dvorak keyboards
guy-jin
in the (not so near) future. i have been told that a person
who is practiced on both kinds of keyboards types 10 to 12
wpm faster on a dvorak than a qwerty. is this true? i have
also been told that once you 'learn' dvorak, you cannot go
back, and since most keboards are still qwerty, this puts
you at a disadvantage. is this true?
anyone here know how/have used both kinds? are the benefits
worth it?
thanks
g.f.
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Before you buy.
Howard S Shubs
>anyone here know how/have used both kinds? are the benefits
>worth it?
I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the Dvorak keyboard
to be "faster" were done by the designer himself. Since then, I've been
-much- less hot on the layout.
--
Howard S Shubs
"Run in circles, scream and shout!" "I hope you have good backups!"
dls2
> guy-jin <gu...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> >anyone here know how/have used both kinds? are the benefits worth it?
>
> I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the Dvorak
> keyboard to be "faster" were done by the designer himself. Since then,
> I've been -much- less hot on the layout.
Dvorak keyboards were designed to increase typing speeds, whereas
QWERTY keyboards were designed to decrease typing speeds.
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/index.html is a seemingly nifty site, with
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html covering most of the used
arguments, regarding the subject.
-- Derrick Shearer
Eric Fischer
> Dvorak keyboards were designed to increase typing speeds, whereas
> QWERTY keyboards were designed to decrease typing speeds.
QWERTY was designed to put the typebars corresponding to the letters
in common digraphs far from each other in the type basket so they
wouldn't collide. This does not mean it is particularly well suited
to use on computers, or even on front-strike typewriters, but in its
original application it made typing faster, not slower.
eric
Howard S Shubs
<dlsh...@home.com> wrote:
>Dvorak keyboards were designed to increase typing speeds, whereas
>QWERTY keyboards were designed to decrease typing speeds.
<heavy dripping sarcasm>No -kidding-.</heavy dripping sarcasm>
The -point-, however, is "where is the proof" that Dvorak is better. I'll
check out the sites you mentioned.
dls2
> dls2 <dlsh...@home.com> wrote:
>
> > Dvorak keyboards were designed to increase typing speeds, whereas
> > QWERTY keyboards were designed to decrease typing speeds.
>
> in common digraphs far from each other in the type basket so they
> wouldn't collide. This does not mean it is particularly well suited
> to use on computers, or even on front-strike typewriters, but in its
> original application it made typing faster, not slower.
>
> eric
Yes, QWERTY was designed to avoid the occurance of typebar collisions,
which included, both, the separation of digraph bar placement, as well as,
the slowdown of overall typing speed. Ever mash down upon a keyboard,
with separation between the mashed upon keys, if grouping is a concern?
Doing so is the equivalent of typing too fast, be that on a manual typebar
typewriter, or the latest and greatest computer based word processor. By
not optimizing for the best possible typing rate, the overall typing rate
was
meant to stay high due to avoided collisions. Computer keyboards have
input limitations, the same as mechanical keyboards, but with those limits
at a rate easily in excess of the average person's ability to type anything
readily intelligible.
The decision to go with QWERTY, rather than, say, ABCDEF, was based
on a fear, perhaps unfounded, that secretaries might be able to "hunt and
peck" too quickly for typewriters to sustain those "high" typing speeds.
Until it developed, "touch typing" was, originally, just "hunt and peck",
and
the QWERTY layout was, and is, not considered to be an intuitive layout,
despite the familiarity which constant users acquire over time.
If QWERTY were optimized for speed, then why is the letter E placed right
there, third letter in, from left, top row, rather than somewhere near
center,
of the middle row? Also, why is the letter E placed in the upper left quad
of QWERTY keyboards, rather than in one of the other three quadrants?
-- Derrick Shearer
Bruce Ediger
>Like MS-DOS and Windows, or VHS and Beta, Dvorak is another example that
>the best technnology is not necessarily the one adopted.
While I agree with this statement, not everyone does.
