Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 17:32:37 -0700 From: Jason Evans <jasone@canonware.com> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: emacs on a laptop Message-ID: <20000818173237.J14875@blitz.canonware.com> In-Reply-To: <20000819011146.A87344@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>; from jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org on Sat, Aug 19, 2000 at 01:11:47AM %2B0100 References: <20000817130011.A59464@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <200008171205.IAA79923@blackhelicopters.org> <20000817152057.A60719@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20000818153314.G14875@blitz.canonware.com> <20000819011146.A87344@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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On Sat, Aug 19, 2000 at 01:11:47AM +0100, j mckitrick wrote: > On Fri, Aug 18, 2000 at 03:33:14PM -0700, Jason Evans wrote: > | > > | > here is my new plan: > | > dvorak layout > | > change caps lock to ctrl > | > | Plan to not be able to type well for at least a month. Plan to not gain > | full typing speed for at least several months. > > is it worth it? In my opinion, it wasn't quite worth it, though it's definitely not worth switching back at this point (I've been using dvorak for almost two years now). There are rewards to switching, but they probably don't justify the huge effort involved. It took about a year before I could clearly type at least as well in all cases (coding, copying, composing email, etc.). I could not have done the transition at all if it hadn't been for a lull at the end of one job (I started the switch when I gave two weeks notice =) ). There is a period of time when it is very difficult to type at all, even on a qwerty keyboard. I can no longer type with any speed on qwerty. I decided against maintaining the ability to type on both layouts, because it quickly became clear that my error rate would continue to be too high to justify the switch to dvorak. This means that I don't feel comfortable any time that I sit down in front of someone else's computer. Fortunately, that isn't a common occurrence for me (I'm a programmer, not a sysadmin). On the up side, I feel less hand fatigue from typing, and my error rate is much lower than it ever was on qwerty. My error rate is lower mainly because a number of hard-wired problems I had on qwerty didn't transfer to dvorak (for example mixing up left/right hand letters (e/i, q/p)). Unfortunately, I didn't do a timed typing test before switching, but I'm pretty sure I can type faster now (on the order of 10-15% faster). If you do decide to do the switch, I have a tutorial that I can email privately. Jason To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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