From: harris@cs.unc.edu (Trey Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,general
Subject: Re: DVORAK keyboard?
Date: 6 Jan 1993 13:12:14 -0500
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: gallium.cs.unc.edu

In article <1if0scINN6k2@uwm.edu> rick@ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller) writes:
>Okay, I've heard of the Dvorak keyboard...  Can anyone answer some questions
>about it (or point me to where I can get them answered)?
>
>1.) What's the layout?  Does it differ internationally like the QWERTY does?
>	(You know how the symbols tend to be rearranged depending upon
>	 what country you're in, etc.)
The layout I use is as follows:
~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) [ +      /____ Corresponds to the qwerty numeric
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ] = DEL  \     line.

" < >               ? { |      /____ Corresponds to the QWERTY line.
' , . p y f g c r l / } \      \

                    _          /____ The dvorak home row.
a o e u i d h t n s - RET      \

:                              /____ The "z-m", <, >, and ? line.
; q j k x b m w v z            \

These mappings are for a Mac keyboard, and assumes that you have the
physical layout of that keyboard.  In any case, the backslash/vertical
bar key always stays the same as in QWERTY.  Some layouts I've seen
don't put the bracket pairs on the same keys ([/] and {/}), but I
believe that that is nonstandard.

As far as international Dvorak goes: in the Mac realm I've only seen a
keyboard called "Dvorak."  In Windows, there is a standard "U.S.
Dvorak" key layout.  But I haven't seen any other Windows Dvorak key
layouts.  I would be very surpised if they didn't exist, though.

>2.) How does it handle international characters (umlauts, accents,
etc.)?  
The same way your current keyboard does.  If it's Mac, the umlaut
would be produced using the option-U key (which now happens to be
under your left index finger, but that doesn't matter) and then
pressing the key you want the umlaut to appear over.  Same for tildes,
accents, and the special symbols: they've all moved with the keyboard.
Which means that if you've learned the *locations* for symbols and
commands you use frequently, rather than their modifier+letter names,
then you will have difficulty.  I believe this to be the biggest
hurdle in learning a new keyboard.

>3.) What are some advantages or disadvantages of the Dvorak keyboard?
>	In short, why does it even exist?  

The qwerty keyboard was created with the express purpose of slowing
typists down.  It was made in the days of manual typewriters, and if
one typed to fast, the hammers would jam.  So the bad keyboard made
typists type slower than they could.  Dvorak, on the other hand, puts
the most-used letters directly underneath your fingers, speeding up
typing greatly.  And your hands and wrists will thank you for no
longer having to fly all over the keyboard for even the simplest
words.

Disadvantages: your qwerty speed will probably deteriorate rapidly
immediately upon starting to use the Dvorak board, so if you use any
keyboards where you can't change to Dvorak (such as a dumb terminal),
*don't* change!  Plus, if anyone else uses your machine and does not
want to use Dvorak, you will have to change keyboard layouts (usually
just a settings change, but on some machines it requires a reboot),
which can become annoying if you switch frequently.  (This point is
moot on an X workstation/terminal, for each user can decide in his or
her startup files whether to use Dvorak.)

And, unless you buy a physical Dvorak keyboard, you may not be able to
use your layouts on non-windowing applications.  (And on the Mac,
there are a startling number of applications [most notably and
frustratingly, NCSA Telnet] that totally ignore keymaps of any kind in
document windows!)

You obviously also need to touch type, for the letters aren't on your
keyboard!  

I hope I've given this subject enough exhaustive detail.  (Sorry about
all the bandwidth here!)

And, yes, I did type this entirely with the Dvorak keyboard.

Trey Harris
Stranger in a Strange Thread!