An old article but still atleast introduced me to one really weird Keyboard layout
Charachorder makes the best keyboards on earth if you’re willing to learn something new
I taught myself Dvorak. Didn’t buy a new keyboard or anything, just practised a little every day in some app I installed on my computer.
Took me maybe a week before I switched to Dvorak full time, and maybe a week more before my writing was as fast as it had ever been on Qwerty. It’s absolutely worth making the change.
I did this at 12 years old back in the 90s. Never lost my ability to type qwerty, either. Completely worth it.
I never managed to touch type on qwerty, so I guess I had nothing to lose in that sense.
I made the change in my late 20s, just before I started writing my PhD thesis. I figured if I was going to do a lot of writing, I might as well make it as efficient as possible.
I’ve wanted to learn Colemak, but I would also need a swipe keyboard with predictions for Android.
Heliboard offers the option. The ideal layout for a small onscreen keyboard may be rather different from one for typing with all your fingers though.
True, but I think it would help to have both in the same layout.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Maybe. I use Dvorak for real keyboards and QWERTY on my phone. I tried Dvorak on my phone and didn’t see any benefit.
Hmm, maybe it doesn’t matter and is more like speaking different languages. Ten finger typing and swiping are different skills anyway.
With ten finger typing, having the most-used keys on the home row is a significant advantage for speed and ergonomics. With swiping, having a sequence of characters close to each other makes it hard for the algorithm to predict the intended word. With tapping, it’s a disadvantage to have adjacent characters in a sequence on a small touchscreen because it increases the chance of fat-fingering them.
I’ve wanted to learn Dvorak for years but the article hit on it: I’m not and never will be native to it since I already know QWERTY, so won’t ever net the sweetest efficiency gains.
Really, you’ll get proficient in no time. The trick is to go all in with touch typing, no hint and peck!
When I was in my late 20s I spent one low-activity work week transitioning to Dvorak. I have used it for 20+ years now (although it’s a bitch to get working on subpar OS’es).
You can maintain both skills, but I chose to let my qwerty skills fade - now I only use it on mobile (because, I loathe typing on glass and so swipe whenever I can - and swiping is hilariously useless with Dvorak because it’s so well laid out).
AnySoftKeyboard on Android has dvorak.
I get around OS support by having the keyboard itself output dvorak. I use an ergodox but any QMK or ZMK keyboard can do this.
That was a gamechanger from before with multiple language setups that was always a PITA.
QWERTY is one of the least efficient keyboard layouts. It was designed to intentionally slow down typing by spacing common letters far apart, to prevent typewriter keys from jamming. It’s really not great for modern electronic devices, but it’s so widespread that it’s very hard to change.
It was designed to intentionally slow down
This myth is one of my pet peeves. The rate of typing was not the cause of jamming.
The proximity of sequential typebars was the problem. Two adjacent typebars pressed simultaneously would jam at the very beginning of their stroke. To type adjacent keys, the first key would have to retract completely before the second key could start to be pressed. Otherwise, they struck eachother in flight.
Put 3 or 4 bars between sequential letters, and their “flight” paths only intersect at the very end of their strokes: you can start pressing the second key before the first has even hit the paper, because it will bounce out of the way before the second one gets close. QWERTY enabled good typists to have three or four typebars “in flight” simultaneously, greatly increasing their rate of typing.
QWERTY wasn’t designed to slow down typists. It enabled them to type much faster.
Your conclusions are correct, of course: It’s not great for modern devices where keystrokes don’t interfere with eachother. It’s just the oft-repeated “intentionally slow down typists” claim that drives me nuts.
Thanks for the correction! I’m glad to have learnt something new today.
