10 ms·

Is it worth learning Dvorak? Sure it makes sense on paper, I see the rationale behind it, but I've already been typing on QWERTY all my life and I'm pretty fast

Is it worth learning Dvorak? Sure it makes sense on paper, I see the rationale behind it, but I've already been typing on QWERTY all my life and I'm pretty fast at it. Kakoune is the same thing for me - the things changed from Vim make sense, but I don't see it as good enough to offset the facts that: 1. Vim is muscle memory for a lot of us. Something that is so similar but not quite the same just fucks with my brain. I have an easier time using stock Emacs bindings than Kakoune, as my brain is not in Vim mode while using it. 2. VS Code, Fat Visual Studio, IntelliJ, Emacs, most IDEs/text editors, fuck even Compiler Explorer have Vim plugins that range in quality from acceptable to fantastic. You can get a fix for your vim needs even in a disgusting corporate Windows crackhouse environment. 3. If you're a purist, Vim itself has a great ecosystem, and can be reasonably used for a lot of tasks.

rbits 3y ago
The second point is the biggest reason why I haven't switch to Kakoune or Helix yet. I've used vim for just over a year now and I'm still annoyed at how unintuitive some things are, I still can't remember half of the shortcuts. I tried out Helix and it's great! I especially love the multiple cursors. But I never use vim by itself, I use it in other apps. And there's a perfectly good Helix plugin for VSCode, but I also use vim mode in Obsidian (since I'm constantly switching back and forth between Obsidian and VSCode) and there is currently no plugin for anything else. I need my code editor and my note editor to have the same controls, otherwise my brain gets confused. Once a Helix or Kakoune plugin is created for Obsidian, I am switching straight away.
- mbork_pl 3y ago
  > I need my code editor and my note editor to have the same controls, otherwise my brain gets confused. I fully agree – but why use two separate editors, then? (Full disclosure – I'm a long-time Emacs user, making most of my notes in Org-mode.)
- petr25102018 3y ago
  > Helix plugin for VSCode Which one?
- turboponyy 3y ago
  Vi-style binds are moderately unintuitive, but they are the lingua franca of keybind languages, and knowing them has value in and of itself. I'm glad I learned vi-style binds just before Kakoune and Helix gained popularity, as I use them in dozens of contexts other than my text editor.
  - gilcot 3y ago
    > Vi-style binds are moderately unintuitive, Oh... For my part, other binds are weird and less ergonomic from far. I'm vey used to vi-style: I mostly work in text mode (no GUI, no mouse) and I like to talk to my editor what I want...
- jodrellblank 3y ago
  Dendron is an Obsidian-alike plugin for VS Code. https://www.dendron.so/ https://www.dendron.so/
- eviks 3y ago
  Roughly how many shortcuts in other apps like Obsidian would you need to rebind to avoid the annoyance?
vaylian 3y ago
Take a look at https://helix-editor.com/ https://helix-editor.com/. It is basically a continuation of the ideas behind Kakoune but with a primary focus on modern day programming with a language-server. I use it for most of my programming today, because the language server support out of the box is just so much better than anything I managed do with Neovim.
- phowat 3y ago
  This project looks amazing, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to give up Copilot for a better editor. But I'll keep this on my radar.
  - notnmeyer 3y ago
    yeah, the lack of a plugin ecosystem and consequently, copilot support, is the hardest pill to swallow with Helix right now. that said, its an amazing editor. excluding the plugin stuff, its batteries-included and is so refreshing to not have to mess with configuration files just to get it to a useable state.
    - TylerE 3y ago
      Maybe it's just me, but a TUI-only editor is a non-starter for me, for a number of reasons, first being that my terminals are set up for maximum readability for shorter sessions, not eye comfort over hours.
      - aae42 3y ago
        What about setting up a dedicated terminal for your editor? I think a GUI version is in the works, but that's probably what it will end up as. My editor stack has been Zellij, Helix and gitui as of late, and, there's still a few important things missing for me, but still working on it...
        TylerE 3y ago
wredue 3y ago
ThePrimeAgen uses Dvorak and for raw typing speed has said it’s probably not worth. Fast typists on qwerty and Dvorak seem to be in line. Stress on the good ol wrists and digits though? Not really sure. If there is a reason to switch, it’d be based on that.
- kaba0 3y ago
  I think quality of keyboard probably plays an order of magnitude bigger difference.
jwells89 3y ago
The theories behind newer layouts are solid I think, but I’ve avoided adopting them simply because if I don’t regularly use QWERTY, my capacity for using machines other than my own suddenly takes a steep nosedive. My preferred layout is HHKB/Tsangan, a minor variant on QWERTY that replaces Caps Lock with Control, moves Esc to the number row, collapses F-keys into a number row layer, and moves Backspace down where backslash/pipe are and even with that standard keyboards can be frustrating (you don’t realize how hard standard Esc and Backspace positions are to reach until you’ve tried this layout). I can’t imagine what it’d be like if I were using DVORAK or something.
