Re: Qwerty and Dvorak touch-typing.

["Walter Jowers" walter.jowers@xxxxxxxx]

Of course, there's no way to know about "playing" two keyboards unless you
do it. I liked the musical-instrument analogy offered by another poster
(sorry, forgot the name), but as a musician myself, I'm not so sure it would
hold. Different musical instruments (sax, flute clarinet) give slightly
different tactile feedback. Also, when I'm playing an instrument (I'm a
musician myself), the melody in my head helps keep me on course, I think.

But when I'm typing, I'm just looking for the letter, "a." Right now, that
means left pinky, home row. I don't know what it would be on Dvorak, but I
suspect any variation would scramble my brain/finger coordination.

Finally, there's this: My business partner hunts-and-pecks fairly well on a
standard keyboard. But my split (ergo) keyboard drives him nuts, puts him in
a rage.

I guess you're going to have to try it to find out. This is neural pathway
stuff. It's going to be very you-specific.

WJ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Edwards" 
To: "XY-Write" 
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: Qwerty and Dvorak touch-typing.


>                          Michael Edwards.
>
> [Resent because the original got lost some hours ago.]
>
> ----------------------------------------
> [Walter Jowers:]
>
> >As a guy who's quite a good qwerty touch-typist, I'd venture a guess that
> >the training it would take to overwrite 30 years of muscle memory would
more
> >than offset the fractions of seconds I'd save by going Dvorak.
> ----------------------------------------
>
>   Well, it's not quite that bad for me: I've been typing only for about
12
> years, and I essentially learned the basics in a week, from a standard
typing
> book. I decided to try to learn it quickly, and spend many hours each day
> learning, to see if I could pick up the basics in a week or so, and that
seemed
> to work. I wasn't fast or accurate, but I essentially knew it all after
that
> week, and speed and accuracy came with further typing in subsequent
months.
>   I suppose I could do it again with the Dvorak keyboard - I'm just a
bit
> worried about whether I'd lose the qwerty skill, which I don't want to.
>
> -----------------------------------------
> >Also, there's this: There will be times, I'm sure, when I'll need to sit
> >down at somebody else's qwerty keyboard and just get something done. I'm
> >afraid if I tried it with a brainful of Dvorak re-training, my head would
> >explode like that guy in Scanners.
> -----------------------------------------
>
>   Yes, that's exactly what I was afraid of.
>   Well, I've already had two opinions which tend to go opposite ways.
Maybe
> I'll just have to try it, and abandon it if I start getting the idea that
it's
> going to cause trouble.
>   I would imagine that it's not at all like trying to learn two
languages
> (which plenty of people do), because languages differ from each other far
more
> than do two different keyboards. I suppose it would be more like knowing
two
> different kinds of shorthand - and I don't know if anyone has ever
mastered and
> retained two different shorthands.
>
>             Regards,
>              Michael Edwards.
>
>
>
>