Ask HN: Using alternative keyboard layouts? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Using alternative keyboard layouts?

#71

Post by lliiffee » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 1:31 PM UTC

silentbicycle wrote: post #65

lliiffee wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And quite a bit of evidence that suggests that the "myth" arguments are recycled propaganda from a guy in the early twentieth century who had an axe to grind. Really? Where? (I'm not being sarcastic-- you are being specific enough that you clearly have something specific in mind.)

I'm not the poster above, but the best-known example of propagandizing about them is a paper called "The Fable of the Keys" by Liebowitz and Margolis ( http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html ), which dragged the Qwerty vs. Dvorak issue into the middle of an academic holy war about the free market. Much of the resulting Qwerty vs. Dvorak arguments have really been about economics , not their actual merits as key…

Thanks. It was really that "guy in the early 20th century" part that was really confusing to me.

Anyway, I guess we agree. I find it plausible that Dvorak would be more efficient (I've even switched briefly before), but don't think there is any credible scientific evidence of it.

Re: Ask HN: Using alternative keyboard layouts?

#72

Post by throw_away » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 7:59 PM UTC

Hovertruck wrote: post #16

a-priori wrote: post #9

I have used Dvorak full-time for 5-6 years now. Back in high school, a friend of mine discovered Dvorak and a few of us switched cold-turkey; everyone else switched back within a week, but I'm still going! It took about two weeks for me to be comfortable with it. If you're like me, it's the punctuation that will screw you up the most when switching. I'm an Emacs user, but I learned Emacs after I learned Dvorak, so I…

Is it wrong that I use the arrow keys in Vim?

my philosophy is that arrow keys are only bad if you're using them while in insert mode. I find that this was added to appeal to novices, but in the long run, really interferes with learning to use the editor to its fullest.

Re: Ask HN: Using alternative keyboard layouts?

#73

Post by justinchen » Sat, Jan 10, 2009, 3:44 AM UTC

GreggW wrote: post #68

justinchen wrote: post #18

I haven't tried an alternative layout, but I do use a Kinesis countoured keyboard and that has made typing less painful for me. My hands rest very naturally on the keyboard and there's less distance to travel when tapping the keys. http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage_pro.htm

A warning: I switched immediately to a Kinesis keyboard after first getting wrist pains. But Kinesis keyboard uses the thumbs (much stronger digit, right?) to press the modifier keys usually pressed by the little fingers. Not a good move for me: despite eventually going off all keyboards and using voice dictation software, I have permanent damage in both hands and my thumbs are the first to start hurting. What I've b…

yeah, there's alot more emphasis on using the thumbs for the most repetitive motions. interesting idea to keep switching. I'll have to give that a try.