Re: Qwerty and Dvorak touch-typing.

["P Ferreira" ferreira@xxxxxxxx]

Norman,

No, I don't know how many words per minute I typically churn out. I was
originally attracted to the Dvorak keyboard because the thing seemed to make
so much sense. I do type faster -- much faster -- on Dvorak than I ever did
on Qwerty. However, I think the greatest benefit is the ease with which I
type. My hands and wrists are much more relaxed with the Dvorak system.

As for the history (all of this is from memory), it is well documented that
some fellow by the name of Christopher Shoals (I think he worked for
Remmington) was asked to design a keyboard that would slow typists down.
There jamming were problems with the early typewriters. Hence
Qwerty--inefficiency by desgin.

It is my recolletion that August Dvorak was at the University of Washington
(Seattle). During the thirties he and a psychologist (whose name escapes)
me worked together in a study of typists. I believe that the study went on
for about five years; sometime in the late thirties their results were
published, and the Dvorak keyboard was born. During the forties there was
some effort to get secretaries to convert. But they would have none of it.
Qwerty had become so entrenced that few were willing to change.

Again, this is all from memory. If anyone is interested I can get more
information on Dvorak's book. (I actually read the thing when I was in
graduate school in the eighties.) And, as mentioned in an earlier post,
there was a computer book published around '85 that was devoted to the
Dvorak keyboard.

There is really little to lose if you want to give Dvorak a try. It takes
about there minutes to convert your keyboard in windows or OS/2 (a little
longer in DOS). It's a good idea to have a drawing of the Dvorak layout at
first. But you will be amazed at how quickly one can learn this thing.

There are also replacement keytops available and decal sets that one can put
on one's own keyboard. I've found this unnecessary, though.  (I think I
have an extra set of keytronic keytops if anyone is really serious about
this. They're yours for the asking.)

Good luck.


Phil Ferreira


-----Original Message-----
From: Norman Bauman 
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx 
Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Qwerty and Dvorak touch-typing.


>Phil,
>
>Do you have any idea how *fast* you type in Dvorak?
>
>There was recently a debate, which I don't want to take sides on, about
>whether Dvorak was *really* faster than Qwerty. With regard to the question
>of whether it was possible for Microsoft or anyone to dominate the industry
>with a technically inferior product, some economists were using the Dvorak
>keyboard as an example of a technically superior product that failed. Some
>other economists were arguing, on the Wall Street Journal editorial page,
>that the original claims of the superiority of Dvorak were exaggerated. I
>certainly wouldn't take the WSJ editorial page on faith, but they did raise
>the question of, how do I really know that Dvorak is better. I dunno. Does
>somebody really know?
>
>Norman
>
>
>At 06:19 PM 5/23/00 -0400, P Ferreira wrote:
>>
>>I gave up Qwerty for Dvorak in 1983 and I've never looked back. I wasn't
>>much of a Qwerty typist. So it made no sense for me to try to maintain
those
>>old skills. However, I did know a woman who remained highly proficient on
>>Qwerty even after she took up Dvorak.
>>
>>I think that you may overestimate the need for Qwerty once you switch.
>>Every system running windows can be easily made to run Dvorak. (It's in
the
>>"properties" section of the standard US keyboard. You'll need to download
>>some files from Microsoft to enable Dvorak with DOS, though.) And if you
>>need to type on a standard typewriter there are -- or at least there
were --
>>available Dvorak "balls" and "wheels" (or whatever they're called) that
>>immediately transform many electric typewriters.
>>
>>You should also realize that in addition to greater speed there is less
>>fatigue. Besides typing much faster, I can type for longer periods of
time.
>>Since the hands move much less with the Dvorak keyboard, you should be
more
>>relaxed when you type. And Xywrite can, of course, easily load a
customized
>>Dvorak keyboard.
>>
>>Phil Ferreira
>>ferreira@xxxxxxxx
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>Norman Bauman
>411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
>New York, NY 10019
>(212) 977-3223
>http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
>-------------------------------------------------------