4 ms·
I have switched to programmer's dvorak (dvp) for a year now. I have recorded the amount of typing vs speed. Right after the switch, the speed increase is logari
by nacc 10y ago
I have switched to programmer's dvorak (dvp) for a year now. I have recorded the amount of typing vs speed. Right after the switch, the speed increase is logarithmic to amount of typing: I will need to practice twice the amount of typing to get a constant speed increase.
But now, I definitely feels much better than qwerty if typing English / code regularly. I no longer feel the strain on my fingers after long periods of typing. I also got a ~15% speed improvement, but that might just because I can touch type better. However there are several things that come up surprising me after the switch:
1. I forget all about qwerty. Every time I type on someone else's computer, I will have to look at the keyboard and picking letters one by one. It doesn't seem to get better over time.
2. Passwords are annoying to type even after I am generally comfortable with dvp after 3 months.
3. Shortcut keys are even more resilient to change. It takes very long to get comfortable with vim again (about 6 months), but now after a year of dvp I still have trouble Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v.
4. I spent a lot of time changing keyboard settings in games.
So for most of people who don't specifically focus on typing long paragraphs of english texts but press keys mostly as short cuts, I can see there is not sufficient reason to switch, if everything is designed around qwerty.
- midgetjones 10y agoAs someone that's periodically been interested in switching, I think you've given me the motivation to just stick with qwerty. Not being able to type fast enough is never the bottleneck when I write code, and I think I'd like to still be able to use other people's keyboards without having to concentrate.
- rsfern 10y agoI use a dvorak layout, and I find it much more comfortable than qwerty. When I need to use someone else's machine for something nontrivial, I just change the OS setting temporarily. The overhead doesn't bother me, and the only thing I really miss are some custom keybindings (e.g. CAPS -> delete...).
- steveeq1 10y agoCurious. Do you use vim? Does this affect the way you use the navigation keys (h j k l)? Do you remap the keyboard differently for navigation?
- wbolster 10y agoif you are interested in vim ergonomics and alternative layouts, i wrote extensively about the vim + colemak layout i use on a daily basis: https://github.com/wbolster/evil-colemak-basics#design-rationale https://github.com/wbolster/evil-colemak-basics#design-ratio...
- nacc 10y agoI thought about remapping at the beginning. But with vim you almost need to remap the whole keyboard to get hjkl in the usual place ... so I didn't. The hjkl on dvorak is at jcvp on qwerty, they are not too uncomfortable. but now I realize it might be a benefit: I don't use hjkl as much as before, but mostly rely on other ways to jump, so this disadvantage actually makes using vim a bit more efficient.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- teilo 10y agoThe position of the keys has little to do with one's efficiency in VIM. Autonomic memory is everything. I use hjkl in Dvorak just as efficiently as I did in Qwerty and Colemak.
- Waterluvian 10y agoThat sound good if you're in isolation. But I have to use many different peoples computers in the goal of collaboration and team support. Do you find it possible to natively know both layouts or does one hamstring the other?
- lgunsch 10y agoI have heard reports of people being able to know both layouts. There is a section in the Colemak website regarding it. Although, you will have to re-learn qwerty after you learn another layout.
- wbolster 10y agomany consider it best to touch type your normal layout (colemak, qwerty) and to use hunt-and-peck when forced to use qwerty. it helps not messing up muscle memory for the normal layout, since hunt and peck is a conscious effort.
- NoGravitas 10y agoI learned to touch-type QWERTY in high school. 20 years later, I learned to touch-type Colemak, and eventually got up to the same speed. For a while, I couldn't really touch-type QWERTY. But gradually I regained the ability. It still helps for me to be looking at the keyboard, so that I have a different context to go with the different layout. But I am still using 10 fingers when typing QWERTY.