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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

This is gonna be like Dvorak where eventually we all figure out that it’s not significantly faster and you had to re-learn how to type just to figure that out.

I submit the idea that for most smartphone users, distance traveled and layout are not the limiting factor for typing speed.

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> This is gonna be like Dvorak where eventually we all figure out that it’s not significantly faster and you had to re-learn how to type just to figure that out.

Generally nowadays people don't learn Dvorak because it's faster, they learn it because it reduces finger travel and effort.

Those factors apply here too.

Much better to use completion/expansion facilities than to learn a non-standard layout. Trying to use any device when you're used to Dvorak is such indescribable suffering.

Rather than experiencing that in exchange for a tiny amount of saved effort, stick with QWERTY and press TAB/etc to skip most of the typing.

I think they actually learn it because of the fun of mastery and the satisfaction of typing at high speed when you’re good at it, I doubt there’s much practical value.

I find another factor that is not always discussed is comfort and how pleasant it is to use a layout. I know Dvorak is not much faster in the end but it is such a joy to use in comparison to Qwerty. I do wonder if it would be fun or just nice to use this hex-grid layout on a phone.

This is honestly the best argument for this, use it if you find it fun! Obviously it won’t be mainstream as some seem to think, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be cool.

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