S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis
The Fable of the Keys
Journal of Law and Economics, vol XXXIII, April 1990, 1-23
Excerpt from Introduction
In the economic literature on standards, the popular real-world example
of this type of market failure is the standard Qwerty typewriter
keyboard and its competition with the Dvorak keyboard. This example is
noted frequently in newspaper and magazine reports, seems to be
generally accepted as true [...]. We show that David's version of the
history of the market's rejection of Dvorak does not report the true
history, and we present evidence that the continued use of Qwerty is
efficient given the current understanding of keyboard design. We
conclude that the example of the Dvorak keyboard is what beehives and
lighthouses were for earlier market-failure fables. It is an example of
market-failure that will not withstand rigorous examination of the
historical record.
One problem I have with Liebowitz & Margolis is that they only churn
old research, they did NOT perform any of their own. Another problem
is that Liebowitz & Margolis started with a conclusion ("Free market
*never* suffers market failure") and worked backwards from that.
You can read "The Fable of the Keys" on the web:
http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html
Make up your own minds.
--
Once, galactic empires might have seemed a Post-Human domain.
Now, sadly, even interplanetary ones are.
Howard S Shubs
<vd2NzVOTNb7v-p...@dialup-209.244.225.57.Washington1.Level3.net>,
jav...@earthlink.net (John Varela) wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Nov 2000 19:15:27, Howard S Shubs <hsh...@mindspring.com>
>wrote:
>
>> I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the Dvorak
>> keyboard
>> to be "faster" were done by the designer himself.
>
>http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/dvorak.html
Interesting. So it's true.
John Varela
wrote:
> I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the Dvorak keyboard
> to be "faster" were done by the designer himself.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/dvorak.html
--
John Varela
for e-mail add a to my user ID
Ric Werme
>In article <8uhbmc$9ol$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, guy-jin <gu...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>>anyone here know how/have used both kinds? are the benefits
>>worth it?
>I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the Dvorak keyboard
>to be "faster" were done by the designer himself. Since then, I've been
>-much- less hot on the layout.
I believe all the typing records are held on Dvorak keyboards.
I had something at DEC in 70s that I made work with a Dvorak layout.
Must've been mmy GT40, its PDP-11 would be about the only thing that could
do the mapping. I gave up because:
1) Much of my assembler typing avoided vowels and that negated a lot of the
benefits of Dvorak.
2) I never did figure out what I should do with control keys. For example,
should I keep ^C where my fingers could reach it in milliseconds or should
I try to learn the location of the Dvorak C?
3) I changed terminals and keyboards often. I was having enough trouble
with the previous two points that this was just too much for me.
I've always wanted to try again.
Qwerty is emphasizes left hand typing, for example, if left is upper case,
ThEn i noTE ThAT WERmE, nEGATED, EmphASiZES, AnD oF CouRSE, QWERTY uSE
A loT oF lEFT hAnD TYpinG. i TriED To FinD ThE lonGEST WoRD i CoulD ThAT
CoulD BE SpEllED on ThE miDDlE RoW oF ThE DVoRAk kEYBoARD. ThE BEST i CAmE
up WiTh WAS SEnTiEnT. oF CouRSE, on QWERTY, you CAn TYpE TYpEWRiTER on
ThE Top RoW. AlSo, DVoRAk DoES A BETTER joB oF AlTERnATinG hAnDS ThAn
QWERTY.
Like MS-DOS and Windows, or VHS and Beta, Dvorak is another example that
the best technnology is not necessarily the one adopted.
-Ric
--
Ric Werme | we...@nospam.mediaone.net
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/werme | ^^^^^^^ delete
Natarajan Krishnaswami
> S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis
> The Fable of the Keys
> Journal of Law and Economics, vol XXXIII, April 1990, 1-23
There's a nice criticism of that paper floating around called "The
Fable of the Fable" or some such.
[pokes about google]
Here it is:
<URI:http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html>
Enjoy,
<N/>
--
you have been evaluated. you have a negative reference count. prepare
to be garbage collected. persistence is futile.
