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I had a number of "hand" problems in '98 and had to find a number of solutions--I needed arm bands to take care of the tennis elbow and I got a split keyboard to take care of the early Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but then I got a nasty little problem whose name I never caught. The ligaments or tendons or whatever that make your hands work when you type would become inflamed and pushed the bones apart in the back of my hands and they turned into little more than clubs. I tell you this because what many in this discussion have overlooked is the nature of the problem and how to solve it. The solution, Jamesh, depends on what problems you are experiencing or wish to prevent.

I took a three-pronged approach: I started learning Dvorak to A) slow my immediate typing down, which kept the clubs--er, hands from becoming inflamed as readily. I typed more slowly all day, but I could type for longer periods. B) By learning Dvorak, I could do the same work without as many "reaches" from the home row, which also kept my hands cooler. I had to take notes for programming changes and for whatever reason, that would cause my right hand to tighten up, so I started learning shorthand--not to write more quickly, but to write more easily. This turned out to be ineffective because I didn't write as much as I typed, so I dropped that approach. However, these days I use a modified version of Palm's Graffiti symbols to keep notes for myself. Cursive is too intensive for what it gives me and I can actually read my own handwriting better now than ever before. I do have to switch some things when I know someone else will read my handwriting, however. The third prong was to investigate alternative pointing devices, like touchpads and the like. However, plopping your hand down on a mouse and pushing your arm around on the table is less finger-intensive than anything else out there, so I ultimately abandoned that idea.

Today, I still type Dvorak everywhere I can, but some places I don't have priviledges to change the layout or I won't be at that particular keyboard long enough to bother. I switch back and forth all the time. In the beginning, however, I was tripped up by keyboard shortcuts, because I still wanted to ^C ^X ^V all down in the lower lefthand corner, but I got used to it. Also, it took awhile before I was able to switch back and forth quickly. I could do in about 5-10 minutes and the time reduced the more I got used to doing so. Today, I still have a couple of keys from Dvorak that I stubbornly will try to type in QWERTY and (surprisingly) vice-versa. The biggest one for me is that the Dvorak "E" is where the QWERTY "D" is located.

The way I learned was from something I found suggesting to start typing five minute stretches every day with a reduced set of letters. I would take a newspaper article and type for five minutes to a metronome set at about 30 beats per minute. I would type every vowel as it came up (left hand home row) plus the letter "M", because "M" and "A" are in the same place in both layouts, but I would hit the space bar for every other letter. After I got used to that, I would add 2 or 3 letters and kept doing so until I had the whole keyboard mapped out. At that point, I sped up the metronome a little at a type until I was typing at a decent speed. The point of the metronome is to keep you from typing quick little bunches and then pausing to figure out the next bunch, which is essential to building your speed. I've found that learning to touch-type the second time left me with better habits than when I first learned to type QWERTY. However, being a programmer, I will never be able to type very fast, because I have to punch in finger-locking symbols all day long.

If you want an option to trying to mentally switch before you're really comfortable doing so, try Dvortyboards: http://dvortyboards.com/ The last holdout resource on the web is DVZine: http://dvzine.org/

To answer your questions, I

Press a button - works for me!

Also is seen by the CPU as a standard keyboard, available in 'ergonomic' version, no special driver, etc.

I have one and recommend it!

Try a dvortyboard. Even with both sets of key labeling on the keyboard, it really fucked with our IT group whenever they wanted to do stuff on my computer. (The dvorak letters are in the center of the key and about twice the size of the qwerty letters, which are in the upper right hand corner of the key.)

My board has a backslash.

Typematrix

There's already a product on the market that meets your desires, but it's not cheap. This site sells them, and has a fair amount of innovation beyond the simple hardcoding of Dvorak.

They're expensive because of the very low demand for such products. Convince a few thousand other people that they need one, and maybe the price will come down to one we can afford.

I use the Dvorak keyboard layout, and my wife doesn't. When I'm not glued to my laptop we share a desktop machine and tend to switch often. It has a DvortyBoard, which is hardwired to switch between the two layouts with a keypress, and is dual-labeled, but the dual labeling is confusing to my wife because she looks at the keys. Something like this would be a godsend for her.

