OT: Easier than Dvorak

S

skearney

The Dvorak keyboard was discussed in this group last summer. Hope this
isn't too far off topic.

Aset keyboard
It has been said that the most common letters were taken off the home
row of the first typewriter keyboard to slow down the typist and
prevent jamming.
On a Dvorak keyboard almost sixty percent of average text is typed from
the home keys. Transposing the letters 'etni' with 'dfjk' would put
more than 55% of text on the home keys, up from only 26% on the qwerty
layout. Thats more than twice the text typed without lifting a finger.

The change is quite pleasent and easy to learn. I hope you will pass
this on.

To put e, t, n and i back where they belong, there is a keyboard
remapping program that is free, downloads quickly and is very easy to
use. I am typing this post on a keyboard remapped to the 'etni'
transposition layout. The program is called 'Keytweak 2.11' and can be
googled up by that name. It is available from several sites, including
PC magazine and recommended by several keyboard manufacturers,
including TypeMatrix. The creator of the program is Travis Krumsick.

1) After you have loaded the program click start.
2) Click the "KeyTweak" icon and a graphic of a keyboard will appear.
3) Click the "Full Teach Mode" at the bottom of the screen.
4) A box will appear. Click "Begin Teach Mode".
5) Press the key you want to reassign, then the key you want it
reassigned to, in this case D to E.
6) Click "Remap Key#1 to Key#2"
7) The box will disappear and the scancodes of the keys will appear in
the "Pending Changes" window at the bottom right.
8) Follow the same procedure (from 3) for E to D, and the remaining
six remaps.
9) Click "Apply" and you will be asked if you want to turn off the
computer to apply the changes.
At the top there is also a clickable "Restore Defaults" to give
you back your qwerty layout.
I was able to remap in under three minutes and restore qwerty in
thirty seconds, not including the restart.

You can try out the sample lines of text below to discover that your
fingers already know where etni should go.

nineteen lean little saints settle in a nest
jkjdfddj ldaj lkffld sakjfs sdffld kj a jdsf

an alien eats an ant antenna in atlanta
aj alkdj dafs aj ajf ajfdjja kj aflajfa

elite sense entails a siesta in a satin seat
dlkfd sdjsd djfakls a skdsfa kj a safkj sdaf

a stain is seen at a linen sale
a sfakj ks sddj af a lkjdj sald

a latent latin talent tast tests in seattle
a lafdjf lafkj faldjf fasf fdsfs kj sdaffld

insane santa sails in sea salt
kjsajd sajfa sakls kj sda salf

Many thanks,
 
S

skearney

BAR said:
How many times must you post the same nonsense?

My special apologies to you Mr. 'BAR'. In response to my last posting
you gave the most succinct history and description of the Dvorak
keyboard that I have seen. I have accidently posted twice to this and
another group. I had intended to post only once to groups where the
Dvorak had come up as a topic of discussion.
In that post you raised the question of why Dvorak has not caught on.
Was it the cost of retraining, equipment or just stupidity. I think
there is another plausable reason, the sheer magnitude of the change.
Just looking at qwerty, the letters missing alphabetically from the
home row are e and i. This makes me wonder if the urban legend has
some truth, common letters on the home row caused jamming, putting them
back increases the speed and accuracy of typing.
In another group a poster suggested that competitions be held for
typing as a way to determine the best layout. Qwerty has the advantage
that it is so familiar, it takes effort to unlearn it, so a general
study of average typists is bound to yield a few percentage points to
the standard. If there is some inherent advantage in typing a greater
amount of text from the home keys, it will only be at the high end of
typing skill that it will show.
My hope, or perhaps my delusion, was that there might be a few people
out there who would appreciate the very shallow learning curve for
etni, relative to Dvorak, and give it a try. Many users of the Dvorak
layout are advocates as well. Many maintain their proficiency on
qwerty as a concession to practicality, which demonstrates just how
commited they are to Dvorak. In the brewing ng a poster wrote that I
would have to become a fisher of typists. It looks like I am the only
user/advocate of the etni transposition, and it looks like it is going
to stay that way.
While I am sorry you feel my post is nonsense, I obviously don't, the
second time around it qualifies as spam and I should have been more
careful.
Thank you for taking the time and intellect to write your previous
post, and may you never develope arthritis.
 
D

D.Currie

The Dvorak keyboard was discussed in this group last summer. Hope this
isn't too far off topic.

Aset keyboard
It has been said that the most common letters were taken off the home
row of the first typewriter keyboard to slow down the typist and
prevent jamming.
On a Dvorak keyboard almost sixty percent of average text is typed from
the home keys. Transposing the letters 'etni' with 'dfjk' would put
more than 55% of text on the home keys, up from only 26% on the qwerty
layout. Thats more than twice the text typed without lifting a finger.

The change is quite pleasent and easy to learn. I hope you will pass
this on.

Using a custom keyboard setup would only increase productivity if that is
the ONLY setup you will use. For people who use computers in multiple
locations, they probably don't have the ability to change layouts on all of
the computers. At work, for instance, many people wouldn't be able to
customize they keyboard layout. Or go to a friend's house, an Internet cafe,
the library, or a kiosk at a store or airport, and you're going to be
looking at a standard keyboard. It's bad enough that the Delete key moves
around on different keyboards.
 
S

skearney

D.Currie said:
Using a custom keyboard setup would only increase productivity if that is
the ONLY setup you will use. For people who use computers in multiple
locations, they probably don't have the ability to change layouts on all of
the computers. At work, for instance, many people wouldn't be able to
customize they keyboard layout. Or go to a friend's house, an Internet cafe,
the library, or a kiosk at a store or airport, and you're going to be
looking at a standard keyboard. It's bad enough that the Delete key moves
around on different keyboards.

Because the letters are swapped as a block, qwerty seems to come
right back when I look at the keyboard as I am typing. I have read
posts of several people who were very pleased with the Dvorak but gave
it up for exactly the reasons you cited. The majority of the dozen or
so people who I have corresponded with, who still love their Dvorak,
maintain their proficiency with qwerty for the same reason. It seems
to be the general concensus that noone will change to a new layout
untill that layout is common.
I can only say that 'qwdrfy' dosn't have the steep learning curve of
Dvorak, the letters remain under the same fingers and so the positions
of the letters can be reasoned out. It was frustrating for the first
few weeks, perhaps a couple of thousand words, but typing is now more
of a pleasure.
In summary, etni delivers almost the same efficiency of the home
keys as Dvorak, is faster to learn and makes for an easier to return to
qwerty.
Thanks for your post, just what I needed, more common sense.
 

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