Dvorak vs. Qwerty

Widgets » Dvorak vs. Qwerty

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by dbguy

V1.2 Aug 5, 2006 10:57:10 PM

`Dvorak vs. Qwerty' is a keyboard usage meter. It measures how many centimeters you have to move your fingers from the default touch typing positions to type certain piece of text. Hopefully this tool will help people realize that Dvorak keyboard layout is superior to the older Qwerty.

Update 0.2.1: Fixed a problem in the widget file (some users had problems installing the widget) and added some UI functionality.

Comments 10 posts

1 - 10 of 10

daretoeatapeach: "I would like to see a program, widget or otherwise, that would allow one to switch quickly from Dvorak to qwerty quickly within the Windows GUI."

All versions of Windows since Windows 3.1 (I believe) - certainly Windows XP - ALREADY have this! Enable the language bar and you can switch layouts with a mouse click.

Check out http://www.typocheck.co.uk/dvorak/switch.html , for instance.

By typocheck, # Sep 24, 2007 3:22:19 PM

I type in both DVORAK and QWERTY.

Im still on migration period to DVORAK.

By Laibcoms, # Sep 6, 2007 8:09:46 AM

Yes, the QWERTY format usually requires moving the fingers more, except when typing stuff like 1q1q1q1q1q1q1q1q1q1q

By UltimateYoshiMaster, # Aug 28, 2007 10:12:54 PM

Bob Dog: You are off topic, it's about layout - no personal war about you being left- or righthanded.

To be more specific: It's how opera's nice widgets can help it's users do stuff that they care about: save time, less errors, user friendly, etc...

I have used serveral years on a QWERTY keyboard - 11 years, and I have coded lots of keyboard intensive stuff! Programming software for one thing - and it took me 1 month to get up to the same speed as I had on a QWERTY layout, using the Dvorak.

"As expected from testing this"... ? and later you write "As well, the only major "study" on the alleged..." It wastn't just Dr. August Dvorak, he wasn't working alone. All this widget does, is testing the DISTANCE your fingers travel, nothing else. I wrote all the comments in here in that opera widget, and I must say it's not all wrong.

The QWERTY layout wasn't build to SLOW down typists - it was build to stop jam in a typewriter. The result it being unlogical and slow was just a secondary thing - keep in mind what QWERTY was compared to: people was sitting and building pages of small texsts, just like Lego blocks, of cause QWERTY was faster. Even the creator of QWERTY developped a differen

By VilleWitt, # Aug 7, 2007 1:58:51 AM

As expected from testing this, the Dvörak is no better than the Qwerty keyboard. But that's to be expected, I'm left handed, the Dvörak is designed for wronghanded (righthanded) people; the claims of "superiority" are anecdotal at best, and closer to a myth.

The whole reason for the qwerty keyboard was to slow typists; the machining on first typewriters was so poor that it was necessary.

http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html

As well, the only major "study" on the alleged "superiority" if the Dvörak layout was done by Dvörak himself, a man who patented the keyboard and was trying to sell it for profit to the US military. (Conflict of interest? What's that?)

The best keyboard is the one that works for you. The Qwerty is superior for lefthanded people: it is not only faster, it enables one-handed typing for righthanded mouse manipulation, something righthanded people *can't* do.

.

By Bob Dog, # Feb 23, 2007 3:00:01 PM

Hmmm. I wasn't aware there was a debate over using a new system. If there is then I'm willing to jump in with my 2 cents.
The metric system is proof that people don't want to learn anything new. Even when the new is far superior to the old. Superiorty is lacking in this case however. The amount of space one has to move one's fingers is a piss-poor argument for changing the way many of us learned to type over a quarter of a century ago. You might use the same argument to prove an IV tube is better than a fork.
For what it's worth, your widget does exactly what it promises to do. That's more than I can say for many I have downloaded.
Good luck on your crusade against wasted centimeters.

By OGRastamon, # Feb 14, 2007 3:50:19 AM

most of me often used words seem to have shorter finger movements in QWERTY.

By xDieStarDiex, # Jan 23, 2007 4:52:53 AM

This is a pretty interesting widget. I was not quite sure it would all that useful for me to install, since I exclusively use the Dvorak layout at home. I did load it up though, and saw that it measures both, which makes sense. So, using this, I can tell how much I saved by using Dvorak instead of Qwerty. :-)

There are plenty of resources on the Dvorak layout. I happened to stumble upon it a few days before I went down with appendicitis. If one looks around, a recurring theme seems to be that people learn the layout while resting from some sort of injury. That is not a requirement, but interesting.

If you want a quick switch from Qwerty and Dvorak, you can use the keyboard layout selector thing that is already part of Windows. I have used the layout with Linux, FreeBSD, X-Windows, Windows, and Mac OS 9. They are all relatively easy to setup and switch with. Try a search for some Dvorak resources.

One thought for the widget would be a help/tutorial link that could give some URLs for helpful resources to help facilitate switching to Dvorak.

By bwyman, # Sep 5, 2006 0:26:03 AM

Interesting idea. I would like to see a program, widget or otherwise, that would allow one to switch quickly from Dvorak to qwerty quickly within the Windows GUI. Would it be possible to create a widget that makes Opera think you're using Dvorak, so long as the widget is open?

Because for me one of the biggest problems is that I don't want to use Dvorak while doing heavy-duty typing (such as blogging) and it is a pain to switch back and forth. Though the learning curve on Dvorak is faster than Qwerty it still takes a while to master.

Also, if such a widget had a screen of the Dvorak keys so you don't have to switch keyboards.

By daretoeatapeach, # Sep 4, 2006 1:41:59 AM

Funny idea. But I never heard of the dvorak layout. I guess no one wants to learn another layout, but who knows

The way it counts the distance is not 100% correct in my opinion. If you type the word "door" for example, the distance to the "o" is counted twice, but your finger is already there after you typed it the first time, isn't it?

By Wups, # Aug 21, 2006 11:28:48 AM