On Tuesday, November 6, 2001, at 01:08 , Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:

> At 05.44 a.m. 6.11.2001 +0000, D Tse wrote:
>> I've been meaning to learn Dvorak one day but I don't have key layout
>> stickers or anything that would be useful.
>
> I don't have stickers on my keyboard. One of the points of Dvorak is to
> assist touchtyping, so you don't need to bother looking at the keyboard.
> It's rather disconcerting to look at what you're typing, tho. It becomes
> instinctive; you cannot think about it any at all (even moreso than with
> qwerty, because as soon as you think about it, you've got no idea what's
> what. 'Why on earch am I typing "G" to get an "I"?'). I imagine with a
> dvorak-labelled keyboard ($A149 from a Retravision in WA for a
> 'Dvortyboard') it'd be different, tho.
>
<laugh>
There are also typing tutor programs--one freeware one I downloaded for
Windows a while back actually gave you an on-the-monitor "keyboard" that
would show you the keys and what you'd just typed, so while you're in that
program at least, you can avoid looking at the keyboard altogether.

I haven't looked at the keyboard for anything but the function keys (I
guess I haven't played enough computer games for those to become
instinctive) since 5th grade (I learned touch-typing in 4th and 5th grade)
.  "Special" characters used to give me trouble until I did some
programming in C/Java.  That cured *that* prejudice right quick.  <G>  (C/
C++ is a keyboarding workout in itself, even if you have no clue what the
code actually does.)

> One of the problems of dvorak is that 'most people' have problems using a
> qwerty keyboard afterwards. I'm slowly regaining qwerty skills, but I'm a
> lot slower (for, say, using on an opac at a library) than before. (I'd say
> about ten words per minute with the odd look.)
>
<nod>  Yeah--I'm interested in learning, but I'm worried about that (since
when we're in the same geographical region I use my fiance's computer for
Windows apps, and *he* ain't gonna learn Dvorak) plus loss of typing speed.

> Although I must say that I like dvorak. Before dvorak, it was a completely
> valid observation to say 'you'd type faster if you didn't type so fast',
> but now, mistakes only happen in memorised regular sequences, like
> 'Tristan' or my password, and there it's only a case of 'Tristna' or
> similar.
>
> Tristan (isn't forcing dvorak onto the world, he just likes what he uses
> and uses what he likes)

That's cool.  :-)  I like the idea, and I found it easy to get used to
when I tried it for a week.  Right now I have too many papers to write for
my classes to justify going down to 10/20 wpm while learning a new
keyboard layout.  <sigh>  Perhaps this coming summer...it'd be a great way
of totally confusing people who tried to use my computer.  ^_^

Yoon Ha Lee [[log in to unmask]]
http://pegasus.cityofveils.com

The grass is always greener on the other side of the timeline.--Alex Kay