smnevans

I have used the Dvorak keyboard layout for about eight years. I can comfortably touch type at a decent speed. About the speed that my brain moves. Not that fast. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. There are benefits: it was easy to learn and feels nice to use. There are drawbacks: Arranging my keyboard: I didn’t have to do this but looking down and seeing a completely different layout became too jarring. Popping keycaps off an old PowerBook was fairly stress-free but doing the same to a shiny new MacBook was not a lot of fun. Hacking drivers: I once spent more time working out how to hack the driver for a Sony Clie keyboard than I ever did typing on it. If I added up all the time I have spent just getting a working keyboard in the Classic Mac OS, various flavors of Windows, and Linux it would probably come to about a full week. Wierdness: Some applications, like Photoshop, don’t recognise the Dvorak layout. Some AppleScripts don’t type text properly. Single User mode is a nightmare. Monkey: When I sit down at someone else’s computer all my typing skills become meaningless. I’m just another monkey hunting and pecking. All in all, if I had known how much of a hassle it would be I wouldn’t have bothered. Maybe you’ll have better luck. Maybe you won’t muck about with Windows or Linux or Clie’s. Maybe you’ll never have to use someone else’s computer. Maybe Dvorak keyboards will become a build to order option on new computers. Maybe, but you’ve been warned.