On Tue, 21 Nov 2006, michael hast wrote:
> Eben King wrote:
>> On Tue, 21 Nov 2006, Max F Lang wrote:
>>
>>> On Monday 20 November 2006 11:52 am, michael hast wrote:
>>>> I've got an interesting one for you. For quite some time now, I
>>>> have been thinking of trying out Dvorak. I have an old keyboard that I
>>>
>>> I've long had these two functions in my ~/.bashrc file:
>>>
>>> asdf() { setxkbmap dvorak; }
>>> aoeu() { setxkbmap en_US; }
>>>
>>> I hit "asdf" at a command prompt and I'm using a two-handed Dvorak. I hit
>>> "aoeu" (same key strokes) and I'm back using the standard keyboard.
>>
>> That's much simpler than the X branch of my scripts, but I don't know if
>> there's a map for Left Hand Dvorak. How do I find out what valid options
>> to setxkbmap are? I mean there's the man page, and it gives hints about
>> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb but I can only find one thing there called *dvorak*
>> (keymap/sgi_vndr/dvorak) and I doubt that's what you're invoking. On
>> purpose, anyway.
>>
> Not to mention simpler than having two keyboards on the machine! Honestly, I
> know where the keys are under qwerty. I don't really need them mapped out
> for me there. I should do something like this instead. Maybe I should be
> looking at left-hand Dvorak instead anyway.
Only if you type one-handed.
> Eben, have you used both?
QWERTY and LHDvorak, yes. For a brief time in the early 1990s I started
learning regular Dvorak too (no key cap changes, all by touch-typing), but
never got very good at it.
> If so, can you tell that using only one hand reduces your speed to an
> appreciable degree?
You shouldn't use a one-handed layout if both hands work fine. My speed
dropped by a factor of 5 or 6 when I went to one-handed typing, mainly
because of mistakes positioning, and now because of unfamiliarity with the
layout. This layout is about the same speed as QWERTY, maybe a little bit
faster; the advantage to me is there is little lateral motion involved,
since you can reach all letters without moving the hand (I left the key cap
off the "H" so I can identify it by feel.)
> And regardless of that, how would you rate your speed
> between standard two-hand and left-hand Dvorak? Thanks again!
I never got good enough at regular Dvorak to check my speed, but on QWERTY a
couple years later I was around 70 wpm.
-- -eben QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP http://royalty.no-ip.org:81 LEO: Now is not a good time to photocopy your butt and staple it to your boss' face, oh no. Eat a bucket of tuna-flavored pudding and wash it down with a gallon of strawberry Quik. -- Weird Al ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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