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From: caughey@active.UVic.CA (Dave  Caughey)
Subject: Dvorak and Alternate Keyboards
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.050822.8499@sol.UVic.CA>
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Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 91 05:08:22 GMT


Does anyone out there use the Dvorak keyboard?

I decided to switch to it last year partly because I wanted to
see if it was any good, and partly because it was... well...
different.

I used to type about 35-45 words per minute on the QWERTY
keyboard, and can do approximately the same on the Dvora (maybe
a few more wpm, but not many).  What I have found, however
is that typing is just easier.  Less mental effort is required
and my hands absolutely never get tired.  In fact, I can't stand
using a QWERTY keyboard anymore -- It's just too much work!

The toughest part was re-training my hands for all the editor
(in my case, vi) commands again ("hjkl" just aren't as intuitive
when they are located under "jcvp")

Has anyone else had good/bad experiences?  How long did it take
to be a "fluent" touch-typist?  Are you "bilingual"?

And has anyone ever heard of alternate *mechanical* designs and
layouts for a keyboard?


Regards

___________________________________________________________________________
Dave Caughey				Dept. of Elec. & Comp. Engineering
caughey@sirius.uvic.ca			P.O. Box 3055
                      			University of Victoria		  
"My karma ran over my dogma!"           Victoria, B.C., CANADA V8W 3P6