Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 183 posts

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#121

Post by kkarakk »

Pimpus wrote: post #47
xiii1408 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can type at 120 WPM, and it's not all that useful. I'd gladly halve my typing speed if it meant avoiding the occasional bout of RSI.

> RSI Read the Mind-Body Prescription, you might be surprised at what you learn. RSI is not something we should be afraid of in this day and age, with everything we know about the human organism.

>Mind-Body Prescription

In this acclaimed volume, Dr. Sarno reveals how many painful conditions-including most neck and back pain, migraine, repetitive stress injuries, whiplash, and tendonitises-are rooted in repressed emotions (book description from amazon)

Excuse me while i chuckle heartily

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#122

Post by tass »

audunw wrote: post #114

I've used Dvorak for 10 years or so. Dvorak has no benefits when it comes to speed. It's all about comfort, and there IS a very big difference. I use Qwerty too now and then, and you really feel your fingers darting all over the place to a much higher degree. I'm not sure I would recommend it unless you convert sometime during your high school or student years. I converted in the last year of high school. I have a co…

I learnt Dvorak well after school years. The hardest part was sticking to it during the first couple of weeks of horrible typing speeds.

I mainly use QWERTY now because it’s convenient, but can easily switch back and forth.

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#123

Post by kkarakk »

alexandernst wrote: post #9

I never really understood the obsession about WPM that some programmers have. You're a programmer, not a court reporter. You don't need +200 WPM. You need to think before/during/after writing each one of the characters you type. And more often than not, you actually spend +5min of 20 lines of code, so your +200 WPM ability doesn't matter at all.

linux torvalds doesn't touch type and richard stallman does. however they both use shortcuts heavily and have high APMs

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#124

Post by cray0000 »

For some reason noone mentioned the best Dvorak variation for programmers - Programmer Dvorak.

It has symbols instead of numbers. And it's just perfect for writing both code and regular text.

If you are a programmer and want to learn to touch type - that would be the best thing to learn.

https://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#126

Post by Fnoord »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #67
hopler wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Through my 20years of typing and texting with terrible posture and exercise habits, and bouts of debilitating RSI where I immobilized my arm, and experimenting with Dvorak, I found that the main way to reduce my RSI symptoms was to stop hanging out in areas where people talked about RSI. Even now, just getting into the thread makes my wrists tingle

Yeah, a lot of that seems to be anecdotal evidence. Similar to people claiming mechanical keyboards are better for your wrists, which I find very hard to believe, given how long is the key distance in such keyboards and how much pressure you need to press the keys in such.

> [...] given how long is the key distance in such keyboards and how much pressure you need to press the keys in such.

This very much depends per switch. For example, Cherry MX Red require far less pressure than Cherry MX Blue. There's also the issue of noise (which is annoying for other people, and allows for a TEMPEST attack).

Optical switches, such as the Wooting (2) require also less travel.

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#127

Post by ken »

coldtea wrote: post #15

It's not yes. It was non-scientifically created and self-promoted to hell from the inventor in the early 20th century, for commercial interests. And there are a lot of myths about Qwerty too: https://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html Not to mention that for programmers it's even more complicated. Most of our symbols we use most of the time (e.g. { } ; -, _) have nothing to do with DVORAK vs QWERTY, and the distri…

> Oh, and since this is not 1970 anymore, consider that computer users come from all other the world, and type in their native languages, where QWERTY vs DVORAK means even less.

How do you figure? Alternating vowels and consonants is fairly universal.

Re: I’ve used Dvorak for 10 years, and it’s not all that

#129

Post by nwah1 »

toyg wrote: post #66
lstamour wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve spent more years of my life now typing in Colemak than I ever did typing in QWERTY: I switched in about 2004 or so when I was touch-typing full sentences in the dark playing video games and my fingers started hurting even with a natural keyboard. After the switch, the hurt went away and hasn’t returned. I can still touch-type in QWERTY, but oddly enough it depends on the keyboard make and model and my familiarit…

Uhm, last I checked Colemak was available in Windows, but maybe I misremember...?

Yes, but you have to download it.
Post reply on HN