Dvorak

It's not a "negative" opinion. It's just that 150 years of QWERTY habit is hard to break. On an individual level, very few persons with ten or more years of QWERTY experience, especially those that type quite fast, are willing to change.

The Apple-IIc solution certainly wasn't practical. Consider that perhaps three or four persons use the same computer and only one wants to use Dvorak. Who in his/her right mind is going to remove and rearrange all of the keys, type a letter, and then put the keys back in their original positions?

Ironically, something comparable to Dvorak was proposed in the 19th century but it flopped for a different reason. The design goal of QWERTY was actually to slow down the typist so as to prevent the type arms from getting jammed together!

Just for the record, this is coming from someone that, at one time, typed 65 wpm with a mechanical non-electric typewriter. I can still type substantially faster with an old-fashioned typewriter keyboard than I can with ANY virtual keyboard. In my opinion, any benefit of Dvorak is negated by the use of a virtual keyboard and, unfortunately, the low popularity of Dvorak prevents a mechanical keyboard from being cost-effective.

It was just negative in the same sense as people who keep saying apple was "going out of business" in other years was negative - i.e. it was inaccurate.

On another note, I re-arrange keys on all my personal computers, as gratefully, that is made possible by how they are designed. I understand this would be unpractical in a work enviornment. In those cases I just use the regular keyboard with dvorak via software. I will train my children on dvorak as they learn to use the computer.

I agree that unless your using something as large as an ipad, which attempts to accomidate touch typing, the layout is negated on virtual keyboards. With the ipad, I simply hope that it will be implemented in the future.

jonnerjonner wrote:

I will train my children on dvorak as they learn to use the computer.

They're in for a shock when they enter the business world.

I would no more consider a Dvorak keyboard than I would a Beta VCR although I acknowledge that both are superior to the current standard. Several years back, I had seen an engineering analysis of the use of steering wheels in automobiles. The conclusion was that, in today's world with power assist, it's a lousy way to steer a car but they also acknowledged that any attempt to change would be catastrophic.

There are similar arguments regarding such mundane things as the width of our highway lanes, which actually goes back to ancient Rome.

You are overlooking the possibility that I'm capable of teaching them how to switch keyboard layouts on a computer.

Seriously, I have no idea why we are having this discussion, so I will stop. respectfully I grant that your allowed your opinions on the subject, and thank you for your time. I appologize if I've wasted it.

jonnerjonner wrote:

You are overlooking the possibility that I'm capable of teaching them how to switch keyboard layouts on a computer.

That's wonderful.

OrangeMarlin wrote:

Well, I'll short APPL now.

LOL, that'd be a really sweet zing if you didn't get the stock ticker wrong. 😐

As for children being "confused" in "the business world" someday, maybe, because they have used more than one keyboard layout, that's like saying people that are fluent in more than one language or form of input are confused or slower than people who only know QWERTY and English. There are many users of iOS and OS X that switch between keyboard layouts frequently for a variety of reasons ranging from fun (Emoji) to multi-lingual writing. Even if we assume that people in "the business world" will be banging on keyboards in 20 years (they won't) the suggestion is still absurd.

The iPad (and iOS 5 in general) supports QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ for English layouts, and it does have support for Dvorak hardware keyboards. I suggest the OP and those looking for software keyboard Dvorak layouts open enhancement requests to that effect with Apple. I'm quite certain it isn't something they are omitting on purpose, I would presume they just haven't had people asking for it enough to put in the work to do it.

Software is a wonderful thing.

I've used the Dvorak layout for 28 years, on various operating systems, and now on my iPad 2, using a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard.

I even type Chinese in Pinyin IME on my PC's (registry change).

I don't rearrange the hardware keys, and my family all know the hot-key to change to Qwerty.

I also love with this bluetooth keyboard having directional keys, instead of having to use my finger to position the cursor to make corrections.

This little keyboard will take a bit of getting used to, but I'm typing almost my full speed already.

Now to research how I can type Pinyin with the Dvorak layout as I do on my PC.

Cheers Dvorak Community. :-)

I thought Dvorak was a Chech Composer from the late 19th and early 20th century! 😉

Never heard of the keyboard.

LeeJiPhone wrote:

Now to research how I can type Pinyin with the Dvorak layout as I do on my PC.

The place for such a setting would be under the Hardware category in one of the Chinese layouts in Settings > General > Keyboards. Unfortunately Apple has not yet included Dvorak there yet, only us, french, german.

😁

August Dvorak, an efficiency fanatic, a professor of the University of Washington, and a cousin of Antonin Dvorak - the composer, designed the Dvorak Keyboard layout in 1936.

I now have the iHome iPad 2 case /Bluetooth Keyboard, and it's working great with the Dvorak keyboard layout (selectable with ease from the iPad's Int'l Input settings. I'm loving it.

I've been touch typing with Dvorak layout since switching in 2004 and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I've never even seen an actual hardware Dvorak keyboard, though I know they do make them. Why bother if you're not looking at your hands anyway.

I used the charming and game-like, "Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor" app to learn it.

And it's easy to select 'Dvorak' as the input/language on any computer.

I thank you for the wonderful information and history! I'll have to do some more research. I should have known there would be a connection! 🙂

Oh, you were serious?

Never!