4 ms·

Don't listen to the DVORAK people. All the things they say are just FUD with no scientific studies to back them up. There is no real evidence that it is better

by Apreche 17y ago

Don't listen to the DVORAK people. All the things they say are just FUD with no scientific studies to back them up. There is no real evidence that it is better in terms of ergonomics or speed. If you do switch to DVORAK, you will have lots of inconvenience because the world is QWERTY. The very real advantages of sticking with the world standard greatly outweigh any imaginary advantages of changing layout. Your best bet is to just get a better keyboard, physically speaking.

fadmmatt 17y ago
No studies? http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/Dvorak_vs_qwerty_keyboard_tests.htm http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/Dvorak_vs_qwerty_keyboard_te... Remember: A study need not be published in a journal and well-typeset to be scientific.
- plinkplonk 17y ago
  "Remember: A study need not be published in a journal and well-typeset to be scientific." Even better, as programmers we can write scripts to compare layouts and calculate whatever statistics we want to. aAfew years ago, contemplating the switch to Dvorak (not really to optimize typing efficiency, I was getting twinges in my wrists and the doc said they were early warning signs of RSI) I wrote a ruby script to compare a given body of text against both Dvorak and Qwerty layouts and then I ran it against a few years of code I had on my machine. The Dvorak layout showed a significant decrease in amount of finger movement, especially movement off the home row. Good enough for me. It took me about a month to get back to my original typing speed. I don't have to use other people's computers often so it works for me. my 2 cents. (oh yeah no more wrist pain. fwiw)
richardw 17y ago
I'd be wildly surprised if you could prove that your fingers move the same amount using both keyboards. You'll note my answer above (below, whatever :) says "depends". If you move machines a lot, bad idea. If you do a huge amount of keyboard work on your own machine, good idea. There's no one answer, but it really made sense for me.
weavejester 17y ago
Well, the distance your fingers travel when typing Qwerty is around twice that of Dvorak. I'd be very surprised if that had no ergonomic effect.

by Apreche 17y ago

fadmmatt 17y ago

No studies? http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/Dvorak_vs_qwerty_keyboard_tests.htm http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/Dvorak_vs_qwerty_keyboard_te... Remember: A study need not be published in a journal and well-typeset to be scientific.

plinkplonk 17y ago
"Remember: A study need not be published in a journal and well-typeset to be scientific." Even better, as programmers we can write scripts to compare layouts and calculate whatever statistics we want to. aAfew years ago, contemplating the switch to Dvorak (not really to optimize typing efficiency, I was getting twinges in my wrists and the doc said they were early warning signs of RSI) I wrote a ruby script to compare a given body of text against both Dvorak and Qwerty layouts and then I ran it against a few years of code I had on my machine. The Dvorak layout showed a significant decrease in amount of finger movement, especially movement off the home row. Good enough for me. It took me about a month to get back to my original typing speed. I don't have to use other people's computers often so it works for me. my 2 cents. (oh yeah no more wrist pain. fwiw)

richardw 17y ago

I'd be wildly surprised if you could prove that your fingers move the same amount using both keyboards. You'll note my answer above (below, whatever :) says "depends". If you move machines a lot, bad idea. If you do a huge amount of keyboard work on your own machine, good idea. There's no one answer, but it really made sense for me.

weavejester 17y ago

Well, the distance your fingers travel when typing Qwerty is around twice that of Dvorak. I'd be very surprised if that had no ergonomic effect.