QWERTY. Jealous?
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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Programmers Dvorak
ANSI QWERTY TKL. Despite living in Germany, where we usually use ISO. I got used to it when I spent a year in the states and realized how useful it is for writing code. Now I have the differences to the German layout memorized pretty well so I just switch in software whenever I need German characters like ä or ß.
I've been using Dvorak since the late 90's. When I type on a qwerty keyboard, it feels like my fingers have to fly all over the place to hit all the keys.
With that said, Dvorak has a few gremlins. The most annoying are the y/f keys where I have to shift my hands slightly to hit those keys. The copy/paste ctrl-c and ctrl-v keyboard shortcuts are also a lot less convenient but I just deal with it. It's also annoying having to rebind keys in pretty much every keyboard-heavy game.
I've never really thought of Colemak as a big enough improvement over Dvorak to relearn how to type on that layout, though if you're looking to switch from qwerty it may be worth considering. The Workman layout seems interesting.
The copy/paste ctrl-c and ctrl-v keyboard shortcuts are also a lot less convenient but I just deal with it.
Thankfully, these were only shifted one to the right in Workman.
It’s also annoying having to rebind keys in pretty much every keyboard-heavy game.
Yeah I've gotten used to that. I sometimes will do a software switch in the OS back to QWERTY if I'm playing games (my layout is determined by the OS setting rather than hardware) so that I don't have to rebind, but it doesn't always seem to work. At the very least, I don't think you can do a layout switch while the game is running. Some games also appear to intercept raw keyboard codes rather than what's being sent by the OS so they ignore the software keyboard layout anyways.
ANSI QWERTY.
It's the standard layout in my part of the world, and my ability to walk up to any PC in the land and comfortably type outweigh any advantages other layouts would have.
I live in a qwertz ISO layout country, but I use qwerty ANSI layout keyboards because I find that text editing is better with them. Makes finding a laptop pretty hard though.
If you have the layout memorized, then what's physically shown on the keys doesn't really matter — usually switching the keyboard layout in the OS is pretty easy.
I got lucky that an american friend who brought a Thinkpad from the states gifted that to me. But in general it's not a bad option to buy used thinkpads and just replacing the keyboard. Still a bit more expensive than if that was a common option, though, of course.
Dvorak since Dec 2010. Between semesters, I was just checking it out, not planning to stick with it at all. But, I really liked it, so I spent the rest of the semester break learning Dvorak and never looked back.
I met another dvorak user at work. I made a git commit that was meant to eventually be squashed with the message aoeu, which apparently gave me away. My coworker then asked me if I typed in Dvorak; not immediately recalling the commit message, I was quite astonished; how tf did you know that? Turns out, he typed in Dvorak too.
Dvorak exclusively. This thread is the most I've heard of other people using it. To date, I've met 2 people who have HEARD of it, but no one else who uses it
Pet theory: most Dvorak users were, in their pre-enlightenment lives, messy freestyle 3-finger typists. If you ever went to the trouble of formally learning to touch-type Qwerty, moving to another layout just seems impossibly foreboding. No way.
You're absolutely right in my case. I somehow got really fast at three finger hunt and peck, and could do it without looking. But, my form was all over the place and the amount of wrist movement was causing me major wrist issues. I knew I could never unlearn my terrible qwerty technique, but I needed to learn proper touch typing, so I learned Dvorak
Interesting. Apart from the wrist issue, the strain of constantly moving one's eyes from keyboard to screen and back is really underestimated IMO. To be able to keep your eyes fixed on one place while typing is a serious luxury. I sometimes think that learning to touch-type when I was 17 was the single most useful thing I have ever done. It took a week. And then, as I remember, just a few months to overtake my former typing speed.
Pet theory: most Dvorak users were, in their pre-enlightenment lives, messy freestyle 3-finger typists.
Given that Dvorak tries to maximize alternating hands when typing consecutive characters [1], that theory definitely feels plausible given that the "hunt-and-peck" style for typing naturally seems to work with alternating hands. I think the same idea could also be applied to mobile typing as you only have two thumbs — perhaps Dvorak would lend itself well to mobile typing?
References
- "Dvorak keyboard layout". Wikipedia. Accessed: 2024-08-10T23:00Z. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout#Overview
Letters should be typed by alternating between hands (which makes typing more rhythmic, increases speed, reduces error, and reduces fatigue).
If you ever went to the trouble of formally learning to touch-type Qwerty, moving to another layout just seems impossibly foreboding.
It's not that bad. By my experience, having gone from QWERTY to Dvorak to Colemak to Workman, it takes maybe an hour to memorize the keys, then it's just a matter of practicing by using it. You will progressively get faster and faster as it becomes second nature. To get to full typing speed and for it to feel completely natural, however, it will likely take a month, depending on how often and how much one types.
Something interesting that I noticed, though, is that it seems that the brain is only to be able to know one keyboard layout well at a time. If I learn a new layout, I don't maintain my skill with the previous layout minus the skill lost due to lack of practice. It almost feels entirely zero-sum. As I gain skill in one keyboard layout, I seem to equally lose skill in the previously known keyboard layout. I do try and maintain some level of proficiency with QWERTY, given that it is still the standard and is the most common, but it takes considerably more effort. It seems to be less acquiring a new skill and more rewiring the brain.
I use semimak mainly but use qwerty often and I feel like there's no problem with using both at all. This is just my experience though. When I first learned Dvorak and dropped qwerty I completely lost qwerty but it came back really easily later when I started using it more
You become multilingual. It doesn't transfer the same way you think. I type dvorak at home, qwerty at work, and qwerty on mobile. My brain somehow knows when to switch. The most common slip up I run into is that my brain gets confused with a laptop and sometimes I mix the two.
I use the Swedish layout.
Fun fact, if you are lazy when setting up a new computer with a Swedish keyboard, you can just pick the Finnish layout instead, they are identical and you won't need to scroll as far down.
As for the physical keyboard I use, I currently use a Ducky One 2 Skyline keybord with the absolutely gorgeous Trailblazer keycap set:
https://www.alohakb.com/en-se/products/alohakb-trailblazer-cherry-profile-keycaps
It is my first custom keycap set I have bought, and damn, it is just fantastic.
QWERTY, English UK.
My country is filled with AZERTY keyboards though. No, it's not France.
I use a modified Dvorak on the ZSA Moonlander mark l
QWERTY, ЙЦУКЕН, and Danish. The Danish one is the most idiotic. For example:
- The brackets are almost at the same place, but they are moved one ley to the side - it's pure fucking evil!
- To type "@", you need AltGr, and that's the only case where it's used
I now just use EurKey (Qwerty) with a very nice Alice (Arisu) keyboard. If that was all I was using I would probably try the eurkey variant of Colemak(-DH) at some point.
My keyboard lays out flat on my desk. I don't unfold the little legs underneath.
As nature intended.
Savage
Bepo
Dvorak to touch-type but qwerty on my phone's virtual keyboard.
Dvorak for over thirty years; always used swipe typing with QWERTY on mobile devices
QWERTY.
I tried Dvorak when I started having RSI issues, but found no improvement after a year, so I switched back. Others clearly have different experiences. 🤷♂️
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