Comment by jcoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcoder | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

A lot of the comments on the original post suggest that keyboard shortcuts are an impediment to adoption. I type in Dvorak, use Vim with hjkl (actually, jkhl, which I find easier because vertical movement is on my left hand and horizontal on my right), and I make copious use of other shortcuts.

The answer is: you just start using them in their new locations. It doesn't take long for your muscle memory to adjust, and today (~2 years after switching) I can't remember the last time I had to think twice about j,k,h,l, ctl-p, ctl-n, ctl-a, ctl-e, cmd-c, cmd-x, cmd-v, or any other common shortcut.

Don't use a variant that reverts to QWERTY when you hold the command key or something silly like that---you'll just confuse yourself and slow down your adoption.

A lot of people are annoyed that many one-handed shortcuts become two-handed on Dvorak. I switched before I knew about OS X's Dvorak-Qwerty ⌘ mode, but I almost went back to Qwerty because of the shortcuts.

That's interesting. I actually appreciate that certain shortcuts become two-handed. The proximity (on QWERTY) of X, C, and V to the left ⌘ key promotes a cramped, claw-like chording that is antithetical to the purpose of Dvorak (ergonomics). I find myself wishing that the X key were on the right hand for this reason.

Of course---neither layout dictates a 1 or 2 hand maneuver because there are two ⌘ keys, but I think it's common for users to want to use one or the other (for me, the left, unless I'm using it with the + and - keys, for some reason).

IIRC, that OS X mode doesn't carry through to Swing properly. Not a big deal for many, but I use IDEA and RubyMine pretty heavily so it was a no-go.

Completely agree. One of the points people like to make when they discover I use Dvorak is that keyboard shortcuts become a huge pain. After a while they become as natural as the QWERTY ones.

I've been using Dvorak for a little over 7 years and I still find myself regress to QWERTY shortcuts on occasion. The real problem I've found is when I don't remember the location but remember the mnemonic. It could be related to never being able to fully kick QWERTY: my wife and co-workers still use QWERTY, so I have to type in that layout with some amount of regularity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com