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Dvorak keyboard layout

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File:Dvorak keyboard2.png
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (pronounced /'dvoræk/) is a keyboard layout designed by Drs. August Dvorak and William Dealey in the 1920s and 1930s as an alternative to the more common QWERTY layout. It has also been called the Simplified Keyboard or American Simplified Keyboard, but is commonly known as the Dvorak keyboard.

Overview

Dvorak and Dealey studied letter frequencies and the physiology of the hand and created the layout to adhere to these principles:

  • It is easier to type letters alternating between hands.
  • For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest.
  • Likewise, the least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
  • The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
  • It is more difficult to type digraphs with adjacent fingers than non-adjacent fingers.
  • Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle (as an example, rap your fingers on a table and see which is easier: going from little finger to index or vice versa). This motion on a keyboard is called inboard stroke flow.

The layout was completed in 1932 and was granted U.S. patent 2,040,248 in 1936. It was designated an alternate standard keyboard layout by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1982. In 1984 the Dvorak keyboard had an estimated 100,000 users.

Also, due to some of the above principles and other preferences, there is considerable variation between implementations in the placement of punctuation on the English layout.

Benefits

Even though many feel that the principles on which the Dvorak keyboard is based should make it superior to the older QWERTY, there is divergent evidence about whether the logic of the keyboard actually translates into faster typing. Although studies performed by Dvorak and his disciples indicate a large advantage in typing speed (40%), other studies performed for the US General Services Administration and independent ergonomics investigations indicate either a small or nonexistent advantage (less than 5%).

Resistance to change

Attempts to convert universally to the Dvorak have not been met with success. Typists who are already proficient with the QWERTY layout do not want to have to relearn on a new keyboard, although Dvorak claimed that it didn't take very long to show an improvement. It is possible, at least for some, to learn to touch type with the Dvorak keyboard while still retaining the ability to touch type with QWERTY. [1]

Applications expecting a specific key layout will be an issue when using the Dvorak layout. For example, the Unix text editor vi uses the keys H, J, K, and L to cause movement to the left, down, up, and right, respectively. With a QWERTY layout, these keys are all together under the right hand home row, but with Dvorak they are no longer neatly together. In many video games, keys A, S, W and D are used for arrow movements, as they are arranged in an inverse-T position in a QWERTY layout. In Dvorak layout, this is no longer true. Of course, depending on the program, some will respect the operating system's layout setting and use Dvorak, while others will allow users to redefine the program keybindings to assume a QWERTY arrangement, so that A, S, W, D keys are still the inverted-T shape.

Keyboard shortcuts also became an issue. For example, the traditional shortcuts for undo and cut/copy/paste in word processors are Ctrl + Z, X, C, and V respectively, which are conveniently in a row in the QWERTY layout but scattered in the Dvorak layout.

Depending on the environment, these issues may be of more or less concern. Some operating systems and programs allow the user to remap shortcut keys, preserving the usefulness of procedural memory for those shortcuts. However, if a user wants to switch keymaps but cannot remap shortcut keys, then he risks losing productivity while he relearns the positions of the shortcut keys. For some people, particularly the elderly, relearning motor skills is very time-consuming.

A discussion of the Dvorak Keyboard is sometimes used as an exercise by management consultants to illustrate the difficulties of change.

Dvorak may be better suited for situations where block-typing is done. However, the design has made some headway, with Dvorak layouts now available on most major computer operating systems. In particular, the ability on most operating systems for each user to set the keymap for his or her account allows users to choose their keymaps without needing to buy new keyboards. It also reduces collisions between users of different keymaps on the same machine.

The Dvorak keyboard is often used as a standard example of network effects, particularly in economics textbooks, the other standard example being the competition between Betamax and VHS. These examples (particularly QWERTY) are used to demonstrate that inferior technologies sometimes succeed because they get locked-in to the market. Stanley J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis, two economists who have investigated these claims in several academic and popular papers, argue that the actual evidence in these cases does not support a claim of market failure or lock-in; as they put it, "the claim that Dvorak is a better keyboard is supported only by evidence that is both scant and suspect." [2]

Further improvements

Dvorak also proposed an alternative ordering of the digits on the numbers row, 7-5-3-1-9-0-2-4-6-8, believing this arrangement to be more efficient. The present system is asymmetric, with the left hand typing six numerals and the right hand four. However, few who use the keyboard employ this rearrangement, and indeed the ANSI standard calls for the usual numerical order. It is this which is shown in the diagram above.

One hand versions

File:Right-hand-dvorak-keyboard.png
Right-handed Dvorak layout
File:Left-hand-dvorak-keyboard.png
Left-handed Dvorak layout

There are also Dvorak arrangements designed for one-handed typing that are useful for the disabled or for simultaneously controlling a mouse, among other potential uses. One arrangement is designed for right-hand typing, while the other is for left-handed typing.

NOTE: correctness of the layout shown here is in question. Software-based layout from Microsoft Windows apparently had a slightly different arrangement than the pictures shown here. In the Microsoft version, the number keys are in 2 columns only and are on the opposite side of the keyboard in the left-handed version).

Other languages

In addition, Dvorak-based keyboard layouts have been created for languages other than English.

An implementation for Swedish, known as Svorak, places the three extra Swedish vowels on the leftmost three keys of the upper row, which correspond to punctuation symbols on the English Dvorak layout. These punctuation symbols are then juggled with other keys, and the Alt-Gr key is required to access some of them. Another Swedish version is Svdvorak that keeps the punctuation symbols as they were in the english version. The first extra vowel (å) is placed in the far left of the top row while the other two (ä and ö) are placed at the far left of the bottom row

The Norwegian implementation (known as "Norsk Dvorak") is similar to Svdvorak with "æ" and "ø" replacing "ä" and "ö".

A Finnish DAS keyboard layout follows many of Dvorak's design principles, but the layout is an original design based on the most common letters and letter combinations in the Finnish language. Matti Airas has also made another layout for Finnish. Finnish can also be typed reasonably well with the English Dvorak layout if the letters ä and ö are added.

There are some non standard Brazilian Dvorak keyboards currently in development. The simpler design (also called BRDK) is just a Dvorak keyboard plus some keys from the Brazilian ABNT2 keyboard. Another design, however, was specifically designed for writing Brazilian Portuguese, by means of a study that optimized typing statistics, like frequent letters, trigraphs and words.

The most common German Dvorak is the German Type II layout. It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

See also

Dvorak tools

Evidence

Controversy

  • The Curse of Qwerty by Jared Diamond provides the traditional story of the history of the typewriter including the claim of superiority of the Dvorak keyboard.
  • The Fable of the Keys - Article by Liebowitz and Margolis questioning the Dvorak keyboard's superiority.
  • Asetion - Comparative table of the Dvorak and Asetion layouts, highlighting some of the issues with the Dvorak layout.
  • Typing Errors - Article in Reason Magazine by Liebowitz and Margolis alleging evidence against the Dvorak layout's superiority.
    • Cassingham letter Letter to the editor of Reason Magazine by Randy Cassingham criticizing the claims made by Liebowitz and Margolis.
    • Market failure again? an article of Gene Callahan in defense of the free market, stating that the Dvorak-technology was not technologically superior.

Foreign language layouts

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