-- Erik Naggum
Don Stokes
Natarajan Krishnaswami <nx...@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
>On 11 Nov 2000 19:28:11 -0700, Bruce Ediger <bed...@csn.net> wrote:
>> S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis
>> The Fable of the Keys
>> Journal of Law and Economics, vol XXXIII, April 1990, 1-23
>
>There's a nice criticism of that paper floating around called "The
>Fable of the Fable" or some such.
OK, so Brooks attacks some of the claims made by Liebowitz & Margolis:
Claim: Dvorak Is a Fraud, Studies Prove It's No Better
Claim: Dr. Dvorak Was a Mercenary Huckster
Claim: Dvorak's Keyboard Failed, So It Must Be No Good
Claim: It Was Always Easy To Convert Typewriters
Claim: QWERTY Was Designed Ergonomically
Claim: The QWERTY Standard was Established by Competition
Claim: Market Economics Prove Dvorak Is Inferior
But the core of the myth is that studies show that the Dvorak keyboard
is *significantly* better than the QWERTY keyboard, and L&M point out
otherwise. Brooks doesn't address this claim. He attacks Strong's
study claiming the Dvorak keyboard to be worse, although fails to back
it up with anything but an assertion.
Brooks, in his postscript makes the somewhat emotive claim that, "I'm
really in this because people are teaching their children to type on a
keyboard that could very well torture them for life." However he fails
completely to cite any study to back up claim that (a) the QWERTY
keyboard causes trouble, or that (b) the Dvorak keyboard is any better.
Most of the claims about the Dvorak keyboard are based on theoretical
analysis of keystroke patterns, not studies actual practical use.
Brooks' web pages on the subject do not depart from this pattern.
In short, any keyboard layout has to offer significant real-world
benefits (measurable in $$$) to displace QWERTY. The claim is that the
Dvorak layout is such, but the evidence for this is lacking.
I suspect that is is simply because in real life, human typists aren't
actually terribly sensitive to keyboard layouts, and the benefits of any
layout change (Dvorak or otherwise) are too small to justify the
retraining costs, even when amortised over a long period.
-- don
dls2
> jav...@earthlink.net (John Varela) wrote:
> > Howard S Shubs <hsh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> >> I heard a while ago that the original studies which showed the
> >> Dvorak keyboard to be "faster" were done by the designer himself.
> >
> > http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/dvorak.html
>
Is it really so surprising that the original designer would also perform
inital testing and documentation? No, but the subsequent testing and
documentation done by, and for, the Navy is very likely to be biased,
considering Dvorak's involvement. Biasing is reason to suspect the
testing methods and conclusions of a report, but that does not mean
that the report is, or is not, right, or wrong, regarding either the testing
methods or conclusions; only suspect, lacking trusted, independent,
testers, and testing. To reiterate;
THE FABLE OF THE KEYS by
S. J. LIEBOWITZ and STEPHEN E. MARGOLIS
(Journal of Law & Economics vol. XXXIII (April 1990)]
http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/netpage.html
http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html
(Liebowitz's homepage, and same report, as from above,
though credited to another, earlier, source than Reason.)
Specifically, the final footnote, Footnote 59, of The Fable of the Keys,
states to the effect that neither Liebowitz nor Margolis were able to
prove the inheirent superiority, or inferiority, of either QWERTY over
Dvorak, or of Dvorak over QWERTY, from their analysis of the testing
done, and reported, by others, which they chose to acknowledge.
Liebowitz and Margolis do make mention of an important consideration:
"The [Navy] report's foreword states that two prior experiments had
been conducted but that 'the first two groups were not truly fair
tests.'
We are not told the results of the early tests."
What of the methods of the early tests? Dvorak was probably involved
with the first two tests, but removed from the third test, in an attempt for
impartiality in the matter.
Other than the Navy's report, most of the other references, listed in
the bibliography, while of definite human interest, are circumstantial,
or so it seems, from their use in the footnotes. Without better studies
of layout efficiency, the economic studies are just treading water, with
nowhere to go, and history is always biased, and so subject to doubt.
The cost of a total switch, from QWERTY to Dvorak, is known to be
quite high, but the benefits to typing, from such a switch, are in
doubt.
