Qwerty

[metropolis]

hello,

i've been skeptical about the Qwerty layout and i didn't quite like it but i thought it was the only choice..
recently, i found out about other layouts.. Dvorak seems to be the next most popular choice and i believe it's very well thought out..

The problem with Dvorak is i have to re-learn the keyboard shortcuts.. so ctrl-Z for undo and ctrl-X for cut will be different now.. the Colemak layout seems to have a bit of both worlds.. so that got me confused

I would like to see people's opinions, especially those who switched from Qwerty.. was the other layout worth learning? did you notice improvements in the words/minute rate? how long did it take you to switch?

 

[Leftyretro]

hello,

i've been skeptical about the Qwerty layout and i didn't quite like it but i thought it was the only choice..
recently, i found out about other layouts.. Dvorak seems to be the next most popular choice and i believe it's very well thought out..

The problem with Dvorak is i have to re-learn the keyboard shortcuts.. so ctrl-Z for undo and ctrl-X for cut will be different now.. the Colemak layout seems to have a bit of both worlds.. so that got me confused

I would like to see people's opinions, especially those who switched from Qwerty.. was the other layout worth learning? did you notice improvements in the words/minute rate? how long did it take you to switch?

Well as you may know the origin of the standard keyboard layout dates back to the first original manual mechanical typewriters. They found that typist could type faster then the mechanical linkages could handle, resulting in the type face keys frequently jamming together. So they purposely laid out the keys on the keyboard in an attempt to help prevent jamming by slowing down the typist by making common keys further apart or reached from the same hand. This was soon no longer required when the typewriters became motor driven but by that time it was too late, the standard had been set and few wished to have to learn a new keyboard layout.

And that has always been the problem with the Dvorak keyboard layout. While it was designed to be more efficient, few wished to invest in the time and effort to learn it. I've never tried it but do recall a renewed interest in the Dvorak keyboard in the mid 80s, but it soon died off once again.

Lefty

 

[MrAl]

Hi there,


I couldnt help notice this thread as this subject came up a lot back in
the 80's. Since then, it seems that everyone has once again forgotten
about other keyboard styles so it's interesting to hear about this again.

So many people have become familiar with the Qwerty that it's hard to
get them to switch, even if it would be better, because it takes a while
to learn.
I had several advanced programmable calculators from TI that i used to use
a lot in the mid 90's, and they had a flat key layout like this:

ABCDE
FGHIJ
KLMNO
PQRST
UVWXYZ

or something similar, and i got used to it pretty fast and was typing out
variable names like VOLTAGE or something like that pretty fast, although
i did no timing tests to see how much faster or slower i could type
on a regular keyboard.

It would be interesting to try one of the new layouts for the PC, but
do they even sell them anymore? I never see any sold locally anymore
but then again i dont see lots of stuff sold locally around here anymore.

Another issue we have to consider is this:
If we buy a new keyboard with the 'improved' style and we constantly
use it at home or office and we get to learn it VERY well, when we go
over to someone else's house or office will we be able to use THEIR
computer very well if they only have the more common Qwerty?
I think that would be a problem.

 

[Hero999]

You can easily re-arrange the keys on a normal qwerty keyboard. I don't know about Windows but in Linux it's pretty easy to change the keyboard layout to whatever you want.

 

[metropolis]

Yeah..
and you really don't need to change your keyboard.. the purpose of the whole thing is to type faster and more efficient.. if you *look* at the keyboard, then it's not fast..

in fact, if you learn Dvorak on a Qwerty keyboard, it'll force you to not look at the keyboard and force you to learn..

i changed it on mac OSX from System Preferences > International > Input Menu..
the problem is they only have Dvorak there, no Colemak..

 

[Hero999]

I was talking about actually physically removing the keys and re-arranging them.

You can probably download it or you might be able to manually edit the configuration file.