Conscat 3y ago
I used Dvorak for awhile. It's okay, at least better than QWERTY. But it's super old, and keyboard layouts post-Colemak take advantage of rolling bigrams and trigrams, unlike Dvorak. I use Hands Down now. https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown
- bongobingo1 3y ago
  Its a funny thing. I swapped to Colemak, was definitely worth it. I am pretty sure there are better layouts, but also I'm so wary of falling into a sort of productivity-tool/gear-acquisition-syndrome where I can never settle on one that is "perfect". Swapping wasn't hard, but it sure wasn't easy. Did you find going from B -> C (-> D?) easier than A -> B?
  - lawn 3y ago
    > Swapping wasn't hard, but it sure wasn't easy. Did you find going from B -> C (-> D?) easier than A -> B? For me, going from B -> C and C -> D (and then a long period of tweaking) was significantly easier than from A -> B.
zoogeny 3y ago
I have at various times in my life tried to use vim or emacs. Each time I get comfortable enough in them to appreciate them but I run into the same problem every single time: it is annoying to switch back out of them. I had an acquaintance that told how he had spent years investing in Dvorak. He came back to QWERTY because he got a job where he had to jump onto others computers on occasion. The friction he felt fighting against his muscle memory was more annoying than any benefit he got from the supposed better Dvorak layout. I now use VSCode for 90% of my stuff and I use vim whenever I ssh into boxes or if I really need a quick edit from the CLI. But I keep vim totally stock, not a single thing in my dot file. There are aspects of my previous highly-customized and personalized vim setup that I miss - but I am free from the frustration of them not being there. As I get older, freedom from frustration has become more important than the marginal improvements of customization for efficiency.
- dingnuts 3y ago
  Funny, you use VSCode for the same reason I use Emacs -- so I can keep vim totally stock, so I'll retain the muscle memory / not be shocked on other systems, and so that it remains completely reliable and fast on my own. I'm incredibly skeptical, however, that VSCode has as-good of a vim emulation layer as evil-mode. Evil-mode is just fantastic. Customized Emacs w/ evil-mode gives me everything I'd get from a fancy IDE, and keeps my vim muscle memory intact for those times when I am using regular vim. This has been my pattern for a decade and it's glorious. GLORIOUS, I tell you! Few things give me joy in computing like the balance in the Force that I've managed to strike between Emacs and vim
  - imiric 3y ago
    For sure, Emacs with evil-mode is the best of both worlds: deep customization and sane configuration language of Emacs, with the arguably superior modal interface of Vim. Using mnemonic key bindings is much friendlier than dozens of random key combinations. There's a popular key-chord package[1] that minimizes this discomfort, but without editing modes, users need to be concerned with the chords clashing with their actual text, which is absurd. Modes address this issue gracefully. I still use some basic combinations like M-x, but I would be completely lost in Emacs if it weren't for evil-mode. <3 The thing with modal UIs is that you want to use them everywhere. So I also enable vi-mode in my shells, and in any application that uses readline. [1]: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyChord https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyChord
lawn 3y ago
If you do it, do it for comfort not speed. And also consider Colemak-DH over Dvorak. If you're worried about having to relearn Vim commands, it's not a big deal. You're not remembering the key positions but the mnemonics, so "dta" means "delete to a" not some key positions. You'll be fine.
- unshavedyak 3y ago
  > If you're worried about having to relearn Vim commands, it's not a big deal. You're not remembering the key positions but the mnemonics, so "dta" means "delete to a" not some key positions. You'll be fine. Oh man, this was so difficult for me with a split ortho keyboard. I realized that most of my bindings now i don't actually "know". It's 100% muscle memory. I had to keep a keyboard handy to "do the thing i want on the unplugged keyboard" to see what the bind was. Kinda mind blowing to me hah.
  - lawn 3y ago
    That's interesting. I had zero problems moving from a regular qwerty layout to a split 34 key keyboard. I did switch to a BEAKL layout, and then to my own layout. So maybe we learn things differently?
em-bee 3y ago
sure, but that's the same argument against any form of incompatible change. it was used against the fish shell for example. yet eventually it started getting acceptance. the same may happen with kakoune. i tried using it myself. i wasn't so much bothered by the changes. i had different issues. i got burned by kakoune overwriting a file without warning me. vim would not have done that. and i couldn't get over the fact that kak means shit in some languages. it will take some more effort to overcome that and give it another try.
darau1 3y ago
