Comment by nanexcool | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nanexcool | Hacker News Reader

I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago. In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Qwerty.

Nobody can use my machines. My girlfriend already knows to Ctrl-Shift to change keyboard layouts, but that's on my PC where Windows is in English. On my laptop with Windows in Spanish it's Alt-Shift. Even I get confused sometimes.

Most games I play don't recognize layouts, so WASD doesn't work. I have to Ctrl-Shift before launching a game. And that's on Windows 8 that has per-session layout. Windows 7 is per window layout so if Ctrl-Shift doesn't work inside the game I have to manually configure keyboard.

Copy Cut Paste become Ctrl I, Ctrl B and Ctrl . I think this is not a problem in Colemak.

My first language is Spanish. After learning Dvorak I no longer use accents or ñ (just Alt-164'd that one) so it's a pain when I type something more or less official that can't have spelling errors.

After that rant, I'm still relatively happy with Dvorak. At least I have something to say on job interviews.

Internalization is a big plus for colemak. I used to use a US keyboard as a french speaker which caused me lots of problems. With colemak, I can easily type all language specific characters: ¿øéàößåñ

This could easily been added to dvorak in much the same way. The hard part is getting the different drivers to support it.

I also use Dvorak in Spanish, but I modded it with Ukelele to make tilde (`) a dead key. ` followed by an n or vowel will return an ñ or accentuated vowel. I also swapped tag keys ( <> ) with the parentheses so I could write Lisp more easily.

As for nobody using my machines, I see that as a plus :)

As a person with RSI in both wrists, I'm glad I changed to Dvorak last year, including a change to the kinesis keyboard.

That being said, I can never apply to grad school anymore because I can no longer type in qwerty and won't be able to take the way portion of those electronic tests very well. (And that would affect my performance in other sections)

I've been looking at the Kinesis keyboards to try to get some relief from wrist pain. Which do you use? Have you tried the MS Natural, or did you go straight to Kinesis?

Kinesis can strain your thumbs. I used one for 14 years. Still got major wrist pain and really bad thumb pain. Microsoft Sculpt Mobile and that style of keyboard ended up being my best option.

I use the Natural. I bought a Sculpt, but took it back because of the top row of keys being so small, and a couple of other gripes. I bought another Natural, but I always ponder the Kinesis line. Besides the unknown experience, the price is also a factor.

My cube-mate has a natural and I use a kinesis. We both thing the keys on the kinesis have noticily better action, but he just can't (doesn't want to) wrap his head around the grid layout. Unless you have very small hands, or you just absolutely hammer on your keyboard, it would be unlikely for the kinesis to make your thumbs sore. The space button on the ms naturl is junk compared to cherry mx brown switches.

I initially had rsi pains in my wrists and pinkies, after I recovered I switched to a Kinesis and was convinced it helped keep the rsi away for 2 years or so.

Recently the pain came back worse than ever, this time accompanied with quite serious thumb pains, I certainly do not blame the Kinesis as it is most surely a combination of many factors (poor habits, stress, workload, etc.), but the layout does increase the load on the thumbs so I think that contributed.

For now I have switched back to a cheap Microsoft dome keyboard as it is easier to type with using only my forefinger and middle finger (and easily allows me to avoid using thumbs and pinkies).

Of course this is all just my personal experience, for years the Kinesis was lovely and I may still go back to it, as always YMMV.

Why must you type in qwerty to take the tests? Can't you bring in your own keyboard that supports Dvorak in hardware?

I took the GRE and pretty much skipped the written portion of it.

Before taking the test, they emailed me and asked me if I needed accommodations, to which I brought up the keyboard layout issue. They, however, wouldn't let me bring my own keyboard or change they keyboard layout. Typing in Dvorak does have it's disadvantages...

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