I use a DvortyBoard (http://www.dvortyboards.com, ~$70). It's equivalent to a fairly cheap PC keyboard, but nice because 1) it's cheap compared to the fancy ergonomic models, 2) it's dual-labeled for Qwerty and Dvorak, and 3) you can switch it between the two modes with a single keypress (it's hard-wired). Comes in handy when your significant other (who can't/won't learn to remap the keyboard) needs to use the computer. Remapping is a pain in its own right, anyway.

Rather than an adapter for your current keyboard, you might think of investing in a DvortyBoard. It's a standard 104 (or whatever) key keyboard with a Dvorak lock that switches the key layout from qwerty to dvorak. www.dvortyboards.com seems to be down at the moment (forever?), but http://www.fentek-ind.com/dvorak.htm still has them for sale.

I have a Dvortyboard and it works wonderfully.

I have to agree that a major sticky point is that many programs have the standard shortcuts (c-Z, c-X, c-C, c-V, etc.) hard coded into them. However just use Emacs for everything and you won't have any problems. (You can remap all the controls to whatever you want.)

Oh, and you can't forget the *real* reason to switch: the Geek Factor
Often times people will start using my computer and then realize that what they're typing isn't what's appearing on the screen. Then they look down at the keyboard and realize how much of a geek I am. :) (I'm using a Dvorty board so they can switch it back to Qwerty with the press of a key.)

As a bonus, the "Windows" keys don't have the "Windows logo" on them -- rather, they have a simple drawing of a four-paned square window. Of course, there are stickers for the keys that come with the keyboard, to "upgrade" to the Windows logo, but I threw those out :).

And, it's only $32 with free shipping (but not free handing) from eCost.

Also, I'd like to mention Dvortyboards. They're regular keyboards, but with both Qwerty and Dvorak letters on the keycaps. Best of all, though, you can switch between which mode (Dvorak or regular) simply through a switch on the keyboard (no software changes needed).

Until recently, Dvortyboards only sold a non-ergo keyboard. However, they now sell an ergo one too. The funny thing is, though, is that the Dvorty ergo keyboard looks suspiciously like my Adesso, even with the split space bar ;).

Alex Bischoff
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As a bonus, the "Windows" keys don't have the "Windows logo" on them -- rather, they have a simple drawing of a four-paned square window. Of course, there are stickers for the keys that come with the keyboard, to "upgrade" to the Windows logo, but I threw those out :).

And, it's only $32 with free shipping (but not free handing) from eCost.

Also, I'd like to mention Dvortyboards. They're regular keyboards, but with both Qwerty and Dvorak letters on the keycaps. Best of all, though, you can switch between which mode (Dvorak or regular) simply through a switch on the keyboard (no software changes needed).

Until recently, Dvortyboards only sold a non-ergo keyboard. However, they now sell an ergo one too. The funny thing is, though, is that the Dvorty ergo keyboard looks suspiciously like my Adesso, even with the split space bar ;).

Alex Bischoff
---

As a bonus, the "Windows" keys don't have the "Windows logo" on them -- rather, they have a simple drawing of a four-paned square window. Of course, there are stickers for the keys that come with the keyboard, to "upgrade" to the Windows logo, but I threw those out :).

And, it's only $32 with free shipping (but not free handing) from eCost.

Also, I'd like to mention Dvortyboards. They're regular keyboards, but with both Qwerty and Dvorak letters on the keycaps. Best of all, though, you can switch between which mode (Dvorak or regular) simply through a switch on the keyboard (no software changes needed).

Until recently, Dvortyboards only sold a non-ergo keyboard. However, they now sell an ergo one too. The funny thing is, though, is that the Dvorty ergo keyboard looks suspiciously like my Adesso, even with the split space bar ;).

Alex Bischoff
---

Actually, on Dvorak, l is right above s. It's rather easy to hit both. I'm typing this post in dvorak on my dvortyboard right now.

I've collected several links to dvorak keyboard sellers and dvorak ressources.

Due to the US-english dvorak layout is only different in the positions of the keys on the board, you may create your own dvorak keyboard by just switching your key caps around. And for X11 you can use xkeycaps and xmodmap to tell your computer that you've done that... :-) You'll find an dvorak-xmodmap at Peter Amstutz' Dvorak page.

But if keyboard doesn't allow to switch the key caps around you can also relabel them...

Dvorak Keyboard Sellers:

• Dvorty Boards
• Dvorak Keyboards from Fentek

The Dvorak Layout in comparison to the qwerty layout can be found at Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard .

There are also efforts on creating non-english dvorak layouts.

As a dvorak typist, I can attest to the benefits of this layout. Though there is some hastle using other peoples' computers b/c of not knowing qwerty, I must say that it's still worth it. I have never known qwerty; I learned dvorak as my 'first language' at the age of 10. Though it's been a while since then and I can't be sure, I would estimate that it took about 2 months of practicing about a half hour a day to be able to type 40-50 wpm. Now (I don't practice, only type when there's a reason to) I type about 80wpm with very few errors. My main reason for continuing to use the dvorak keyboard is because I'm not interested in RSI or carpal tunnel syndrome, which both my parents had to have surgery for.

To address Cliff's query diretly, YES, DVORAK keyboards are available. DvortyBoards makes a keyboard that is hard-wired for both dvorak and qwerty. The keyboard I use is from their company, though it's an older model. It is a MS Natural-esque keyboard with a rocker switch to switch from dvorak to qwerty. The newer model has an extra key (actually, it's borrowed from one of the legacy keys though I can't remember which one) that switches.

For those of you using linux, this keyboard is an excellent choice. There is no need to mess with keysym files, set up bash (csh, tsch, sh, etc.) and X separately, just hit the toggle key.
For windows users, no need to screw around with the control panels or bitch at MS when you use a dos app (dos requires a separate driver, and MS didn't think to trap keyboard events and convert to the appropriate keyboard layout before passing the key to the dos app, so all of dos is in qwerty).

I'd cite statistics / etc. to show that dvorak is the superior layout but statistics can be so easily argued, so I'll just say that only a few thousand words can be typed on the qwerty keyboard without moving fingers to the top or bottom rows. With dvorak, over 30,000 words can be typed without moving the hands.

I've never used a Dvorak, but was curious enough to dig around Google to find a place. Here's my favorite:


DvortyBoards -- interesting site. They sell a switchable board (i.e. swap between Qwerty & Dvorak on the fly). US$50 plus shipping & handling. Apparently the translation is done in the keyboard itself, so it would be compatible with any OS.


--Mid

Anyhow: Although I'm still using several fingers and looking at Hooleon stickers (not happy!), my speed is decent, I make about 1/5 the errors I did with QWERTY, and it's simply a joy to have the letters "fall into place". I rarely use QWERTY, and when I have no choice, one thing is brutally evident: You simply have no idea of how bad QWERTY is, unless you have been using Dvorak only for some extended period, and have to go back.

Many of us, I suspect, learn QWERTY somewhat incrementally, so we know it to some degree before we become serious users. Complete novices have no standard of comparison.

At times, I do wonder whether the letter positions are as optimal as claimed. I agree that an I/U swap would be good. Also, visually, G and C are similar, as are M and W. I tend to swap those. I also have problems with wrong vowels. (Did Dr. Dvorak own a BMW? :)

Microsoft's GA0650.EXE package (for DOS) works extremely well; it fails only when the programmer uses raw keycodes. It contains both one-handed layouts (with what seems to be an interesting bias toward righthandedness!).

The DvortyBoard (Dirty bird? :) is a switchable QWERTY/Dvorak commercial keybd.; no conversion software needed. Runs about $60 w/ shipping. DvortyBoards (Note that they can't spell their own tradename!)

Hooleon (sorry!) makes stickers that *seem* wonderful, and they would be great, except for one thing: The wear layer on top has edges that catch on your fingertips and drive you nuts. Attempts to trim off the edges failed, on the home row. I finally peeled off the top layer. My home row is now all white, save for the engraved letters I've made in the white layer. Printed layer wore off. Really wish they had worked out a fix, because otherwise these are great. (Clean your keytops (99% isopropyl alc.) before applying! I spent about 1/2 hour applying; used jewelers' tweezers.)

I picked up an old, heavy, real IBM PS/2 keyboard with removable keycaps (they snap onto the keytops). Seemed great for a while, keyclicks, "breakover" (?) feel, etc., but after some use, the really hard limit at the end of each keystroke hurt my fingertips. Currently using a KeyTronic FlexPro, but I rarely raise the demi-boards; wrist/hand support isn't really worked out, it seems to me, so far. I do like it, otherwise.

Nicholas Bodley // nbodley@tiac.net (Sorry, I logged in just before typing into the form, but am still called an A.C.)