From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Jul 17 09:43:34 1996 Return-Path: owner-chat Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA02695 for chat-outgoing; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:43:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu (Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu [149.159.1.34]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA02690 for ; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:43:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (jfieber@localhost) by Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA11641; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 11:43:23 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu: jfieber owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 11:43:23 -0500 (EST) From: John Fieber X-Sender: jfieber@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu To: Stephen McKay cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Switching to Dvorak (was Re: FreeBSD keyboard) In-Reply-To: <199607170735.RAA04599@orion.devetir.qld.gov.au> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Wed, 17 Jul 1996, Stephen McKay wrote: > Now that I know someone who has switched, I can ask that all important > question: "Was it really worth it?". Yes, *really* worth it. How long did > the switch take you? My case is pretty atypical. I never properly learned qwerty. When I first had a computer, and discovered that being able to type was helpful, I got some typing books and worked away for some months, all the time thinking there must be a better way. At some point I remembered hearing something about a faster keyboard layout and after some hunting, I found a picture of a dvorak keyboard. I figured out how to remap the keyboard and set to work on the new layout. I'd say that it was less than a week before I surpased my qwerty speed and have never gone back. > I can think of lots of reasons against changing: > 3) Won't my brain turn liquid and drip out my ears if I switch back and > forth a lot between the two? I have not found this to be a problem. In a past job, I I had to use a typewriter (qwerty) and a computer (dvorak) extensively. I didn't find switching back and forth to be a problem at all, other than the speed difference. Fingers "misfiring" was pretty rare. > 4) I've got no dvorak tutor program. The popular Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing has a dvorak tutor. However, I think real-world typing works just fine. Just tape ' , . p y f g r / = \ a o e u i d h t n s - ; q j k x b w m w v z on the bottom edge of your monitor and go at it! > 5) My keytops won't match what they do (unless I get keen with a screwdriver?). Utterly irrelevant for touch typists. You can remove the keycaps, but on most keyboards, the angle of the top of the key depends on the row it is in so you end up with something pretty hideous if you move keys between rows. If its any conselation, numbers, A and M are in the same place. ;-) -john == jfieber@indiana.edu =========================================== == http://fallout.campusview.indiana.edu/~jfieber ================