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Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

Having used it for 20 years now... I don't find that dvorak improves my typing speed. If anything it probably net reduces my productivity since often I'm hitting paste (ctrl-v) and I miss and hit exit window (ctrl-x).

However, I like it because it feels comfortable typing in it, way more so than qwerty.

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That’s why I switched to Colemak instead of Dvorak - keeps zxcv in the same spot.

But I agree with you completely - Colemak is way more comfortable to type in than QWERTY. Way fewer hand movements and less finger stretching for common bigrams. My non-scientifically based hope is that it’ll reduce RSI in the long run. No regrets after 10ish years

Ditto, this is always what I tell people when they ask about it. Not really faster but definitely easier on the hands.

BTW on MacOS there is a Dvorak mode that uses QWERTY when the command key is down!

I've been using Dvorak 20+ years as well. Definitely faster than I ever was with QWERTY, and more accurate. And more comfortable.

With MacOS, I use the DV+QW layout where the layout is QWERTY if you're holding down Cmd. So Cmd+V etc work just like on a QWERTY keyboard. It's a pretty good compromise.

This has been my experience as well. Using a non-qwerty layout is an annoyance when I use somebody else's computer or somebody else uses mine.

While I don't see myself moving back, I never recommend switching to others.

I dunno, it was a pretty enlightening experience, learning how to struggle, learning how to be humble about sucking at something that for me till then was super basic (as an adult, so I could really savor the feeling -- I had learned to touch-type at age six). If you don't forget qwerty, it's not an annoyance to use someone else's keyboard. And having someone else be annoyed when they use my keyboard is a feature =).

The only time it was mildly annoying was when I started dating someone and asked to use her laptop, and I suddenly found I couldn't type. It turned out that she had ALSO learned dvorak in college. When I realized what was going on it was all good.

To make your setup really unusable, use a 60% layout with blank key caps and VIM. :-)

I use this setup + qwerty in an azerty region, needless to say my setup does not get used a lot for pair programming. I actually did have a spare keyboard in my desk drawer for a long time just in case someone really wanted to use my machine before I went full-time WFH.

Yeah, I think this was probably the only thing. My hands felt slightly less tired after a lot of typing. I was about the same speed as qwerty, which was already decently fast.

Why don't you remap the clipboard combos to their usual places?

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