S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis, in the article you referenced spent a lot of time trying to support the old QWERTY keyboard. When the Navy had overhauled typewriters to work as Dvorak keyboards, the authors wanted to know if the Navy had overhauled the QWERTY typewriters as well. Just a stab in the dark, but I would say, no. Why would they, QWERTY typewriters were and are readily available, Dvorak keyboards on typewriters were virtually non-existent in 1943. (I suspect you would be hard pressed to find a Dvorak keyboard on a typewriter even today). After 50+ years of manufacturing typewriters with a keyboard, (when the Dvorak keyboard was first introduced), why would Remington or any other typewriter manufacturer want to change the layout of the keys? The cost of changing the production line would have precluded the change, let alone the cost of retrofitting all of the existing typewriters. The old adage of letting sleeping dogs lie definitely applies here.
Let us look at a few facts; the Sholes keyboard for the most common used words and letters the left hand does 55% of the work. More people are right-handed than left-handed. Using the same criteria, (common used words and letters), with the Dvorak keyboard the right hand does 54% of the work. So why do we still have the QWERTY keyboard? Think about it. In 1981 when home/office computers were being introduced, who was one of the largest contenders of these computers, IBM. What was one of the products offered by IBM at that time? The IBM Selectric Typewriter. Why would IBM change the layout? It would conflict with an existing product.
I found another article http://www.visi.com/~pmk/evolved.html where the author has done some research on Dvorak vs. Sholes vs. an evolved layout. He shows some interesting results. S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis will be happy to see that instead of using humans where the results can be tainted, the author has used a computer to test the various layouts, and has refined the testing criteria to be fair across the board.
Dvorak may not be the answer, but it does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that there has to be something better than a QWERTY keyboard.
Link to Cecil’s article referenced:
Was the QWERTY keyboard purposely designed to slow typists?
In response to the question, ‘Was the QWERTY keyboard purposely designed to slow typists?’, my guess would be no. My reasoning behind this is that the QWERTY (Sholes) keyboard was the results of trial and error. If you look at the manner in which the numbers are layed out, 1 – 0, it is done in a very logical order, (in the 1870’s people thought like people not computers and numbering systems went from 1 to 10 (0) since most of us think in base 10. Today since our thinking is influenced by computers, often times numbering systems go from 0 – 9.) Using that as the basic asumption then the first keyboard was also layed out in a logical fashion i.e., A – Z, followed by the punctuation marks, in no particular order. The problems that were encountered were if two keys were typed in quick succession and came from opposite sides of the center, the possibility existed that these two keys could and would jam in the center. A good example of two keys that are often typed in close succession are the letters T and H (the, these, than, this, and so on). If you look at the mechanics of a mechanical typewriter, the keys on the left of the keyboard move arms on the left of the carriage and ones on the right move arms on the right side of the carriage, but all of the keys strike in one place, the center of the typewriter, (the carriage moves from left to right so there is always a blank space where the keys strike). The point being, these keys all strike at the same point, which leads to the possibility of jamming. Sholes and Dvorak each had a great deal of patience to determine what to place where to end up with the least likelihood of jamming. The fact that both designs were done without the aid of computers and are completely different is amazing. The result of these trial and error patterns (layouts) is they are slower than if the keyboard had been designed A – Z , etc. One point of interest at least to me, why do we not change keyboards to an A – Z format? Children are often exposed to keyboards before they know the alphabet, no wonder they are confused when they start learning the alphabet, if they pay any attention at all, they would think the alphabet read ‘QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM’.
The second question which is only implied and not stated is, ‘Why do we have the stupid QWERTY keyboard?’ The answer is simple. We live in the United States. We are too egotistical, arrogant or lazy (take your pick) to change. We could enact laws to entice the people to change and it would not happen. Case in point, in 1975 Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/misc/usmetric/metric.htm . We ignored it. What are they going to do, arrest me for using a yard stick instead of a meter stick? Even though the metric system makes much more sense, (it is based on the base 10 system), the people of the United States would rather remember there are 12 inches in a foot and 3 feet to a yard and 5280 feet or 1760 yards in a mile than 1000 millimeters in a meter, 100 centimeters in a meter, 1000 meters in a Kilometer. So I guess that eliminates lazy, because it is much easier to know multiples of 10 rather than 12, 3, 5280, 1760 and what the hell is an acre? If you are doing roofing, a roofer will tell you you need X number of square to do your roof. He cannot tell you what a square is though.
I believe this is the closest Cecil’s ever come to admitting to being wrong. :eek:
I meant to provide a quote with my last post:
Happy
Randy Cassingham, of This Is True fame, responds to the anti-Dvorak crusaders (his words).
Too bad you don’t know that one is supposed to ACTUALLY READ what one cites. NOTHING AT ALL in that act required the use of the metric system. It only legally “encouraged” it.
Amazingly, a “square” in roofing terms is vaguely metric. It’s 10x10 feet, or 100 square feet as installed. (Roughly 50-60% of each shingle is under another shingle.)
And your roofer can very accurately tell what a square is - $175 if you can wait three weeks, or $220 per if you need it done before it’s forecast to rain this weekend. :eek:
The metric system was devised in the late 1800’s by the French and Americans, in an effort to use a more advanced system than the old monarchy-based systems. It is ironic that America would be the last country, (besides Liberia), to cling on to the old system. Actually, from what I understand, there are laws on the books that are only just now being relaxed which required manufacturers to put “imperial” measurements on packaging.
I have Dvorak keyboard in front of me as I type this. I’m just starting to try it out and it is very noticably faster and easier on my carpal-tunnel. My hands don’t have to jump all over the board and words just come out much easier. I did research on the subject and found that most people that spend the time to learn it can now type around 50% faster. Sadly, it is nearly extinct. It took me a lot of searching to find a keyboard company that still made one, (and it is switchable to QWERTY), but that company stopped making them too.
Any keyboard can be converted to Dvorak or any other keyboard layout. All you need is patience, a keycap puller (bent paper clip), and a keyboard layout file for your OS. I’ve thought about going Dvorak on and off for years. I might get around to it some day.
My friend did that. The result was not attractive. On his keyboard, and I think probably most, the tops of keys in different rows have different slopes, so when you reposition them to Dvorak, you get an uneven “skyline” of keys in your three main rows.
I think it would be a better solution to paint the Dvorak letters in blue or something on the keys, next to the QWERTY letters. I myself use one that comes like this professionally (and I see they’ve come down in price since I got mine).
However, I think an even better solution is not to relabel your keys at all. Maybe keep a card handy for reference while you’re learning. This forces you to learn to touch-type, which is the whole point anyway. That’s how I learned. Anyway, after two or three days you have the layout memorized, and it’s just a matter of building up your speed from 5 WPM to 50.
I’ve used Dvorak primarily for the past five years. Aside from the benefits listed so far are bragging rights. 
Not to mention that it makes a pretty good security device, since most other typists only know QWERTY.
Yo,
I’ve been typing Dvorak for about 7 years now, and have never looked back, except when on vacation (like I am at the memnt). and I have to resort to looking at the keys again on a standard qwerty keyboard. Blame all typos on that
I’ve looked at many studies ostensibly comparing keyboard layouts, including Dvorak, qwerty, something called the malthus (or something similar), and some one-handed jobbies.
What I found is that nobody doing this kind of study is unbiased-- it’s usually keyboartd and old typewriting compnaies holding contests, trying to improve sales, so and so forth. Until some Masters student with a penchant for the inane gets some funding, we’ll never get a concrete study on the matter.
Anecdotally, I can tell you that when I typed exclusively in qwerty, I had far more wrist and RSI type problems that I have now, typing in Dvorak. Speed-wise, I’m slightly faster in Dv, although I know people in Qw who are much faster than I am.
Dv does inded bring the right hand into play more often than using Qw does, and you actually do alternate both hands. I found in Qw that I was using my left hand much more often, which contributed to my wristful woes.
As for actually buying a Dv keyboard, I’ve never seen the need: I learned by swapping drivers and applying masking tape to the keys, and now have my Mac set up so that I can switch by hitting three keys. At work I convinced teh Techs to set up my login profile with a Dv keyboard driver at three different machines, so I’ve got no problems there.
Although when other people sit at my desk, they immediately bitch that my keyboard’s broken
I do have a pal with a DV keyboard. He loves it.
Just so people know, a proficiency at Dvorak does not necessarily cause a drop in skill at QWERTY. I’m still as fast on QWERTY as I ever was. If you’re worried about losing your QWERTY ability, I think a few minutes a week practicing it should be enough to maintain it.
We used to have an old manual typewriter (well, electric, but with the swing arms and ribbon, not rolling disk). When I was little I had fun trying to make it jam. Hitting multiple keys simultaneously was the key. Even two from the same side could get crossed. Think about it, each is following a different arc to an overlapping point.
If you can live without a “Windows” key, get yourself an old IBM (Lexmark) PS/2 keyboard. The keycaps are two parts; you can remove the top part (the label) without removing the actual key; since the slope is built into the bottom part, the rows remain even when you swap the keycaps. On top of that, it’s probably the most solidly-built PC keyboard ever made (my opinion), and I find I can type faster on old PS/2 keyboards (still Sholes, although I’ve set up one with a Dvorak layout) than any other.
I want a DVORAK keyboard. Is there any way to get one, other than pulling off all your keys and arranging them in the DVORAK format and then telling M$ that you have a DVORAK keyboard?
These instructions might help.