* glynis@butterfly.hjsoft.com (glynis@butterfly.hjsoft.com) [020730 08:20]: > On Tue, Jul 30, 2002 at 03:11:31PM +0000, Jason Lunz wrote: > > alias aoeu='if [ $DISPLAY ]; then setxkbmap us; else loadkeys us; fi' > > alias asdf='if [ $DISPLAY ]; then setxkbmap dvorak; else loadkeys dvorak; fi' > > that's an awesome little trick! of course, it doesn't help if the > innocent must get logged in first. to facilitate normal people i When I was using dvorak I had such commands as little scripts in /usr/local/bin rather than just as personal aliases, so that anyone could use them. I also created users asdf and aoeu with no passwords and the respective scripts as their shells, so that anyone walking up to the console could easily switch to the desired mode. So why did I switch back to QWERTY? Well, I agree that dvorak was absolutely wonderful for typing in English text. If I were a writer or an English major I'd probably still be using it. But most of what I type is not English text -- it's bash, or perl, or java. Worse still, most command shortcuts for programs are built around QWERTY, for example, vi uses hjkl for navigation. Those get moved all around when you switch to Dvorak. Also, emacs' shortcuts use a lot of C-x C-s and the like, which also get pushed all over the place. Xmms uses zxcvb as keyboard shortcuts for its main play control buttons. The list goes on and on. In the end, I realized that although it's the more efficient layout for typing English text, Dvorak just wasn't right for this geek. good times, Vineet -- http://www.doorstop.net/ -- "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." -- Albert Einstein
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