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0 pointsgrumpyprole4y ago0 comments

I don't think there is universal agreement for Dvorak being more ergonomic than Qwerty. Qwerty was designed to make key presses with alternative hands statistically likely (to benefit mechanical type writers). But this is also a good ergonomic property. For example, common English works like "the" can be typed with one hand with Dvorak, but this is not necessarily ergonomic. It causes one to contort the hand more than if "the" is typed with alternative hands.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

Symbiote4y ago· 3 in thread

This is completely wrong; I think you must be thinking of something other than Dvorak.

"The" requires both hands on Dvorak, and "th" is the easiest right-hand finger-roll¹, equivalent to "kj" on Qwerty. E is one of the strongest keys on the left hand.

On Qwerty, this extremely common English word requires moving the fingers away from the home position, and the T (second most frequent English letter) is one of the longer stretches.

Taking your most recent longer comment (Category Theory), typed on Qwerty there are 354 alternate-hand transitions. On Dvorak, there are 451.

With the simplest fragment, "there are even books about it", and the left hand shown in capital letters:

  Qwerty: ThERE ARE EVEn BookS ABouT It.
  Dvorak: thErE ArE EvEn bOOKs AbOUt It.

If you touch-type Qwerty, try typing "Kjdod aod d.dl nssv; ansfk gke".

¹ Like when drumming your fingers on the table.

grumpyproleOP4y ago

> This is completely wrong; I think you must be thinking of something other than Dvorak.

Yes, apologies, my example was wrong and I was probably confusing Dvorak with another layout. I would like to see some better statistics on hand alternation though, because qwerty is quite good at this (as Wikipedia states) and it would be interesting to see where it actually sits relative to the other layouts.

waynesonfire4y ago

it's not just left vs right hand. i don't mind using both hands. there are positions on the keyboard that are easier to access than others. for example, home row keys are the easiest to press while keys near the edges of the keyboard above and below the pinky are more difficult. as a dvorak typist for 20 years, it seems to me that dvorak maps frequently pressed keys and combinations of keys in zones that are easier to access compared to qwerty. over my lifetime, i'm certain this has paid dividends.

dvorak was optimized for comfort while qwerty was optimized for a mechanical device. dvorak is like shitting on a bidet and to me it's very strange that folks prefer to smear poop on themselves with paper.

grumpyproleOP4y ago

This is where the Kinesis contoured wells help. For example, typing T with qwerty on a Kinesis is no longer a "stretch".

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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4 comments · 1 top-level

Symbiote4y ago· 3 in thread

This is completely wrong; I think you must be thinking of something other than Dvorak.

"The" requires both hands on Dvorak, and "th" is the easiest right-hand finger-roll¹, equivalent to "kj" on Qwerty. E is one of the strongest keys on the left hand.

On Qwerty, this extremely common English word requires moving the fingers away from the home position, and the T (second most frequent English letter) is one of the longer stretches.

Taking your most recent longer comment (Category Theory), typed on Qwerty there are 354 alternate-hand transitions. On Dvorak, there are 451.

With the simplest fragment, "there are even books about it", and the left hand shown in capital letters:

  Qwerty: ThERE ARE EVEn BookS ABouT It.
  Dvorak: thErE ArE EvEn bOOKs AbOUt It.

If you touch-type Qwerty, try typing "Kjdod aod d.dl nssv; ansfk gke".

¹ Like when drumming your fingers on the table.

grumpyproleOP4y ago

> This is completely wrong; I think you must be thinking of something other than Dvorak.

waynesonfire4y ago

grumpyproleOP4y ago

This is where the Kinesis contoured wells help. For example, typing T with qwerty on a Kinesis is no longer a "stretch".

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse