Any Dvorak keyboard users?

[goldenratiophi]

I've heard a lot about how Dvorak users can type faster than QWERTY users, so I'm forcing myself to use it right now.

So this has taken me, like, three minutes to type so far. Still slow, but getting better. Anybody else?

 

[ShinyFalcon]

I need to try it, but have heard that once you go dvorak, you might not remember how to type in qwerty again... But I somehow doubt that. *changes keyboard layout now and tries it out*

 

[goldenratiophi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShinyFalcon /img/forum/go_quote.gif I need to try it, but have heard that once you go dvorak, you might not remember how to type in qwerty again... But I somehow doubt that. *changes keyboard layout now and tries it out*

Hah! I doubt that. But if you do, at least it's actually printed on your keyboard

 

[ShinyFalcon]

Yeah I'll get myself some of those stickers that you can stick on the keys... or in extreme cases actually rearrange them physically... not hard to do on a laptop

 

[ericj]

I read a lot about this a few years back, and i came to the conclusion that it's a wash.

The story that the QWERTY layout is designed to slow down typists is a myth - propogated by Dvorak. QWERTY was designed to drastically decrease the rate of jams in mechanical typewriters, and it worked.

The government studies that proved the Dvorak layout is better? Run by (drumroll please) . . . Lt. Dvorak of the US Navy.

The navy does a lot of crazy studies for technologies and techniques that they never use. One of my submarine core friends tells me that they tested the use of negative ion generators in the air filtration systems in submarines once - and found that the seamen were happier, slept better, were more alert at their workstations, and stank less when they got off the boat. And the decision was made to never allow a negative ion generator to be used on a US submarine.

All of the fastest competitive typists in the world use the dvorak layout, but none of them, when asked, attributes their speed to the layout.

My outside guess is that in the time it takes to surpass your QWERTY speed when learning the Dvorak layout, you could surpass your QWERTY speed by a wider margin without learning the Dvorak layout.

 

[tot]

I have been using Dvorak layout for about 20 years now. Never wanted to go back to QWERTY and I only use it in emergency.

Learning was a bit of a pain, took few weeks and during that time if I had to use QWERTY I lost all layouts from my head (strange). Since I have never had the layout printed to the keyboard I decided to learn proper ten finger typing at the same go.

If it is really faster I don't know, but Dvorak feels much much better at least for English. You kind of type left-right-left-right mainly on the middle row, very pleasant. In QWERTY you are all over the keyboard all the time, more like a finger stretching exercise. But this is language specific, for my mother tongue (Finnish) it is not any better.

 

[Schalldampfer]

I use Dvorak, QWERTY and left-handed Dvorak. I would say that it's really not worth it to learn Dvorak. With the former two, I can type about the same amount. I use Dvorak on my home computer and QWERTY everywhere else and when I'm working with applications that have specified shortcuts.

 

[pkshiu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldenratiophi /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've heard a lot about how Dvorak users can type faster than QWERTY users, so I'm forcing myself to use it right now. So this has taken me, like, three minutes to type so far. Still slow, but getting better. Anybody else?

YeS. I think dUoraC kaybaord typnmg is teh bset. It is so eeaasiy on teh hadns. I can tyqe reaiiy fast. I wxsh m0re beoble will usE so phad we can git ridq ofq the QwERyt kaybaodr.

 

[wanderman]

the dvorak layout looks interesting but I am really more interested in increasing my qwerty typing speed then completely changing layouts.

 

[will75]

Seems like a lot of work for little gain in speed. Would be nice to not have to move around the keyboard constantly though.

 

[Schalldampfer]

With an injury sustained to my right thumb I am forced to use left-handed Dvorak, but the speed is gradually increasing.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

I would never consider changing... I can't even imagine trying to reprogram 20 years of muscle memory! Plus, I type in a very nonstandard manner, so any supposed disadvantages to QWERTY, (real or not) probably don't apply to me.

 

[M0T0XGUY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif I read a lot about this a few years back, and i came to the conclusion that it's a wash. The story that the QWERTY layout is designed to slow down typists is a myth - propogated by Dvorak. QWERTY was designed to drastically decrease the rate of jams in mechanical typewriters, and it worked. The government studies that proved the Dvorak layout is better? Run by (drumroll please) . . . Lt. Dvorak of the US Navy. The navy does a lot of crazy studies for technologies and techniques that they never use. One of my submarine core friends tells me that they tested the use of negative ion generators in the air filtration systems in submarines once - and found that the seamen were happier, slept better, were more alert at their workstations, and stank less when they got off the boat. And the decision was made to never allow a negative ion generator to be used on a US submarine. All of the fastest competitive typists in the world use the dvorak layout, but none of them, when asked, attributes their speed to the layout. My outside guess is that in the time it takes to surpass your QWERTY speed when learning the Dvorak layout, you could surpass your QWERTY speed by a wider margin without learning the Dvorak layout.

No, the QWERTY was invented to slow typists down because machines were becoming jammed more and more often.

 

[dan1son]

One of the programmers I work with uses dvorak. He claims to have never had the keys themselves setup for dvorak (his keyboard is an older Microsoft natural with QWERTY layout). He can fairly quickly switch back to QWERTY, although he's considerably slower when he does. You can watch him struggle for a few seconds.

Since we're all developers it's been talked about a few times. He said it doesn't really speed you up so much as make everything more comfortable since your hands don't move around nearly as much. Basically everything you use most of the time is right in front of you. I'm sure that makes quite a big difference.

He's a quick typer, but I'm not sure he's any faster than myself (Microsoft Natural) or another co-worker who uses a kinesis keyboard. Once you get the speed up to around 100+wpm it doesn't really matter anymore... But it would be nice to learn to type dvorak so I could type things like "create database" without having to use my left hand for every letter.

 

[EnOYiN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M0T0XGUY /img/forum/go_quote.gif No, the QWERTY was invented to slow typists down because machines were becoming jammed more and more often.

Well, this is an issue which no one really can be sure of. However the common believe is that it was not designed to slow you down, but because of the illogical way of placing the letters on a keyboard it might have this effect.

What is sure about QWERTY is that it was designed to avoid jams in machines. They made the layout in a way that would result in hammers next to each other to not be used directly subsequently. (only for English though)

I have been using Dvorak and QWERTY myself. The main differences are not so much in the faster typing, but in the way more relaxed position that your hands are in when using Dvorak. If you are interested in typing faster you should look at completely different layouts and styles of keyboards. Velotype is a pretty good one.