This was exactly my thought process before switching to vim.
Nadya 3y ago
I come out of the woodworks every now and again whenever I see Dvorak mentioned in any context. I really despise its popularity as an alternative keyboard layout because I feel it wasted a good year of my life. 1) Few people will have benefit of learning Dvorak. What benefits they see comes from learning how to properly touch type by forcefully breaking bad habits with their original (usually QWERTY) keyboard layout. 2) Switch to Colemak or any more modern layout that takes advantage of bigrams/trigrams better. Colemak is genuinely superior to QWERTY beyond just learning to touch type. I used to type 170~ WPM on QWERTY. Sustained. By all means an accomplished typist. I learned Dvorak well enough to get back up to 120~ WPM but saw no real benefits of using it: I already knew how to touch type. But QWERTY was causing my hands to cramp up over time and so I was on the search for improving that. I gave Colemak a try and it was a great relief. I only type 150~ WPM on Colemak after some years of using it but the lack of pain from typing for long periods of time is worth the small hit to my typing speed. Almost every single person I see who touts benefits of learning Dvorak was typing <60WPM in QWERTY and did not know how to properly touch type. The benefits they see weren't from using Dvorak: it was from finally learning how to touch type properly. Apologies as I know Dvorak wasn't really the focus of your post here. But in an attempt to perhaps make it still relevant: change every now and then is good. It can break you out of bad habits you didn't know you had learned and sometimes open you up to new ways of accomplishing something. As other replies have mentioned - I'm a big fan of Helix and gave up Neovim for it.
- tmtvl 3y ago
  Eh, I'd say it kinda depends, Colemak focuses more on rolls while Dvorak focuses more on alternating between hands. Though I think that Workman is a superior alternative to Colemak when it comes to ergonomic rolls. Xah Lee wrote an analysis on why he believes Dvorak is better than Colemak: <http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_vs_colemak.html http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_vs_colemak.html> and he brings up the frequency of the "th" digram, which on Colemak is a bit of an issue due to the finger travel.
- imiric 3y ago
  > I used to type 170~ WPM on QWERTY. That's an absurd speed. I can touch type on QWERTY, and last I measured I hovered at around 100 WPM on my best efforts. But TBH typing speed is really not something I'm concerned about. When I'm programming, accuracy is more important than speed, and I spend much more time thinking than actually typing. And when I'm writing prose, I also make pauses to rethink what I'm writing, and go back and forth, refining the text to match my thoughts. So even if I typed much faster, my overall speed of communication or programming wouldn't improve. I also haven't had any discomfort after decades of typing on QWERTY keyboards. I find it hard to believe that a different layout would reduce discomfort more than using an ergonomic keyboard, with proper wrist support and posture.
commandersaki 3y ago
I have similar reasoning for not bothering to learn an FP language (I have dabbled though) and stick with imperative.
legohead 3y ago
Every other keyboard you may need to use; for family, work, friends, is QWERTY. That is enough reason for me to stick with the norm. I already type 120wpm, which is only useful for a speed typing test. I never code, or even write documentation, at 120wpm.
sevensor 3y ago
Regarding (1), I used Vim for 19 years, and I had strong muscle memory. However, I found it took only about a week to get comfortable with Kakoune. Its multiple-selection-oriented editing just mapped really well onto how I was already using Vim, which is to say, making extensive use of visual mode and highlightsearch. I have met Vim purists who tell me this is missing the point of Vim. If so, all the more reason to make the switch. But if verb-motion works better for you than selection-verb, by all means continue using Vim; it's a great editor.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
thomastjeffery 3y ago
It's worth getting a physical keyboard that's actually ergonomic, like a Keyboardio, ergodox, dactyl, or whatever. Just pick the one you are most excited about using. It's significantly less valuable, but still worth learning an alternative keyboard layout, though Dvorak specifically isn't nearly as good as modern alternative like Colemak or Workman. Vim is incredible for every reason except its keybinds. Technically, you can remap them, but that quickly devolves into dependency hell... learning to type using the Workman layout is why I'm an Emacs user today. One of these days I'll get around to making a truly configurable modular editor...that will most likely be an Emacs config.
colordrops 3y ago
I switched from a standard split ergo keyboard to a split orthographic with curved rows (Glove80 specifically). I'm still questioning my move. I was pretty damn fast with the standard split, and I'm still struggling with special characters on the Glove80. It feels like it's coming though, and at least it's fun. And perhaps it will reduce wrist and finger strain as I get older.

