I periodically go through a phase where I think I'm going to teach myself...

Jefferey Cave - 2016-04-17 11:20:27-0400 - Updated: 2016-04-17 11:20:27-0400

I periodically go through a phase where I think I'm going to teach myself to type more efficiently. Everytime I go through this, I come to the same conclusion: learning a new keyboard configuration will barely change my performance, but will make it harder for me to find my style of keyboard.

Then I remembered a guy I went to school with who had had one of his hands put through a combine. He used a QWERTY keyboard (because that's what was available), but had a high rate of typing.

It occurs to me that having one hand on a mouse, numberpad, or pen, field notes... whatever, and the other on the keyboard would be hugely beneficial.

+Noel Yap This most recent iteration of me re-learning to type is your's (and Dvorak's) fault.

ALL One Handed Keyboards and Systems for One-Handed Typing, Type With One Hand About One Hand Typing, Keyboarding and

Noel Yap - 2016-04-17 11:35:20-0400

It's too bad I didn't perform a baseline measurement of my typing speed prior to learning Dvorak. My feeling is that my speed hasn't improved all that much but my hands feel much better. There's simply much less hand contortions going on when using Dvorak (unless, as I had said in the other thread, one is type things like 'cvs' and 'svn'; OTOH, 'git' is pretty easy to type :-).

FWIW, I use a Microsoft Natural keyboard and a Logitech trackball to the right of the keyboard. I've gotten pretty proficient moving my right hand from keyboard to trackball. Considering I use my right hand for letters, navigation, number pad, and trackball. There might be improvement if I started using the trackball with my left hand. Of course, it would take time to retrain myself. Hmm, I might just do this even if it's just to try to stave off Alzheimer's.

Jefferey Cave - 2016-04-17 12:06:55-0400 - Updated: 2016-04-17 16:45:23-0400

Good catch on "quality" though. My understanding is that "fast typists type fast" regardless of the keyboard they use, Dvorak users self-select by being people that care enough to select a "more effient" keyboard. I hadn't considered comfort level though... having said that, my personal bias is to rank "availability" as more important than comfort.

(I also like 20 gauge shotguns, but have always owned 12 gauges... you can never find 20 gauge shells when you need them)

It was the comparison of svn/git/cvs on differenet keyboards that got me thinking about about the one-handed guy. I started wondering how much forethought the authors gave when picking "git" as a name.