Hey, I'm wondering how many of you are using a Dvorak keyboard layout? How long did it take you to master it?
I have seen these only on the internet. I type quite fast without one so I wonder who really uses them anymore? Secretaries? If you need to type really fast then you switch to using shorthand.
Basically, the keyboard layouts (qwerty for English) have been designed when typewriters were too slow to handle fast typing. The first idea was to directly display the alphabet (abcde) but people were too fast with it, so the layouts have been designed as anti-ergonomic as possible by putting the letters that are most often following each others in a given language as far as possible. Dvorak designed an ergonomic layout based on the opposite principles. With his layout, you nearly don't have to move your hands at all. As there's a specific layout for each language, you have a specific Dvorak layout as well. But when we moved from mechanical typewriters to electric ones, then to computers, we reused the same keyboards as legions of secretaries and workers have been trained to type on them. This is an example of a technical limitation passed on over and over even if the limitation does not exist anymore. Check it on Wikipedia
It's unclear whether dvorak increases speed of typing but it is clear it increases comfort. I've attempted to switch to Dvorak but, since I'm far too busy and can't slow myself down, I don't have the time to completely switch over. Otherwise, I'd do it in a heartbeat. There is another layout called Cermak, or something like that. It's supposedly a somewhat improved Dvorak that a lot of people have taken a liking to.
It just wouldn't be worth learning where everything is for me now and if I went somewhere else where QWERTY is sued, i'd get confused!