rbits 3y ago

The second point is the biggest reason why I haven't switch to Kakoune or Helix yet. I've used vim for just over a year now and I'm still annoyed at how unintuitive some things are, I still can't remember half of the shortcuts. I tried out Helix and it's great! I especially love the multiple cursors. But I never use vim by itself, I use it in other apps. And there's a perfectly good Helix plugin for VSCode, but I also use vim mode in Obsidian (since I'm constantly switching back and forth between Obsidian and VSCode) and there is currently no plugin for anything else. I need my code editor and my note editor to have the same controls, otherwise my brain gets confused. Once a Helix or Kakoune plugin is created for Obsidian, I am switching straight away.

mbork_pl 3y ago
> I need my code editor and my note editor to have the same controls, otherwise my brain gets confused. I fully agree – but why use two separate editors, then? (Full disclosure – I'm a long-time Emacs user, making most of my notes in Org-mode.)
petr25102018 3y ago
> Helix plugin for VSCode Which one?
turboponyy 3y ago
Vi-style binds are moderately unintuitive, but they are the lingua franca of keybind languages, and knowing them has value in and of itself. I'm glad I learned vi-style binds just before Kakoune and Helix gained popularity, as I use them in dozens of contexts other than my text editor.
- gilcot 3y ago
  > Vi-style binds are moderately unintuitive, Oh... For my part, other binds are weird and less ergonomic from far. I'm vey used to vi-style: I mostly work in text mode (no GUI, no mouse) and I like to talk to my editor what I want...
jodrellblank 3y ago
Dendron is an Obsidian-alike plugin for VS Code. https://www.dendron.so/ https://www.dendron.so/
eviks 3y ago
Roughly how many shortcuts in other apps like Obsidian would you need to rebind to avoid the annoyance?

vaylian 3y ago

Take a look at https://helix-editor.com/ https://helix-editor.com/. It is basically a continuation of the ideas behind Kakoune but with a primary focus on modern day programming with a language-server. I use it for most of my programming today, because the language server support out of the box is just so much better than anything I managed do with Neovim.

phowat 3y ago
This project looks amazing, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to give up Copilot for a better editor. But I'll keep this on my radar.
- notnmeyer 3y ago
  yeah, the lack of a plugin ecosystem and consequently, copilot support, is the hardest pill to swallow with Helix right now. that said, its an amazing editor. excluding the plugin stuff, its batteries-included and is so refreshing to not have to mess with configuration files just to get it to a useable state.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    Maybe it's just me, but a TUI-only editor is a non-starter for me, for a number of reasons, first being that my terminals are set up for maximum readability for shorter sessions, not eye comfort over hours.
    - aae42 3y ago
      What about setting up a dedicated terminal for your editor? I think a GUI version is in the works, but that's probably what it will end up as. My editor stack has been Zellij, Helix and gitui as of late, and, there's still a few important things missing for me, but still working on it...
      - TylerE 3y ago

wredue 3y ago

ThePrimeAgen uses Dvorak and for raw typing speed has said it’s probably not worth. Fast typists on qwerty and Dvorak seem to be in line. Stress on the good ol wrists and digits though? Not really sure. If there is a reason to switch, it’d be based on that.

kaba0 3y ago
I think quality of keyboard probably plays an order of magnitude bigger difference.

jwells89 3y ago

The theories behind newer layouts are solid I think, but I’ve avoided adopting them simply because if I don’t regularly use QWERTY, my capacity for using machines other than my own suddenly takes a steep nosedive. My preferred layout is HHKB/Tsangan, a minor variant on QWERTY that replaces Caps Lock with Control, moves Esc to the number row, collapses F-keys into a number row layer, and moves Backspace down where backslash/pipe are and even with that standard keyboards can be frustrating (you don’t realize how hard standard Esc and Backspace positions are to reach until you’ve tried this layout). I can’t imagine what it’d be like if I were using DVORAK or something.

Conscat 3y ago

I used Dvorak for awhile. It's okay, at least better than QWERTY. But it's super old, and keyboard layouts post-Colemak take advantage of rolling bigrams and trigrams, unlike Dvorak. I use Hands Down now. https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

bongobingo1 3y ago
Its a funny thing. I swapped to Colemak, was definitely worth it. I am pretty sure there are better layouts, but also I'm so wary of falling into a sort of productivity-tool/gear-acquisition-syndrome where I can never settle on one that is "perfect". Swapping wasn't hard, but it sure wasn't easy. Did you find going from B -> C (-> D?) easier than A -> B?
- lawn 3y ago
  > Swapping wasn't hard, but it sure wasn't easy. Did you find going from B -> C (-> D?) easier than A -> B? For me, going from B -> C and C -> D (and then a long period of tweaking) was significantly easier than from A -> B.

zoogeny 3y ago

I have at various times in my life tried to use vim or emacs. Each time I get comfortable enough in them to appreciate them but I run into the same problem every single time: it is annoying to switch back out of them. I had an acquaintance that told how he had spent years investing in Dvorak. He came back to QWERTY because he got a job where he had to jump onto others computers on occasion. The friction he felt fighting against his muscle memory was more annoying than any benefit he got from the supposed better Dvorak layout. I now use VSCode for 90% of my stuff and I use vim whenever I ssh into boxes or if I really need a quick edit from the CLI. But I keep vim totally stock, not a single thing in my dot file. There are aspects of my previous highly-customized and personalized vim setup that I miss - but I am free from the frustration of them not being there. As I get older, freedom from frustration has become more important than the marginal improvements of customization for efficiency.

dingnuts 3y ago
Funny, you use VSCode for the same reason I use Emacs -- so I can keep vim totally stock, so I'll retain the muscle memory / not be shocked on other systems, and so that it remains completely reliable and fast on my own. I'm incredibly skeptical, however, that VSCode has as-good of a vim emulation layer as evil-mode. Evil-mode is just fantastic. Customized Emacs w/ evil-mode gives me everything I'd get from a fancy IDE, and keeps my vim muscle memory intact for those times when I am using regular vim. This has been my pattern for a decade and it's glorious. GLORIOUS, I tell you! Few things give me joy in computing like the balance in the Force that I've managed to strike between Emacs and vim
- imiric 3y ago
  For sure, Emacs with evil-mode is the best of both worlds: deep customization and sane configuration language of Emacs, with the arguably superior modal interface of Vim. Using mnemonic key bindings is much friendlier than dozens of random key combinations. There's a popular key-chord package[1] that minimizes this discomfort, but without editing modes, users need to be concerned with the chords clashing with their actual text, which is absurd. Modes address this issue gracefully. I still use some basic combinations like M-x, but I would be completely lost in Emacs if it weren't for evil-mode. <3 The thing with modal UIs is that you want to use them everywhere. So I also enable vi-mode in my shells, and in any application that uses readline. [1]: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyChord https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyChord

lawn 3y ago

If you do it, do it for comfort not speed. And also consider Colemak-DH over Dvorak. If you're worried about having to relearn Vim commands, it's not a big deal. You're not remembering the key positions but the mnemonics, so "dta" means "delete to a" not some key positions. You'll be fine.

unshavedyak 3y ago
> If you're worried about having to relearn Vim commands, it's not a big deal. You're not remembering the key positions but the mnemonics, so "dta" means "delete to a" not some key positions. You'll be fine. Oh man, this was so difficult for me with a split ortho keyboard. I realized that most of my bindings now i don't actually "know". It's 100% muscle memory. I had to keep a keyboard handy to "do the thing i want on the unplugged keyboard" to see what the bind was. Kinda mind blowing to me hah.
- lawn 3y ago
  That's interesting. I had zero problems moving from a regular qwerty layout to a split 34 key keyboard. I did switch to a BEAKL layout, and then to my own layout. So maybe we learn things differently?

em-bee 3y ago

sure, but that's the same argument against any form of incompatible change. it was used against the fish shell for example. yet eventually it started getting acceptance. the same may happen with kakoune. i tried using it myself. i wasn't so much bothered by the changes. i had different issues. i got burned by kakoune overwriting a file without warning me. vim would not have done that. and i couldn't get over the fact that kak means shit in some languages. it will take some more effort to overcome that and give it another try.

darau1 3y ago

This was exactly my thought process before switching to vim.

