Doing some research on Dvorak vs Qwerty keyboard. Does anyone have any experience with both?
I'm interested in gaining insight into the learning curve of Dvorak and its effectiveness with programming.
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I do. Within a week, i was typing faster than i ever did in Qwerty. The trick to learning it quickly is to print out the layout, tape it on top of your monitor, and don't look at your keyboard. Once you learn it, you can throw away your printout. I've now been using Dvorak exclusively for almost 30 years. No you don't need a special keyboard, and I've never bought a dvorak keyboard, ever. It's easier on your wrists, and it's much faster since your fingers don't have to move much. When moving to other computers, I've become an expert on temporarily changing keyboard settings. If not, i just look at the Qwerty keys. Going to dvorak has been the best decision I've ever made. I'm a software developer and i love the way the keyboard almost feels like an extension of my brain due to the speed. Good luck!
I use the TypeMatrix 2030 Qwerty. It has a strange 'ortholinear' layout and it can be switched to Dvorak. I only use Qwerty. But what I want to share is that after typing on it for a couple years, while I can switch back to a normal keyboard, it's very awkward. So I would think twice before Dvorak, in that if you don't have your preferred development environment at your fingertips, it will be quite difficult to use someone else's qwerty layout if you need to. This doesn't answer your question, but hopefully adds a useful consideration regarding the mental overhead required to switch back after acclimatizing to the new system.
Easiest way to start is with typing.com. You will get up to speed really quickly. Especially if you jump to intermediate step, to the first chapter. Typing out short words works really well for me.
After that you will find out for yourself if it's worth to learn Dvorak.
One more thing, for me it's about being as effective as possible.
You can do so much with just home row that's exciting.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing that resource - I'll be sure to check it out
I tried switching to Dvorak in college. I gave up when I stayed up late trying to write a ten page paper due the next day.
I'm not convinced it offers any real advantage to programming. I recommend trying to use it for writing English first then trying it with programming.
One thing that's worth noting: OSX actually does a great job with their Dvorak configuration. They have a setting called "Dvorak - QWERTY CMD." It switches back to QWERTY whenever you hold down the CMD key. This saves so much time by not making you re-remember keyboard shortcuts! It's not fun remapping all your memory for QUIT, SELECT ALL, COPY, CUT, PASTE, SAVE just to use Dvorak. They really nailed that feature.
I have no experience with dvorak, but I use "Neo Layout 2" since 2010, which is a bit similar. It's optimized for the german language, but it's also awesome for coding.
My personal tip for learning a new layout is to first learn the basic structure and then switch permanently. You will be slow at first, but take your time. Just a couple of days and you are back to your old speed.
I tried to give it a try but never really had a keyboard with keys I could rearrange accordingly, so it'd be easier to glance at keys while learning. I'm still interested in trying to learn it though.
I have never used dvorak. Only real encounter with it was when a friend in college tried to learn it but ultimately gave up.
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