I've considered learning Dvorak, but then I realize that words-per-minute is not my bottleneck, so I'd be optimizing prematurely something that doesn't need optimizing.

(I'm not transcribing text - I'm programming. My bottleneck is how fast I can think of what I want to write next, not how fast I actually type it).

It's still something I'd like to learn in the future, though... just not as high a priority.

I think it's not only about WPM, but straining your hands less. At least when we talk about coding, all those reaches to } are not good...

One downside I've found is CTRL+C and CTRL+V cannot be done with one hand anymore...

I've considered learning Dvorak, but then I realize that words-per-minute is not my bottleneck, so I'd be optimizing prematurely something that doesn't need optimizing.

(I'm not transcribing text - I'm programming. My bottleneck is how fast I can think of what I want to write next, not how fast I actually type it).

It's still something I'd like to learn in the future, though... just not as high a priority.

I think it's not only about WPM, but straining your hands less. At least when we talk about coding, all those reaches to } are not good...

Yes, that is precisely the point of dvorak.

Yeah but when we still look at the keys on QWERTY, making someone use an unfamiliar layout where the keys are not labelled properly just sounds painful. It would be awesome if the key-labels were LEDs that could change based on layout

It's a little frustrating at first - I'm forcing myself to type this post in dvorak. It's entirely possible, though, it's just a matter of dedication.

Technically speaking the LED thing is possible, but it would require a driver and cost a lot of money.

I think Ravyne might be hinting that it might not be possible to remap to dvorak everywhere (for instance, permission issues? I don't have first-hand accounts but I have used some locked-down computers were you could hardly change accessibility settings because "contact the administrator"). If you can't, it could be crippling in the short term.

ah, true, but you'd probably be able to type both in qwerty and dvorak, and use dvorak explicitly for programming.

Dvorak is interesting - I hadn't heard of it until recently, and it looks pretty useful. I especially like the number layout, it makes a lot more sense for programming than the Qwerty layout for sure.

I'll have to try this someday!

Is DVORAK actually designed with coding in mind? I thought it was simply meant to be a better layout for general typing - and maybe we get benefits as a happy bonus?

Is DVORAK actually designed with coding in mind? I thought it was simply meant to be a better layout for general typing - and maybe we get benefits as a happy bonus?

It says that it was originally scientifically designed for the English language, and then later on a "sub-dvorak" layout was conceived (this is the one I'm talking about in the original post) which additionally was optimised for programming.

I wasn't aware of Programmer's Dvorak. The lack of good symbol positions was one of the reasons I decided it wasn't worth it, but it seems like Programmer's Dvorak solves that issue.

Yeah but when we still look at the keys on QWERTY, making someone use an unfamiliar layout where the keys are not labelled properly just sounds painful. It would be awesome if the key-labels were LEDs that could change based on layout

I suppose you must be able to buy stickers, but just having 2 keyboards would be easy enough... keep the QWERTY one out of the way for when you need it.

You just get something like these. Because the stickers are transparent, you can see the normal QWERTY keys in white, with the Dvorak keys in blue.

Windows has built-in Dvorak support, and you can change between them with a Windows built-in icon next to the volume icon on the task-bar.

I wasn't aware of Programmer's Dvorak