QWERTY and Dvorak

On Apr 7, 2004, at 9:43 PM, jwelchbynkii.com wrote:

> However, ever since seeing the speed she got from a decent WP, I think
> the
> whole "DVORAK is inherently faster than QWERTY" is so much nonsense.
> She was
> burning up keyboards with QWERTY. It's all a matter of skill,
> practice, and
> tool familiarity.

There was an ergonomics study recently that proved this -- average
speed of proficient Dvorak and QWERTY users was about the same.

But I think what is true is that the Dvorak keyboard is better
engineered for putting the most used keys under the strongest fingers.
I'm not any faster with Dvorak than I used to be -- my QWERTY speed was
pretty darned fast (although not like our mothers'!). But I have
managed to avoid the crippling hand and wrist pain that I used to
experience with QWERTY, and it's safe to say that I'm on my computer
about 4 more hours a day than I was then -- it's probably no
exaggeration to say that my daily output is tens of thousands of
keystrokes higher per day, since in 1995 I wasn't writing nearly as
much email.

There might be an argument that higher speeds are easier to achieve
under Dvorak solely because it's kinder on your musculature. Your mom
and mine clearly had both exceptional dexterity, as well as strong
tendons -- Mom typed on her Mac with her wrists at nearly a 90 degree
angle, and never once complained about wrist pain. For non-Kryptonians
like myself, I'm quite comfortable recommending a Dvorak switch.

Best,
Jeff

On 4/8/04 11:07 PM, "Jeff Porten" <civitanjeffporten.com> wrote:

> There might be an argument that higher speeds are easier to achieve
> under Dvorak solely because it's kinder on your musculature. Your mom
> and mine clearly had both exceptional dexterity, as well as strong
> tendons -- Mom typed on her Mac with her wrists at nearly a 90 degree
> angle, and never once complained about wrist pain. For non-Kryptonians
> like myself, I'm quite comfortable recommending a Dvorak switch.

Only if you can take your keyboard with you whereever you go and set up
every box you type on with a DVORAK set. Otherwise, I don't see a great
benefit.

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

On Apr 9, 2004, at 2:06 PM, John C. Welch wrote:

> Only if you can take your keyboard with you whereever you go and set up
> every box you type on with a DVORAK set. Otherwise, I don't see a great
> benefit.

I typically do this -- keyboard on my laptop, Dvorak switches when I'm
using someone else's box. My remember-to-change-back-to-QWERTY rate
approaches 90 and yes, that has caused a great deal of problems.

On 13/4/2004 1:18 AM, "Jeff Porten" <civitanjeffporten.com> spake thus:

>> Only if you can take your keyboard with you whereever you go and set up
>> every box you type on with a DVORAK set. Otherwise, I don't see a great
>> benefit.
>
> I typically do this -- keyboard on my laptop, Dvorak switches when I'm
> using someone else's box. My remember-to-change-back-to-QWERTY rate
> approaches 90 and yes, that has caused a great deal of problems.

And anyway, it's not as if you suddenly forget QWERTY when you switch to
Dvorak :) Bi-keyboardism?

--
Nigel Stanger, mailto:nstangerinfoscience.otago.ac.nz
Dept. of Information Science, http://divcom.otago.ac.nz/infosci/
University of Otago, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND. XNS: =Nigel Stanger

For an alternative view, please search "Fable of the key" in Google or try http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html. You will then know that the benchmark of Dvorak is better than QWERTY is from a guy called Dvorak! Just as the case of the Trojan Horse PR by a firm recently, that fable is a self-serving case with very serious conflict of interest problem! While there could still have some possibility that it has a case. The total product is clearly QWERTY better. No one has enforced that standard using any force. If market is efficient, it is hard to tell that people has not been switched after hundred years of failure to switch.