Hi all, The article Sridhar cited says, "Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as 'TH' and make sure their typebars hung at safe [mechanical] distances." That is, he didn't rearrange the letters to slow people down, he did it to lessen the mechanical problems associated with the previous layout. But put another way, he did it for the benefit of the machine rather than the benefit of the typist. And that's really the bottom line.
As a seven-year Dvorak typist, let me offer my opinions up front: 1) The Dvorak keybord is superior. 2) Qwerty typists should continue using qwerty. 3) Children should be taught Dvorak. 1) Winter 1993, Dr. Scot Ober performed a study called "Relative Efficiencies of the Standard and Dvorak Simplified Keyboards". The study was extensive, and here are some of his conclusions: In QWERTY, 31% of typing is done on the home row. In Dvorak, 70%. In addition, The Dvorak layout has 35% more right-hand reaches, 63% more same-row reaches, 45% more alternate-hand reaches, and 37% less finger travel than the QWERTY layout. It offers a right-hand, left-hand, right-hand typing pattern. There are only a few words that require one-hand typing with the Dvorak layout. There are thousands of words in QWERTY that require one-hand typing. Here's my experience, aside from these things I just quoted you: it's less work on the hands; the work is more evenly divided between the two hands; the extra reaching favors the right hand. It's more comfortable. 2) During my seven years, I've had only a few people ask me if they should switch to Dvorak. I invariabley say, No. If your typing skills ain't broke, then don't fix 'em. The transition can be difficult, and any increase in speed will be negligable (if it improves at all). However... 3) There is absolutely NO reason for children to learn an inferior layout. The only reason children learn it is because it's handed down by blind tradition. Few people consider that there's anything better than qwerty, and if they discover Dvorak they consider it too different, or too much work to implement. They stick with what is comfortable, even if it's worse. It's the SAME mentality that us Linux advocates face day in and day out. Ironically, "monopoly" is one of the words that must be typed with a single hand on the qwerty keyboard. Miark
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