The Dvorak Zine - fun comic telling story of the Dvorak keyboard

[mouser]

The history of the bad Qwerty keyboard we all use today is wonderfully bizarre.  It makes for great dinner conversation and is sure to boggle the minds of small children.  Here's a fun comic about the more logical Dvorak keyboard which tells that history and how the Dvorak keyboard came about.

The Dvorak Zine is a 24 page zine that uses the power of Comics to promote Dvorak. It is broken down into three chapters: 1) The history of the typewriter and the development of the QWERTY keyboard; 2) An explanation of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout and its many benefits; and 3) Easy-to-follow steps for setting up Dvorak on your computer and tips on how to learn it!

http://www.dvzine.org/zine/01-toc.html

from http://www.boingboing.net/

[Deozaan]

I've been meaning to learn Dvorak for a couple years now. My friend did it, and my brother, too.

One thing that's nice, mentioned in the comic and reaffirmed by my brother, is that if other people try to use your computer, they have no idea how to type what they want. From a security standpoint it's nice.

A couple of problems though: Many keyboard shortcuts are based on QWERTY to be easily accessible with your finger lengths/positions. This is especially apparent in video games. Try navigating with WASD on Dvorak. Thankfully most games let you remap the keys, or, as the comic instructs, it can be very easy to switch between QWERTY and Dvorak.

My biggest concern is how it will affect my programming speed. Because you actually DO use the semicolon a lot while programming, and those other funky characters.

[tomos]

that's a really interesting one -
I've never learned how to type....

anyone know if there's versions for other language keyboards..**
anyone here using this?

** only an option for us keyboards... boooo

interesting though, they have a Dvorjak, PLUS left AND right-hand versions

[Renegade]

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

Nice going mouser! Draw all this attention to the poor guy, DDOS his site with visitors and soak up all his bandwidth.

Oh well... Let's hope he increases his limit. Heck. It's only the 11th of the month now and he's already over!

[jgpaiva]

Oh damn.. "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded"

[f0dder]

I've been thinking about learning DVORAK as well - not to increase typing speed (it's quite sufficient ), but to have less strain... but programming is one of my concerns too, I recall looking at the dvorak keymap and thinking the programming chars weren't laid out nicely.

[Lashiec]

Deozaan's question reminded me of this blog post by a Microsoft employee (the manager of the team behind the Ribbon in Office 2007)

Oh, I wanted to read the comic , even if I know the story behind QWERTY's rise to power , a teacher told us about it a few weeks ago.

[f0dder]

The story of QWERTY is so damn sad

[Deozaan]

Maybe this will help.

[tomos]

here's another one I came across in the comments (Lashiec's link)

Colemak

Colemak is a modern alternative to the QWERTY and Dvorak layouts. It is designed for efficient and ergonomic touch typing in English. ... Colemak is now the 3rd most popular keyboard layout for touch typing in English, after QWERTY and Dvorak.

What's wrong with the Dvorak layout?     * The main problem with Dvorak is that it's too difficult and frustrating to learn for existing QWERTY typists because it's so different from QWERTY. Colemak has been designed to be easy to learn.     * Placing 'L' on the QWERTY 'P' position causes excessive strain on the right pinky. Colemak doesn't place frequent letters where the pinkies stretch.     * 'F' is on the QWERTY 'Y' position which is a difficult stretch on normal keyboards.     * 'I' is very frequent but isn't on the home position.     * 'R' is very frequent but isn't on the home row.     * It is significantly lopsided so that the right hand does too much work.     * It's not comfortable to use Ctrl-Z/X/C/V shortcuts with the left hand while holding the mouse with the right hand. Colemak conserves those shortcuts in their QWERTY positions.     * Even though the design principles are sound, the implementation isn't optimal because it was designed without the aid of computers.     * 'L' and 'S' form a frequent same-finger digraph on the right pinky. Same-finger for the pinky is very rare in Colemak. In particular, Unix commands such as 'ls -l' are very uncomfortable to type.     * Some punctuation (in particular the curly/square brackets) is less comfortable to type on Dvorak. This affects mainly programmers and advanced Unix users.

-
notice anything odd?
No CAPS LOCK not sure why.. but they talk about it here:
http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=34

[wr975]

The comic is fun. Is it supposed to be a parody of a Chick Comic, or do they really want to  convert people using Dvorak?

I'm no friend of Dvorak, just like I'm no friend of trackball or betamax. Taken from a German study for ergonomic typing: There's no proof you type faster/more accurate using Dvorak. Numerous studies (DVORAK, 1943; BAST, 1958; BROWN et al., 1966; KLEMMER, 1971; MARTIN, 1972; ALDEN et al., 1972; KINKEAD, 1976; GAKIR, 1980) came up with minor or no difference in typing speed.

Also, Dvorak is optimized for English language. To overcome the illness of QWERTY in other languages, the keys need to be rearranged. It would be better to use a different keyboard layout, like Meier or Marsan, which is optimized for English/Spanish/German/French.

Anyway, too complicated... I stick with QUERTY/Z on an ergonomic keyboard.  In some years we'll all use computers the way Johnny Mnemonic did and won't need keyboards anymore.   

[jgpaiva]

This post was written in dvorak! although it is fun and it is true that it causes less strain in the fingers, it breaks almost every shortcut my computer has!
Also, its interesting as the "unlock computer" dialog doesnt respect the current kepboard setting.

[international US mode]
Actually, this gave me some ideas.. I think i'll start using international US keyboard, before my hands die on me.

Still, it was a good experiment. If i worked in the typing business, i'd definitelly use dvorak, but the fact that it breaks all known shortcuts is a no-go.

[tomos]

There's no proof you type faster/more accurate using Dvorak.

I think the main idea is it's easier on your hands..

In some years we'll all use computers the way Johnny Mnemonic did and won't need keyboards anymore.

soon as i saw it i thought of Neuromancer by the same author which i read in late eighties (hadnt read the Johnny Mnemonic one or seen the film..) - the internet has never lived up to it!

[tomos]

it breaks almost every shortcut my computer has!

using english software on a german keyboard:
Z and Y are interchanged. Now that's a pain where you cant change shortcuts
When I've time I plan to check out the Colemak one more -
they have international versions as well

EDIT: no they dont:

Will there be versions of Colemak optimized for other languages? I won't have time in the near future to work on that.

http://colemak.com/FAQ

[JennyB]

notice anything odd?
No CAPS LOCK not sure why.. but they talk about it here:
http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=34

I'm using Dvorak so I don't want to change layout again, but I'm almost convinced about making Caps Lock a backspace. Is it possible to do that without affecting the rest of the keyboard?

The main problem I have with Dvorak, apart from broken shortcuts, is mixing up ' and , .

[f0dder]

I'm using Dvorak so I don't want to change layout again, but I'm almost convinced about making Caps Lock a backspace. Is it possible to do that without affecting the rest of the keyboard?

Should be, on win2k and onwards the keyboard can be reprogrammed at pretty low level just by changing a registry key - I'm pretty sure somebody posted a tool here on DC for easily changing the mappings.

[tomos]

I'm almost convinced about making Caps Lock a backspace. Is it possible to do that without affecting the rest of the keyboard?

AutoHotKey!
I changed app key to Ctrl key once but never got any further with it
but I'm sure someone here might be able to help - would be a good way of just trying it out as well

Heres a search for "That Pesky CapsLock Key" looks like a few good possibilities there
http://www.google.de/search?q=That+Pesky+CapsLock+Key&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

and it's true f0dder, there was a thread here lately about changing keys had a quick look but no find

[f0dder]

I'd rather use the 2k built-in than autohotkey for this... doesn't require something continously running etc.

[JennyB]

I'm almost convinced about making Caps Lock a backspace. Is it possible to do that without affecting the rest of the keyboard?

AutoHotKey!

Apparently not. The Colemak download has an AutoHotKey implementation for portable use, but that doesn't reassign the Caps Lock Key.

and it's true f0dder, there was a thread here lately about changing keys had a quick look but no find

Is it this one?   http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=9930.0

Another nice XP tip I picked up today - If you have two input languages installed (you don't have to use them both) you get a "Key Settings" option that allows you to turn off Caps Lock with the Shift key. At least that way you never get iNVERTED cASE 

[tomos]

AutoHotKey!

Apparently not.

maybe it's cause it's a "toggle-ing" key?

you get a "Key Settings" option that allows you to turn off Caps Lock with the Shift key.

wheres that option Jenny?  Ah, just found it in Language options - Super!

[f0dder]

Yep, JennyB, it was SharpKeys I was thinking of