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From: john@nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Optimal keyboards
Summary: The Dvorak keyboard is a real winner
Message-ID: <1990Aug25.015334.16702@nmt.edu>
Date: 25 Aug 90 01:53:34 GMT
References: <24190@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 60

Carl Turner (turner@webb.psych.ufl.edu) writes:
+--
| PROs:  *  An optimal keyboard exists--the Dvorak keyboard, named after
|           its designer, August Dvorak.
|        *  It's currently implemented in hardware on Apple //c and 
|           available as a keymap on other machines: amiga, maybe IBM's.
+--
I will take some credit for the availability of the Dvorak keyboard
on the //c.  I've been using this keyboard for some time, and I
tend to rant about it with little provocation.  One day I was ranting
about it to my friend Tom Root, who just happened to be working on
the operating system for the //c.

+--
| CONs:  *  No one would use it.
|        *  Switching from QWERTY to an optimal keyboard would  be 
|           difficult especially for people who use many kinds of 
|           equipment: they would have to wait until ALL the machines and
|           keyboards are reconfigured.
+--
I don't know how many people use the Dvorak arrangement, but *I*
use it, and I'll continue to use it because it makes typing much
faster and less error-prone.  I also disagree with the second
point, as I constantly use QWERTY keyboards as well, and I still
retain a reasonable amount of touch-typing speed on them as well.

I have three Heath H19's with remapped keyboard encoder ROMs,
and also an aftermarket Dvorak keyboard for my PC-XT.  If I
ever get a workstation, a little tinkering with the /dev/kbd
driver will take care of remapping that too.  I am a contractor
and have to use customer equipment a lot.  I do about 35-40 wpm
on the QWERTY keyboard and 70-80 wpm on Dvorak, touch typing
in both systems.  I don't believe that learning an improved
system will decrease one's speed in the inferior system.

The QWERTY keyboard layout is WORSE THAN RANDOM.  Scholes, the
inventor of that keyboard, was a lousy mechanical engineer, so
he ANTI-ENGINEERED his keyboard to compensate for problems in
his typewriter.  I would be happy to correspond with anyone
who wants to find out more about the incredible story of
these two keyboards.

Here is the Dvorak keyboard layout I have been using.  This
layout replaces a 10 x 3 rectangular area of the normal
keyboard bounded by the Q, P, Z, and / (slash) keys of the
QWERTY layout:

     left hand    |    right hand               

?   <   >   P   Y | F   G   C   R   L
/   ,   .   p   y | f   g   c   r   l

 A   O   E   U   I | D   H   T   N   S
 a   o   e   u   i | d   h   t   n   s   <--home row

  :   Q   J   K   X | B   M   W   V   Z
  ;   q   j   k   x | b   m   w   v   z
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber