Simon Willison’s Weblog

What a coincidence! Gdansk is my hometown :) I'm glad that you liked it.

Paul Goscicki - 7th September 2005 20:42 - #

I can’t believe you were coming to Poland and didn’t blog about it. You better get back here in under a year, or I’m coming to London to get you. And I’m planning to know Rails inside out by then.

Shot - 7th September 2005 21:30 - #

I thought those keyboards were a Hoax. You may want to check it out before learning it.

Brad - 7th September 2005 22:01 - #

"hoax" is a bit strong, "unsubstantiated by current research" a bit more accurate. Personally I've tried it a couple of times but the switching between my computer and my wife's, coworkers, clients, etc. drove me nuts so I went back to QWERTY. Welcome back Simon, hope you find a better net connection.

Michael Moncur - 7th September 2005 22:32 - #

You do know, that there is no scientific evidence, that Dvorak keyboards are in any way better than QWERTYs, right? The only study that ever showed an advantage for it was done by Dvorak himself and later studies have failed to replicate the results.

Tobias - 7th September 2005 22:35 - #

Uh oh, can of worms!

Simon - here's the article everyone always refers to:

http://reason.com/9606/Fe.QWERTY.shtml

Guy C - 7th September 2005 23:37 - #

I switched to Dvorak quite a few years ago. At the time I had persistent, mild burning sensation in my hands almost every day. The switch was very difficult for me, the only thing that kept me going back was I quickly forgot how to touch-type QWERTY. But I am very glad I made the switch. I rarely have pain in my hands anymore and I am certain that my fingers move a lot less than before. If I try to type QWERTY now I feel like my fingers are being tied in knots. Good luck and don't give up!

I found keyboard stickers very helpful. This page links to two sites that sell labels; it also has interesting commentary on the studies mentioned above.

Kent - 8th September 2005 00:26 - #

Nice that you've enjoyed visit in my hometown ;) Next time visit Kraków (that's where I moved 3 month ago) and southern Poland. P.S. (to Pawel Gosciski) Hmmm... I think know each other ;) Aga B.? :)

Janusz Kaliszczak - 8th September 2005 09:23 - #

I had also problems with my internet connection. It can be a pain sometimes. As for Poland indeed is wonderful.

Rick Peters - 8th September 2005 10:04 - #

The article linked by Guy C above does miss the point of Dvorak. You move your hands less. By a factor of 8 times. That's just common sense. Why use a keyboard that was designed to make common pairs of letters hard to type? That had its keys rearranged so salesmen could type "typewriter" on the top row only, so they didn't have to hunt and peck? That puts strain on the hands and wrists? Good choice, Simon. You won't regret switching!

Dave Child - 8th September 2005 10:13 - #

From that Reason article:

Had any of the modern authors who referred to the Navy study as supporting Dvorak's keyboard ever actually read it? This appears to be one of those cases in which one author relies on another's account, who in turn is relying on another's, and so on, without any of them reading the original. Yet the Navy study is a primary source of many of the claims for the Dvorak keyboard. This is certainly not a high watermark in scholarship.

Gee, I thought that sort of thing was Media's complaint about online writing?

Jeremy Dunck - 8th September 2005 14:19 - #

Hey Simon, next time try to get to Prague/Czech Republic as well. At least for one beer or two :)

Radek - 9th September 2005 11:55 - #

I would recomend not to use stickers or labels or dvorak keyboards or whatever. Put a nice printout of the keyboard layout at the top of your screen instead. You will then never pick up the bad habbit of taking a sneek peek at your keys ;)

oscarh - 10th September 2005 02:16 - #

You know, you can rearrange those powerbook keys. They just pop off and back on.

Chris Kampmeier - 13th September 2005 05:20 - #

I've been worried that Dvorak would break all sorts of other things.

Such as vim key bindings. What good are using hjkl for navigation if they're all over the place?

Is that sort of thing proving to be a problem?

On the other hand, I don't feel they go far enough - I would like space split, and used half for return. I would like backspace somewhere close at hand too, and I would love a reduction in the difficulty and awkward placement of typing []{}()*&<> for programming things. Perhaps if I was working on LISP, I would want two pedals for ()... ;)

sfb - 14th September 2005 22:30 - #

You do know, that there is no scientific evidence, that Dvorak keyboards are in any way better than QWERTYs, right? The only study that ever showed an advantage for it was done by Dvorak himself and later studies have failed to replicate the results.

Also, this is wrong. See: http://www.visi.com/~pmk/evolved.html

sfb - 14th September 2005 22:39 - #

re: sfb's question about vim

I learned vim at the same time as I switched to Dvorak and didn't notice any trouble, though if you already know vim you could be discombobulated especially if you remember the command keys by position rather than letter. Mac OS X offers a second Dvorak mode where all command keys remain in the same postion, though I personally don't use it.

Regarding the split space bar, you might like the kinesis keyboard that has enter and space under your right thumb (with page up/down, alt & control just a short stretch away, and backspace, delete, home, end and control and alt (again) under the left thumb. It makes it much easier to stay in touch type position without using awkward pinky stretches. They're relatively expensive as keyboards go but I've been very happy with mine.

By the way, for those confused by the Reason article on Dvorak: Reason is a libertarian publication, a political position I have a great deal of sympathy with. Unfortunately their dogma is that the market is always right, and in that article they're not afraid to spin the argument in that direction in what I feel is a decidedly underhand way. There position is the market is never wrong: therefore VHS is better than Betamax, QWERTY is better than Dvorak, Microsoft is better than Mac. Now, there's elements of truth to both sides of these arguments, but generally you get Urban Myth versus Free-Market dogma rather than a nuanced view of things if you frame the debate in that manner.

Personally, with the incredible ease of switching keyboards back and forth between Dvorak and Qwerty on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux these days you have nothing to lose. If you combine it with an opportunity to perfect your touch typing (by not moving your keys around or relabling) I think there's plenty to be gained for little cost.

dave - 22nd September 2005 16:56 - #

Of course instead of key stickers, you could do the sensible thing, and buy this when it's released. A keyboard on which each key is a tiny screen - genius.

OK it's a tad more expensive, but geek-chic aplenty!

Nick W - 26th September 2005 14:22 - #

Hello Simon..we have bought an appartment just outside Gdansk city centre and go there every month.Problem is I cannot get a broadband connection sorted out..I need my laptop with me for business and this connected would complete our life over there without worrying about whats happening in uk.I am a computer novice and would appreciate some help.Our appartment is "wired" for internet apparently..but the connection offered is through a central system you have to subscribe to and I am guessing would not allow Bouncing fish/wanadoo/yahoo through...any suggestions where to start..do you have any contacts please?I am told I need a 512 meg line.Thanks David W.

david w - 16th February 2006 12:20 - #