Dvorak layout conversion
Jason Hooper
out there also has and is monitoring this newsgroup and has anything
interesting to say about the conversion.
- Jason
Christopher S. Kush
Congratulations!
A colleague who also switched pointed out that the most
typo-prone letter sequences seem to be those like "or", where the
second letter is now (in Dvorak) where the first letter used to
be (in QWERTY). "www." is similar -- those keys are almost
interchanged on the two layouts.
Probably the worst thing about it for the first couple of months
was getting used to the new locations of accelerator keys. I
use Emacs, so that's a *really* big deal.
It is hard to change, but I think it's easier than most people
think. There's going to be at least a week of sheer hell.
Remember not to type too much - your brain needs to relaxificate
and adjustimify so the re-wiring can happen.
Actually, switching from a standard keyboard to a Kinesis was
almost worse than switching to Dvorak. Dvorak just shifted the
letters around -- the Kinesis moves Delete, Backspace, Return,
Ctrl and Alt.
Remember, if any BRAINWASHED IDIOT gives you any static, think
about what his tendons look like without any clothes on. It's
*ludicrous* that people continue to use QWERTY. I may not type
any faster now, but my hands tell me I'm typing much lazier.
csk
Jason Hooper
"Christopher S. Kush" <csk...@qwest.net> wrote in message
news:m34rrao...@reptile.monsternet...
> A colleague who also switched pointed out that the most
> typo-prone letter sequences seem to be those like "or", where the
> second letter is now (in Dvorak) where the first letter used to
> be (in QWERTY). "www." is similar -- those keys are almost
> interchanged on the two layouts.
Yep.. I notice the exact same problem. After I've been on the computer for
about an hour and am no longer even concentrating on typing, when I go to
load a webpage I always seem to type "..." instead of "www" even though in
different contexts w is a very easy letter to remember how to hit.
My biggest struggle right now though is probably the y and f keys: for some
reason (why should the f be giving me trouble, ie.??) I keep getting the two
mixed up. I keep typing happf and the like!
> Probably the worst thing about it for the first couple of months
> was getting used to the new locations of accelerator keys. I
> use Emacs, so that's a *really* big deal.
I concur totally with this one too. The same thing happens when you're
programming and you know which key sequence on the keyboard is the one to
open a file, not really that "fopen" is the function name you want--you know
what I mean. Same in DOS... hard as hell to clear the screen or even get a
directory listing since I grew up with DOS and no longer think that CLS
clears the screen, but that that key then that key then that key does.
Hotkeys are up there though, yeah. Harder to manouever around your plaflist
in Winamp too.
-Jason
Christopher S. Kush
> My biggest struggle right now though is probably the y and f keys
I had forgotten about that. You're right. Those two (and G)
messed me up *bigtime*.
> Harder to manouever around your plaflist in Winamp too.
^^^^^^^^
Heh.
csk
Brad Barclay
I made this switch a few years age. After I went from 60WPM down to 6,
and then back up to 60, the biggest problem I found was moving between
Dvorak on my systems, and QWERTY on other peoples systems.
However, just as people can speak more than one langauge, with time you
can learn to type equally well on both keyboards, switching from one to
the other without too much trouble (admittedly, I'm not really a touch
typist. I don't type "properly", and hence have to glance down at the
keys from time to time to maintain my finger alignment aver the keys).
Almost all of my keyboards are now Dvorak. There are two exceptions in
my home: my ThinkPad (which I've only more recently aquired, and I
haven't taken the time to do some custom labels for its keys), and the
USB keyboard on my PlayStation 2 (as it doesn't allow keyboard remapping
in any of the software that currently uses it).
One other thing that might mess you up a bit: BIOS configuration
software. Most BIOS configuration systems assume QWERTY, and none that
I know of have any way to change your key mapping. Most use the cursor
keys and spacebar, enter, PgUp, PgDn, etc. keys -- however, what I
always forget about is to hit 'F' for 'Yes' when confirming the changes
(and as all BIOS setups I've played with are only coded to check for
'Y', 'F' is treated as 'No', meaning the settings don't get saved). You
might also run into problems with BIOS passwords: if you've set one
with your old QWERTY keyboard, change it with your Dvorak keyboard.
Otherwise, I'm happily using my Dvorak keyboard under OS/2, Linux and
Windows 2k. The only one that was any real problem to configure was Win
2k -- it required a hack to the registry to allow for Dvorak input at
the initial login screen.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dvorak! :)
Brad BARCLAY
Kasper B. Graversen
> Otherwise, I'm happily using my Dvorak keyboard under OS/2, Linux
> and
> Windows 2k. The only one that was any real problem to configure was
> Win 2k -- it required a hack to the registry to allow for Dvorak input
> at the initial login screen.
>
could you please elaborate on the win2000 hack?
thanks
-KBG