Don’t forget the secret lesson: using anything but QWERTY is rare, though users of keyboards are not, so it’s a high-visibility status statement. Especially if you do move your key caps, then pretty much nobody (not in the select few who can find the relevant settings quickly) can use your computer easily. It’s an excellent excuse not to cede the keyboard ;-)
I think the take home lesson from that site is that QWERTY is horrible and almost everything else is a drastic improvement...
QWERTY is closer to optimal than it is to the worst layout, so I’m not sure that’s the case. Even so, switching to DVORAK instead of COLEMAK or QGMLWY is just silly as DVORAK is worse and harder to learn.
The reference class I had in mind was “keyboards intelligently designed for use by humans”, not “random keyboard layouts” :)
But yeah, obviously if you’re going to learn a new layout, learn the best one available. I just looked it up; Colemak was released in 2006 (http://www.colemak.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#What_is_Colemak.3F). It didn’t exist when I learned dvorak, which makes me feel better about lavalamp_2001′s research skills.
My perception is that Colemak and QGMLWY aren’t so much better than dvorak as to make it worth the effort for me to switch again.
I think the take home lesson from that site is that QWERTY is horrible and almost everything else is a drastic improvement...
Don’t forget the secret lesson: using anything but QWERTY is rare, though users of keyboards are not, so it’s a high-visibility status statement. Especially if you do move your key caps, then pretty much nobody (not in the select few who can find the relevant settings quickly) can use your computer easily. It’s an excellent excuse not to cede the keyboard ;-)
QWERTY is closer to optimal than it is to the worst layout, so I’m not sure that’s the case. Even so, switching to DVORAK instead of COLEMAK or QGMLWY is just silly as DVORAK is worse and harder to learn.
The reference class I had in mind was “keyboards intelligently designed for use by humans”, not “random keyboard layouts” :)
But yeah, obviously if you’re going to learn a new layout, learn the best one available. I just looked it up; Colemak was released in 2006 (http://www.colemak.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#What_is_Colemak.3F). It didn’t exist when I learned dvorak, which makes me feel better about lavalamp_2001′s research skills.
My perception is that Colemak and QGMLWY aren’t so much better than dvorak as to make it worth the effort for me to switch again.
Sounds right to me. The returns are far too diminished!