On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 07:41:09PM -0500, Steve Block wrote: > a) the myth that qwerty was designed to slow you down is a lie. qwerty > was designed to keep mechanical keys from binding, which is more layout > related than speed related. Maybe, maybe not. However, I do type faster on Dvorak than I did on Qwerty. I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago, and had been touch-typing on qwerty for 15 years before that. > b) almost everyone's keyboard is qwerty or some very similar variation. > When you sit down at someone else's machine or a public machine you'll > just be at the wrong key layout, which will mess with your dvorak > learning. No, I can switch-hit on a qwerty keyboard in a pinch, although I am somewhat slower. It takes about 10 minutes for the muscle memory to reset. Still, I will remap the keys to dvorak if I can (and map them back when I'm done) since it really isn't difficult to change the mapping on most modern PCs. > c) if anyone ever has need to use your machine they will be pretty much > out of luck unless you reorder your key caps so they can find the keys. > Ever try to log into a dvorak machine when you remember your network > password by key position and not the actual letters? Most graphical environments the ability to switch between keyboard layouts with the mouse. In Windows and KDE, these are tray icons. > d) the myth that dvorak is faster than qwerty is just that, as any > decent amount of searching will show. You are repeating yourself. And contrary to what you say, I am a faster typist since switching. I also make fewer typos. > e) if you are already an accomplished touch typer in the qwerty system > you'll have to relearn your typing skills pretty much from scratch. Yes, you will, but not from scratch, not by a long shot. It took me about a month to reach the speed I had pre-switch. It took me probably two years to start getting to that speed when I was learning touch-typing with qwerty. Not because qwerty is harder - it would have probably taken a similar amount of time if I had started with dvorak. Most of your touch-typing skills easily transfer to dvorak. > In short, change if you want to, but I found the effort much too high > for any percieved potential reward. I am happy I switched. -- Dave Carrigan Seattle, WA, USA dave@rudedog.org | http://www.rudedog.org/ | ICQ:161669680 UNIX-Apache-Perl-Linux-Firewalls-LDAP-C-C++-DNS-PalmOS-PostgreSQL-MySQL
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