Qwerty = teh devil
coil
Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Dvorak = teh pwn</div>I took a year off from school last year, and the first month I had off - February - I decided to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout. A brief explanation:
Dvorak is a keyboard layout invented in 1936 (I think). QWERTY is laid out the way it is for 2 reasons. #1 - common key combinations are difficult to hit quickly, so as not to jam manual typewriters. #2 - the letters that spell "typewriter" are all on the top row - this enabled door-to-door salesmen to type the word out quickly and impress potential customers. The rest of the keys are essentially random.
Dvorak uses finger motion and letter/letter-combination frequency in the English language to make the most efficient layout possible. All vowels are under your left fingers - E under your left middle finger, which is your fastest finger. The most common consonants are under your right fingers - DHTNS - this arrangement promotes alternating hands on each letter, which is faster. Try typing "stewardesses" or "minimum" - Dvorak minimizes these awkward long stints typing with just one hand. Having these letters under your fingers - AOEUIDHTNS - means approximately 3,000 words can be typed without moving your fingers from the middle row... compared to about 350 in QWERTY. Not only that, but typing the 12 most common words in English requires moving your fingers only 5.5 times (reaching the top or bottom rows = 1, reaching for the two middle keys = .5), while the same exercise in QWERTY takes something like 17.5 moves.
Additional logical arrangements include relegating the least-common letters to the bottom row, which is the least convenient row to hit. All major punctuation is top row left (both more convenient, and conducive to hand-switching as more words end in consonants on your right hand than vowels on your left), and the hyphen is where the quote used to be (since it's fairly commonly used).
What's the final result? Dvorak is faster to learn, for one. It's easier to achieve a higher top speed as well (though there is a manual speed limit that your fingers can reach, and this can be done on a QWERTY keyboard).
For those who already type 70+ WPM on a QWERTY keyboard? I did, why switch? The answer is that Dvorak does not fatigue your fingers. Your fingers almost never move. Someone did an analysis - a typical secretary's fingers travel over a mile every day. Typing is more intuitive, and can be done for longer without tiring. It also reduces the chances of developing carpal tunnel or some other nasty tendon problem.
Configuring your keyboard to Dvorak is super easy... Go to Control Panel -> Keyboards, and add a language. I added "English - Australian," and then for properties you just select "US - Dvorak 101." You can even leave both Dvorak and Qwerty enabled, switchable by pressing Alt-Shift (I do this because sometimes my girlfriend uses my computer). As for the keyboard itself... either pop the keys off and rearrange them, or just take a sharpie and write the correct letters on the keycaps. (:
There are also plenty of free "learn to type Dvorak" tutorials on the Web... In just a month of IRC chatting, I was typing about 50 WPM - and that's having to unlearn QWERTY, too.
Here's a good link, with instructions and links to online tutorials: <a href="http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/" target="_blank">http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/</a>
Go, my children! Spread the joy! (:
<!--EDIT|coil|June 09 2002,12:01-->
Dvorak is a keyboard layout invented in 1936 (I think). QWERTY is laid out the way it is for 2 reasons. #1 - common key combinations are difficult to hit quickly, so as not to jam manual typewriters. #2 - the letters that spell "typewriter" are all on the top row - this enabled door-to-door salesmen to type the word out quickly and impress potential customers. The rest of the keys are essentially random.
Dvorak uses finger motion and letter/letter-combination frequency in the English language to make the most efficient layout possible. All vowels are under your left fingers - E under your left middle finger, which is your fastest finger. The most common consonants are under your right fingers - DHTNS - this arrangement promotes alternating hands on each letter, which is faster. Try typing "stewardesses" or "minimum" - Dvorak minimizes these awkward long stints typing with just one hand. Having these letters under your fingers - AOEUIDHTNS - means approximately 3,000 words can be typed without moving your fingers from the middle row... compared to about 350 in QWERTY. Not only that, but typing the 12 most common words in English requires moving your fingers only 5.5 times (reaching the top or bottom rows = 1, reaching for the two middle keys = .5), while the same exercise in QWERTY takes something like 17.5 moves.
Additional logical arrangements include relegating the least-common letters to the bottom row, which is the least convenient row to hit. All major punctuation is top row left (both more convenient, and conducive to hand-switching as more words end in consonants on your right hand than vowels on your left), and the hyphen is where the quote used to be (since it's fairly commonly used).
What's the final result? Dvorak is faster to learn, for one. It's easier to achieve a higher top speed as well (though there is a manual speed limit that your fingers can reach, and this can be done on a QWERTY keyboard).
For those who already type 70+ WPM on a QWERTY keyboard? I did, why switch? The answer is that Dvorak does not fatigue your fingers. Your fingers almost never move. Someone did an analysis - a typical secretary's fingers travel over a mile every day. Typing is more intuitive, and can be done for longer without tiring. It also reduces the chances of developing carpal tunnel or some other nasty tendon problem.
Configuring your keyboard to Dvorak is super easy... Go to Control Panel -> Keyboards, and add a language. I added "English - Australian," and then for properties you just select "US - Dvorak 101." You can even leave both Dvorak and Qwerty enabled, switchable by pressing Alt-Shift (I do this because sometimes my girlfriend uses my computer). As for the keyboard itself... either pop the keys off and rearrange them, or just take a sharpie and write the correct letters on the keycaps. (:
There are also plenty of free "learn to type Dvorak" tutorials on the Web... In just a month of IRC chatting, I was typing about 50 WPM - and that's having to unlearn QWERTY, too.
Here's a good link, with instructions and links to online tutorials: <a href="http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/" target="_blank">http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/</a>
Go, my children! Spread the joy! (:
<!--EDIT|coil|June 09 2002,12:01-->
Comments
Back in the old days they used to use DVORAK when they used typewriters, BUT, the secretaries that used DVORAK learnt how to write too fast and therefore overheated the Typewriters.
so they changed it to QWERTY so they wouldnt be able to type as fast.
I like qwerty alot better then Dvorak (maybe because i've been using qwerty since the age of 3 and can do about 400 letters a minute with it) uhm, only hafter 10 years of practice! (ok so maybe thats not so good)
and if you used another keybaord setting then qwerty just imagine how sucky you would write when you were somewhere else where they didnt use your kind of keyboard?
this is the main reason I use the beloved QWERTY keyboard <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->
Just change the machine to use the keymap you're used to.
I've had to use quite a few computers with Belgian and German keymaps - they're really unpleasant to use, especially when programming. I get round the problem by changing to a UK keymap - which really annoys anyone who tries using the machine after me. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
I'll have to have another play with Dvorak - I had a go a while ago, and it seemed pretty good.
Stop it! Stop it!
it's like not teaching metric to U.S. kids, yes they'll be a gap for about a generation but it'll lessen, with time. In causual speech in B.C. ppl i know use metric 25%, and i bet it'd be higher if the americans had converted at the same time we (canada) did.
<!--EDIT|coil|June 10 2002,12:51-->
/me switches over to Dvorak instead of Qwerty.
/me fixes his problem and go home. (/me forgets to turn back to qwerty)
/me goes to school and gets killed by mad friend...
yet another reason for not using Dvorak <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->
Stewardesses is the longest word you can type with only your left hand... yeah, that's all I got.
Stewardesses is the longest word you can type with only your left hand... yeah, that's all I got. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
hahahaha, =D