DVORAK

I've just read about the Dvorak keyboard layout. I've never heard about it before. It seems that typing is easier with it that with the QWERTY keyboard lay out.

Here is where I heard of it. The person talking about it is the same person behind the IMX Labs website I posted about earlier.

Here are some links about it.

www.mwbrooks.com...

www.dcn.davis.ca.us...

Hrm, I always heard that QWERTY was used on computers because in the beginning they couldnt keep up with the keyrates possible using a DVORAK layout. Kind of suprising now because people can type amazingly fast using QWERTY and the computer keeps up fine.

I believe QWERTY format was first used to avoid key jams in typewriters. Placing common keys across the board from each other helped stop this.

I'd rather not change.

QWERTY is the same layout used by the first typewriters. Nerdling is correct, and with an additional comment. The word "typewriter" can be done only using the top row. This was to speed demonstrations in early marketing.


Problem is...who wants to retrain millions of typists? Would it be worth it?

[edit on 20-9-2004 by Gazrok]

I'm with Gazrok on this one.

It just might be that other layouts for the keyboard might result in faster typing, more ergonomically correct typing, maybe even help against carpal tunnel and what not, but still...

Everyone types the same way now. How in the world would that switch. I type somewhere in the area of 100wpm. I haven't looked at the keyboard in 10 years. A layout switch would put me back to two-fingered pecking I think. People aren't gonna go for it.

Well, I haven't done any research into it yet, but there are claims that it (DVORAK typing) can be learned quite quickly and easily.