Without knowing the benefits to typing, from such a switch, efficiency
costs/savings cannot be determined.
Personally, I feel that the Dvorak layout does offer advantages over
the QWERTY layout, which are real, but that those advantages are
not significant enough to warrant change, from QWERTY to Dvorak,
for me, at present.
-- Derrick Shearer
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [sinp...]
>
> Personally, I feel that the Dvorak layout does offer advantages over
> the QWERTY layout, which are real, but that those advantages are
> not significant enough to warrant change, from QWERTY to Dvorak,
> for me, at present.
>
a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me??? If so,
what is the story behind this switch??? Whose idea was it to put
the switch on the computer???
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond <rich...@plano.net> |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Average Torvaldsian
> ThEn i noTE ThAT WERmE, nEGATED, EmphASiZES, AnD oF CouRSE, QWERTY uSE
> A loT oF lEFT hAnD TYpinG. i TriED To FinD ThE lonGEST WoRD i CoulD ThAT
> CoulD BE SpEllED on ThE miDDlE RoW oF ThE DVoRAk kEYBoARD. ThE BEST i CAmE
> up WiTh WAS SEnTiEnT. oF CouRSE, on QWERTY, you CAn TYpE TYpEWRiTER on
Do you type the "Y" key with your -left- hand?!
Shouldn't it with your right hand...?
M.
--
All parts should go together without forcing...
By all means, do not use a hammer.
-- IBM maintenance manual, 1925.
Ben Clifford
>i am considering getting a dvorak/qwerty switchable keyboard
>in the (not so near) future. i have been told that a person
>who is practiced on both kinds of keyboards types 10 to 12
>wpm faster on a dvorak than a qwerty. is this true? i have
It was suggested to me once that since you are not meant to look at the
keys, why should you bother getting different key caps - just switch the
keyboard layout in software.
I did try this and put a sticker on my monitor with a picture of the
new layout. But I gave up after a week or so - it was too painful only
typing at 1 char/second.
I can, however, type in the dark or on a keyboard with no keycaps [1]
so I don't think that the principle itself is flawed.
[1] I spilled coffee into the keyboard, then dismantled it to fix and
once I had realised it was working again, it took me a while to bother
putting the caps back on. When I did finally put them back on, I was
in a very silly mood and made a script-kiddie "QW3RTY" keyboard.
--
http://www.hawaga.org.uk/c0deZ/globeApplet/ for my rotating world map applet
http://www.hawaga.org.uk/benc_key.txt GPG key 0x30F06950 - please use it!
http://www.hawaga.org.uk/ben/ my homepage
Ben Clifford
>I believe all the typing records are held on Dvorak keyboards.
I don't think that is sound evidence that Dvorak is better for the
average fast typist (who can be bothered to learn the layout). It just
means that at the extremes it is better. And maybe not even that - maybe
all the people who are interested in being the worlds faster typer are
also Dvorks.[1]
>I've always wanted to try again.
Linux can do it pretty easily. (1 command line as root)
[1]Dvork - a word I just invented to mean proponent/fanatical user of Dvorak
keyboards :-)
Eric Fischer
> Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
> a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
> Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me??? If so,
> what is the story behind this switch??? Whose idea was it to put
> the switch on the computer???
Yes, it's the Apple IIc. (The Apple IIgs also has built-in Dvorak
support, but through a software control panel setting rather than
a physical switch.) I don't know whose idea it was, but I think
the motivation was to find a purpose in the USA version of the
computer for the switch that in other countries would switch the
character generator ROM between ASCII and the local ISO 646 variant.
eric
Doctor Memory
news:3A0EC486...@ev1.net...
> Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
> a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
> Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me??? If so,
> what is the story behind this switch??? Whose idea was it to put
> the switch on the computer???
I remember the Apple ///s I used in the early 80s allowed you to specify a
keyboard driver, and that they provided one set up for the Dvorak layout.
dls2
> Ric Werme wrote:
> > ThEn i noTE ThAT WERmE, nEGATED, EmphASiZES, AnD
> > oF CouRSE, QWERTY uSE A loT oF lEFT hAnD TYpinG. i
> > TriED To FinD ThE lonGEST WoRD i CoulD ThAT CoulD BE
> > SpEllED on ThE miDDlE RoW oF ThE DVoRAk kEYBoARD.
