Should We All Adopt Dvorak?
No, I'm not talking about the composer Antonin Dvorak, or the tech reporter/opinion writer John C. Dvorak. I'm talking about the keyboard layout. I would say that 99.9999999999999999999999999999% of computer users use QWERTY keyboards while about 2 or 3 people use the Dvorak layout. Lets go back in time...back to the invention of the typewriter...someone by the name of Christopher Sholes. Not only did he invent the typewriter, but he created the QWERTY layout, but this was mainly by accident. The first type writer had slugs that hit the platen to make the letters. Sholes was having trouble getting much speed out of this typewriter because it was prone to jamming. So, he decided to move the keys to make most common letter combinations around so it would be harder to type fast which would slow down the typist. Dr. August Dvorak, the man who invented the Dvorak layout, found all this stuff out while studying office efficiency. He concluded that the QWERTY layout was the most inefficient way to type.
Now...the main difference between the Dvorak and QWERTY layout.
The main difference between the two layouts is that all vowels and common consonants are on the home row (middle row). Dr. Dvorak estimated that a QWERTY typest moved around his keyboard 16 miles a day compared with 1 mile on the Dvorak layout, and that the average WPM (words per minute) on QWERTY was about 40 WPM and 60 WPM on the Dvorak layout. The only bad thing is that since most of us have cut our teeth on QWERTY, it would be hard to retrain ourselves to type on Dvorak. Maybe we should teach the newer typists how to type on Dvorak keyboards....
Cited:
QWERTY & Dvorak Keyboard-Microsoft vs. Apple: http://www.jmusheneaux.com/6000ba.htm
