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Dvorak Switching Discussion

fw

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Aug 1, 2007
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why switch?

Because its much more friendly to the hands.. I got a friend who types very much and who had serious hand injuries from that (stuff like CTS).. He uses dvorak for about 3 years now and he is BY FAR the fastest typer I know and he never complained about any injuries or hand pain again...

By the way, there are native dvorak keyboards.. which means your operating system does not even have to know about it.. So if your library is cool with it, you could just buy one of those keyboards and take it with you :))
 

hait2

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May 1, 2007
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Oh wow. I can't believe I missed this thread :)

I have been using Dvorak for more than a few years now. It has _clear_ advantages over Qwerty. I don't think it's correct to claim that Qwerty is "good by accident" -- actually, it's quite bad, whether by accident or by design :)

i have heard that it is indeed bad by design ;) it was designed such that common pairs of letters were not near each other as the typewriters of the era could jam if 2+ "hammers" that were nearby were pressed in quick succession

regardless, i'm not going to bother switching to dvorak. i type fast enough on qwerty with a very low error rate (if there's a typing test somewhere, hook me up, i'll try it out). i'd estimate i'm 130-140ish wpm so why bother switching? dvorak is a pain anyway since it's pretty much nowhere to be found in public places ;x
 
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dougreed

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i type fast enough on qwerty with a very low error rate (if there's a typing test somewhere, hook me up, i'll try it out). i'd estimate i'm 130-140ish wpm so why bother switching? dvorak is a pain anyway since it's pretty much nowhere to be found in public places ;x

You would probably easily match (if not surpass) your qwerty speed and error rate with Dvorak if you were to put time into switching. I'm about 15 wpm faster with Dvorak than I ever was with qwerty (110wpm vs 95wpm) with fewer errors.

If anything, I would suggest switching because of personal comfort. You won't forget how to type in qwerty if you do make the switch, you're just likely to detest having to use it :)
 

edd5190

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OK thanks:) I still don't know who my computer teacher will be... Hopefully it won't be Mr. Lancaster... When we were learning to touch type he kept telling me "No Justin, look at the diagram! You have to press the spacebar with your right thumb, even if you're left handed!" haha let's hope it's not him:p
 

hait2

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hmm actually, you know what. I will try it before school starts again.hopefully I can get a decent speed within the 3-4 weeks that I have left

just for archive purposes, I found a typing test on typingtest.com (who would've thought) and ran through the magical typewriter test of 1 minute (name seemed appropriate)

So currently, with qwerty, my WPM is 135 with 94% accuracy (i blame the strange hyphen for my mistakes <3). I don't know what gross wpm is, so I ignored it.

I am actually typing this new paragraph..(nevermind I stopped.. was typing with DVORAK, was taking forever)

w/e I'll report back in a few weeks and tell how it's going.

for now.. the final alt+shift to get rid of qwerty! :O

',.pyf
aaah, that's better...

edit: and yea, i am going cold turkey...
very painful so far... ><
i am typing at like 10 wpm or something stupid :(
 
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dougreed

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Just don't give up on it and you'll catch on soon enough... a buddy of mine switched cold turkey the weekend he had to write an english paper and do an assignment for his Perl class. He is one of my more recent converts...

',.pyf indeed!

Doug
 

hait2

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May 1, 2007
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so much pain...
thing i miss most are the hotkeys TT;;
I still am typing very slow although it's completely by touch now, but I have to remember where the keys are.. :(
 

dougreed

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Does anyone here know of a good keyboard where all of the alpha keys are the same size and shape? I just got an Avant Stellar keyboard (which is amazing) but even on this the keys seem to be slightly different sizes, which makes rearranging the keys impractical.

Doug
 

hait2

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May 1, 2007
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I'm finding it really hard to not switch to qwerty at times..
I've never realized how much I type in a day when I have to type so freaking slowly. I've even started to switch to qwerty on occasions when I have to get something done quickly at work (this post I'm typing with qwerty actually. .shame on me)

this is starting to seem like a waste of time.. now others can't hotdesk on my PC at work because windows is made for retarded people (you can only switch the kboard layout for active window.. what is that?!?). Although I fixed that problem now with an autohotkey script I wrote.. now I can just toggle dvorak on/off with scroll lock for entire windows session

Still..
I'll keep trying, but my progress will be much slower because I am not going cold-turkey anymore (I simply don't have the time @ work.. and @ home i play games which are made for qwerty (wasd, etc.)

w/e. My goal has diminished to 80wpm by start of school. I'm not optimistic that I'll achieve that (which in itself is a pretty slow speed that i probably couldn't stand writing a paper with)
 

dougreed

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I use a Dynex USB keyboard which I got from Best Buy for $20. All the alpha-numerical keys are the same, I think. If there's a difference, it's not noticeable.

Are you saying that you don't notice the difference in key height with or without having switched the keys to dvorak? I ask because even small differences in height/shape are noticeable when you have differently sized keys randomly dispersed around the keyboard.

Doug
 

ExoCorsair

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Without. Slight variations in height may be from wear, variations in size, there are none. If I ever switch to Dvorak I'll pop the keys and try it, but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

Of course, there's always the Optimus Maximus...
 

CorwinShiu

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Jul 22, 2007
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Are you saying that you don't notice the difference in key height with or without having switched the keys to dvorak? I ask because even small differences in height/shape are noticeable when you have differently sized keys randomly dispersed around the keyboard.

Doug

When you are typing, it's best to learn without looking at the keyboard. I would print out the layout, and tape it to the table underneath your keyboard. That way, if you forget, you can always look at it.
 

dougreed

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When you are typing, it's best to learn without looking at the keyboard. I would print out the layout, and tape it to the table underneath your keyboard. That way, if you forget, you can always look at it.

I agree completely. I've been using dvorak exclusively for three or four years, and I've never had a keyboard with the keys arranged to any keymap other than qwerty. I actually learned by printing out the keymap and keeping it right beneath the keyboard.

For practice, I'd open up large text files in Vi, go into 'replace' mode, and try to type over the words without making mistakes... it worked well and was much more interesting than the popular ABCD course.

Still, it would be kind of neat to have a dvorak keyboard...

Doug
 
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