Sunday, May 20, 2007

Dvorak, Yay or Nay?

Sadly, for me, Nay. I used Dvorak for 4.5 months. The first month was difficult, I even got headaches from practicing. It's particularly difficult to learn Dvorak for someone who already types well with Qwerty. I learned to type very young, so Qwerty is pretty well ingrained in my subconscious. I touch type in Qwerty at 65-80wpm, depending on the content. After 1 month, I was typing in Dvorak at 50wpm, a respectable speed. After 4 months, I was back up to my old speed of 65-80wpm, and I may get faster. So what's the problem?

The main drawback is portability. I work in a lab, with 6 other people working on the same machines, I also use campus labs, as well as work on other people's personal machines. It's relatively easy to switch the keyboard layout in XP and Linux, but those few moments, switching it every time I open a new program, add up to quite an annoyance, particularly for short term use.

I've heard some people can switch from Qwerty to Dvorak and back seamlessly. I don't seem to be one of those people. Though, when I made the choice to switch back to Qwerty it took about 1 working day to regain full speed. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience. But until my home profile follows me around automatically, I think I'll stick with Qwerty.

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