> > ThE BEST i CAmE up WiTh WAS SEnTiEnT. oF CouRSE,
> > on QWERTY, you CAn TYpE TYpEWRiTER on
>
> Shouldn't it with your right hand...?
There are Dvorak original, Dvorak left hand, Dvorak right hand, and
derived layouts, with the "Y" key located appropriately, for each.
-- Derrick Shearer
Ric Werme
>On Sun, 12 Nov 2000 01:56:33 GMT, Ric Werme <we...@nospam.mediaone.net> wrote:
>>I've always wanted to try again.
>Linux can do it pretty easily. (1 command line as root)
That's not the problem. Don't have time. Of course, what am I doing
posting here?
Ric Werme
>One problem I have with Liebowitz & Margolis is that they only churn
>old research, they did NOT perform any of their own.
I suspect the issue won't be put to rest until someone trains multiple
groups of kids with multiple teachers, half learning QWERTY, half
learning Dvorak. It may no longer be possible in industrialized countries
to find kids without keyboarding experience.
Another problem
>is that Liebowitz & Margolis started with a conclusion ("Free market
>*never* suffers market failure") and worked backwards from that.
Yeah, while I'm a staunch Libertarian, I'd argue that adopting QWERTY
is not a market failure. While my personal feeling is that Dvorak has
benefits, I doubt they are enough to warrant most people to switch.
Ben Clifford
>>>I've always wanted to try again.
>>Linux can do it pretty easily. (1 command line as root)
>That's not the problem. Don't have time. Of course, what am I doing
>posting here?
I have the time, but not the patience - I could force myself to use
Dvorak when I am reading Usenet but my mind tends to lost track of what
I am trying to say in between keystrokes :-(
jmfb...@aol.com
Ric Werme <we...@nospam.mediaone.net> wrote:
>be...@krustbustr.hawaga.org.uk (Ben Clifford) writes:
>
>>On Sun, 12 Nov 2000 01:56:33 GMT, Ric Werme <we...@nospam.mediaone.net>
wrote:
>
>>>I've always wanted to try again.
>
>>Linux can do it pretty easily. (1 command line as root)
>
>That's not the problem. Don't have time. Of course, what am I doing
>posting here?
<grin> Teaching the next generation.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
guy-jin
rich...@ev1.net wrote:
> Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
> a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
> Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me???
i've seen a lot of apple 2's, but never one with a dvorak
keyboard, switchable or otherwise.
Victor Eijkhout
> Do you type the "Y" key with your -left- hand?!
A friend of mine touch types with as only variant that he uses
WERT as the home positions on the top row, instead of QWER.
This has the advantage that you have separate fingers for the R and T
(your pinky now has to cover both W and Q, but that's no big deal);
as a side-effect he can type Y with both left and right.
--
Victor Eijkhout
"When I was coming up, [..] we knew exactly who the they were. It was us
versus them, and it was clear who the them was were. Today, we are not
so sure who the they are, but we know they're there." [G.W. Bush]
Bob Morrisette
> In article <3A0EC486...@ev1.net>,
> rich...@ev1.net wrote:
>
> > Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
> > a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
> > Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me???
>
> i've seen a lot of apple 2's, but never one with a dvorak
> keyboard, switchable or otherwise.
>
had a switchable Dvorak keyboard. I have one for sale.
Bob Morrisette
Peter Maydell
>>Dvorak keyboards were designed to increase typing speeds, whereas
>>QWERTY keyboards were designed to decrease typing speeds.
>
>
>The -point-, however, is "where is the proof" that Dvorak is better.
Actually, as far as I'm concerned, the point *is* in the design.
I'd much rather use a system that was actually designed for
the purpose I use it for than one that wasn't, and grew
popular by historical accident.
Sort of like liking a PERQ workstation, say, for its own sake
even though a modern PC is much more powerful (he says, trying
to inject a tiny drop of on-topic-ness).
