, I've been using Dvorak fooooorrrrrr... 12 years now. I think I've got everyone else beat! ;-)<p>I even remember having to write my own custom key layout files for Unix and DOS...those were the days!
I love dvorak, cant live without it. When i switched i bought the cheapest keyboard i could find and i rearranged the keys. I still have a spare qwerty keyboard if someone wants to use my pc.
An interesting post comparing piano playing and typing<p><a href="http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=35481&cid=3832754" rel="nofollow">http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=35481&cid=3832754</a>
I switched to Dvorak until I was good at it, and then switched back to QWERTY. It was just too difficult to mentally switch to QWERTY when using keyboards not under my control.
i've been using colemak for about a year and a half, and i'm very happy with it. the few times i'm forced to go without it, i can feel how much more my fingers are moving. emacs is quite usable with it, but vim requires some remapping (i'm an emacs guy so i haven't put too much effort it).