[Groop] Keyboarding...Dvorak?

[Vaughn H. Seward]

A few years back I kept hearing of the benefits of the Dvorak keyword 
layout. It provides for less awkward finger movements. It is claimed that 
you can type faster and longer without as much stress to your fingers and 
wrists. The design of the early typewriters was such that they had trouble 
with keys sticking at faster typing speeds. To get around this the keyboard 
was deliberately laid out to slow typists down (and thus the QWERTY 
layout). So today we are using a legacy keyboard design explicitly 
engineered to be slow and awkward.

Anyhow, I had a 2 week vacation in 2001 and decided to become a Dvorkee (on 
Windows computers it is built-in, you just change your regional settings). 
It wasn't easy but after a few of months I was pretty much as fast as I was 
before. The only trouble now is when I use someone else's keyboard (which 
is rare) it is very slow going. However, the awkwardness of QWERTY is very 
apparent. Here is a web page describing my experiences in more detail:

http://members.shaw.ca/vseward/dvorak.html

Perhaps if the world had been using a layout like Dvorak there would be 
less incidents of carpal tunnel.

~Vaughn Seward

At 2004/10/19 16:02, you wrote:
>
>Hey Mark!  Sorry to hear about your wrist.  That's the only advantage to 
>typing like I do-with two fingers and wrists in a natural position.  Of 
>course, I have to look at the keyboard and my speed tops out at about 30 
>words per minute (usually much slower).  And while some of my compatriots 
>might eventually get an Industrial Insurance claim for carpal tunnel, I 
>figure the most I could get for wearing out the top joint of each index 
>finger is a couple of two-for-one Starbucks certificates and the nickname 
>"stubby."
>
>More dated replies to come.  (I wonder what all those messages titled 
>"miniatures" are about?)
>
>Take care -Gary G.
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