I use dvorak all the time where I can manage to remap the keys;
I have no real problems dropping back to qwerty, although it's
easier on a different keyboard -- I find the difference in feel
between keyboards acts as a reminder of which layout to use.
Also, the longest word I know you can type on the home row
of a dvorak keyboard is "assassinations". Coincidence?
Peter Maydell
(OK, so the PERQ had a QWERTY keyboard.)
marc_k
: In article <3A0EC486...@ev1.net>,
: rich...@ev1.net wrote:
: > Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
: > a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
: > Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me???
: i've seen a lot of apple 2's, but never one with a dvorak
: keyboard, switchable or otherwise.
: --
: geek code block: Version: 3.1
: GCS/O d-(x 10/31) s+:++>+:+ a-- C++>$ UL+>++ UA+>++ L+>++++ P--- E>++
: W+>++ N++>+++ o? K- W O? M PS++ PE- PGP t+@ 5+ X->! R+@ tv b++ DI++@ D+
: G e>++++ h! r- y? ??? 4+>+++ AN+>+++ !BZ fls+>+++ flj+>+++ UF+
: Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
: Before you buy.
ALL Apple //c(and ONLY the //c) had the Dvorak switch on them.
marc_k
: In article 1...@nnrp1.deja.com, guy-jin <gu...@my-deja.com> writes:
: > In article <3A0EC486...@ev1.net>,
: > rich...@ev1.net wrote:
: >
: > > Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
: > > a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
: > > Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me???
: >
: > i've seen a lot of apple 2's, but never one with a dvorak
: > keyboard, switchable or otherwise.
: >
: had a switchable Dvorak keyboard. I have one for sale.
: Bob Morrisette
I used to have one of those..good little machine(once you got used to the
LOUSY keyboard).
Paul Guertin
> Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>
> > Seems like there was an 8-bit microcomputer (Apple][c???) that had
> > a switch on the front that allowed you to switch from QUERTY to
> > Dvorak key arrangments. Anyone remember this besides me??? If so,
> > what is the story behind this switch???
>
> Yes, it's the Apple IIc. [...]
> the motivation was to find a purpose in the USA version of the
> computer for the switch that in other countries would switch the
> character generator ROM between ASCII and the local ISO 646 variant.
This is also what I've heard. I was living in Quebec at the time,
and that switch was used to choose between normal ASCII or a
version that replaced characters such as @[]{}|~` with French
accented characters. In French mode, the Applesoft prompt, ],
would become a paragraph symbol.
Earlier Apple II computer such as the IIe had the switch installed
below the keyboard on the left.
Paul Guertin
p...@sff.net
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
we...@nospam.mediaone.net "Ric Werme" writes:
> bed...@csn.net (Bruce Ediger) writes:
>
>
> >One problem I have with Liebowitz & Margolis is that they only churn
> >old research, they did NOT perform any of their own.
>
> I suspect the issue won't be put to rest until someone trains multiple
> groups of kids with multiple teachers, half learning QWERTY, half
> learning Dvorak. It may no longer be possible in industrialized countries
> to find kids without keyboarding experience.
This is the major blockage to widespread acceptance of Dvorak. Some
20--25 years ago, whilst on an MoD steering committee, I suggested to HM
Treasury (who in those days were responsible for the entire Civil Service
in this respect) that they should switch all typing pools over from
Qwerty to Dvorak. I even suggested that the changeover could be gradual,
replacing typewriters as and when due.
Their answer was very pragmatic: they could only recommend the widespread
adoption of Dvorak, even though its advantages were clear, if they could
be assured of a steady supply of typists trained to use such keyboards.
They had, in fact, already investigated this possibility, and discussions
with the various typing schools showed that the latter were only prepared
to undergo the expense of converting typewriters and training methods if
they could be assured that there would be a steady demand for the typists
that they were producing trained to use Dvorak.
Can you say Catch-22?
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} b...@dsl.co.uk
"We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of
distributed ignorance. And we know and understand less while being incr-
easingly capable." Prof. Peter Cochrane, BT Labs