Nadya 3y ago

I come out of the woodworks every now and again whenever I see Dvorak mentioned in any context. I really despise its popularity as an alternative keyboard layout because I feel it wasted a good year of my life. 1) Few people will have benefit of learning Dvorak. What benefits they see comes from learning how to properly touch type by forcefully breaking bad habits with their original (usually QWERTY) keyboard layout. 2) Switch to Colemak or any more modern layout that takes advantage of bigrams/trigrams better. Colemak is genuinely superior to QWERTY beyond just learning to touch type. I used to type 170~ WPM on QWERTY. Sustained. By all means an accomplished typist. I learned Dvorak well enough to get back up to 120~ WPM but saw no real benefits of using it: I already knew how to touch type. But QWERTY was causing my hands to cramp up over time and so I was on the search for improving that. I gave Colemak a try and it was a great relief. I only type 150~ WPM on Colemak after some years of using it but the lack of pain from typing for long periods of time is worth the small hit to my typing speed. Almost every single person I see who touts benefits of learning Dvorak was typing <60WPM in QWERTY and did not know how to properly touch type. The benefits they see weren't from using Dvorak: it was from finally learning how to touch type properly. Apologies as I know Dvorak wasn't really the focus of your post here. But in an attempt to perhaps make it still relevant: change every now and then is good. It can break you out of bad habits you didn't know you had learned and sometimes open you up to new ways of accomplishing something. As other replies have mentioned - I'm a big fan of Helix and gave up Neovim for it.

tmtvl 3y ago
Eh, I'd say it kinda depends, Colemak focuses more on rolls while Dvorak focuses more on alternating between hands. Though I think that Workman is a superior alternative to Colemak when it comes to ergonomic rolls. Xah Lee wrote an analysis on why he believes Dvorak is better than Colemak: <http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_vs_colemak.html http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_vs_colemak.html> and he brings up the frequency of the "th" digram, which on Colemak is a bit of an issue due to the finger travel.
imiric 3y ago
> I used to type 170~ WPM on QWERTY. That's an absurd speed. I can touch type on QWERTY, and last I measured I hovered at around 100 WPM on my best efforts. But TBH typing speed is really not something I'm concerned about. When I'm programming, accuracy is more important than speed, and I spend much more time thinking than actually typing. And when I'm writing prose, I also make pauses to rethink what I'm writing, and go back and forth, refining the text to match my thoughts. So even if I typed much faster, my overall speed of communication or programming wouldn't improve. I also haven't had any discomfort after decades of typing on QWERTY keyboards. I find it hard to believe that a different layout would reduce discomfort more than using an ergonomic keyboard, with proper wrist support and posture.

commandersaki 3y ago

I have similar reasoning for not bothering to learn an FP language (I have dabbled though) and stick with imperative.

legohead 3y ago

Every other keyboard you may need to use; for family, work, friends, is QWERTY. That is enough reason for me to stick with the norm. I already type 120wpm, which is only useful for a speed typing test. I never code, or even write documentation, at 120wpm.

sevensor 3y ago

Regarding (1), I used Vim for 19 years, and I had strong muscle memory. However, I found it took only about a week to get comfortable with Kakoune. Its multiple-selection-oriented editing just mapped really well onto how I was already using Vim, which is to say, making extensive use of visual mode and highlightsearch. I have met Vim purists who tell me this is missing the point of Vim. If so, all the more reason to make the switch. But if verb-motion works better for you than selection-verb, by all means continue using Vim; it's a great editor.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

thomastjeffery 3y ago

It's worth getting a physical keyboard that's actually ergonomic, like a Keyboardio, ergodox, dactyl, or whatever. Just pick the one you are most excited about using. It's significantly less valuable, but still worth learning an alternative keyboard layout, though Dvorak specifically isn't nearly as good as modern alternative like Colemak or Workman. Vim is incredible for every reason except its keybinds. Technically, you can remap them, but that quickly devolves into dependency hell... learning to type using the Workman layout is why I'm an Emacs user today. One of these days I'll get around to making a truly configurable modular editor...that will most likely be an Emacs config.

colordrops 3y ago

I switched from a standard split ergo keyboard to a split orthographic with curved rows (Glove80 specifically). I'm still questioning my move. I was pretty damn fast with the standard split, and I'm still struggling with special characters on the Glove80. It feels like it's coming though, and at least it's fun. And perhaps it will reduce wrist and finger strain as I get older.