Comments on: Six weeks of Dvorak http://jamesmckay.net/2007/08/six-weeks-of-dvorak/ because there are few things that are less logical than business logic Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:45:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: James http://jamesmckay.net/2007/08/six-weeks-of-dvorak/#comment-1837 James Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:53:20 +0000 http://www.jamesmckay.net/2007/08/six-weeks-of-dvorak/#comment-1837 Actually it was the fanboyism of some (but not all) of the Colemak community that I found particularly off-putting. Don't know why, but it just did. There is actually a difference between enthusiasm and fanboyism: fanboys get upset if you say you weren't impressed with their layout, and I felt there was just a little bit too much of that from some people on the forums, whereas normal enthusiasts can accept that other people may not feel quite the same way as they do, and shrug that kind of thing off. Having said that, I still think Colemak is a pretty impressive piece of work -- I'm just not using it, that's all, mainly due to time constraints. There is quite a bit of effort involved in learning a new layout and while the effort to get up to speed on Colemak may be a good bit less than Dvorak, I came to the conclusion that I was much more "nearly there" with Dvorak thanks to my previous efforts, which is why I decided to go that way in the end, and sure enough there came a point fairly early on in my current attempt where it suddenly seemed to "click". I have admittedly taken a bit of a meandering kind of route there though -- everything was thrown completely up in the air when my laptop screen decided to start misbehaving back in the summer, which means that I'm using my Kinesis keyboard pretty much exclusively now. And don't knock it either: I find it makes much more of a difference in terms of comfort than the layout does, especially when you end up touch typing properly with it. Conventional flat keyboards really are pretty awkward when you look at them, with the rows of keys skewed for reasons that are purely historical and no separation between the hands, forcing your wrists to be bent together into a rather uncomfortable angle. Incidentally, I see that Colemak is back on Wikipedia again now. It seems that being included in Ubuntu and X11 made a difference in the deletion review. It will be interesting to see how the article fares now, though as I've decided to stop contributing to Wikipedia I probably won't be paying too much attention to it. My attitude to Colemak is really one of "wait and see" at the moment: if it becomes amazingly popular I may give it some more serious consideration, though at the moment I get the impression that it is still a little bit on the fringes somewhat. Actually it was the fanboyism of some (but not all) of the Colemak community that I found particularly off-putting. Don’t know why, but it just did. There is actually a difference between enthusiasm and fanboyism: fanboys get upset if you say you weren’t impressed with their layout, and I felt there was just a little bit too much of that from some people on the forums, whereas normal enthusiasts can accept that other people may not feel quite the same way as they do, and shrug that kind of thing off.

Having said that, I still think Colemak is a pretty impressive piece of work — I’m just not using it, that’s all, mainly due to time constraints. There is quite a bit of effort involved in learning a new layout and while the effort to get up to speed on Colemak may be a good bit less than Dvorak, I came to the conclusion that I was much more “nearly there” with Dvorak thanks to my previous efforts, which is why I decided to go that way in the end, and sure enough there came a point fairly early on in my current attempt where it suddenly seemed to “click”. I have admittedly taken a bit of a meandering kind of route there though — everything was thrown completely up in the air when my laptop screen decided to start misbehaving back in the summer, which means that I’m using my Kinesis keyboard pretty much exclusively now. And don’t knock it either: I find it makes much more of a difference in terms of comfort than the layout does, especially when you end up touch typing properly with it. Conventional flat keyboards really are pretty awkward when you look at them, with the rows of keys skewed for reasons that are purely historical and no separation between the hands, forcing your wrists to be bent together into a rather uncomfortable angle.

Incidentally, I see that Colemak is back on Wikipedia again now. It seems that being included in Ubuntu and X11 made a difference in the deletion review. It will be interesting to see how the article fares now, though as I’ve decided to stop contributing to Wikipedia I probably won’t be paying too much attention to it. My attitude to Colemak is really one of “wait and see” at the moment: if it becomes amazingly popular I may give it some more serious consideration, though at the moment I get the impression that it is still a little bit on the fringes somewhat.

]]> By: Craig http://jamesmckay.net/2007/08/six-weeks-of-dvorak/#comment-1768 Craig Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:58:55 +0000 http://www.jamesmckay.net/2007/08/six-weeks-of-dvorak/#comment-1768 I found this only because I was experimenting with Google Reader. Glad you find Dvorak works for you after the fourth try. Most probably wouldn't give it more than one try. I have to say I gave Dvorak one try and that's about all I wanted with it. Colemak was a much, much better experience. If small advantages lower the barrier enough to allow someone who wants to switch actually switch to something more comfortable than QWERTY, then those advantages made a big difference. For those of us on the go using a notebook computer all the time and will not be carrying around an expensive oversized custom keyboard, perhaps the advantages of Colemak are a bit more important. I don't see the need to label people that are enthusiastic about something that they use everyday with a derogatory label like "fanboy" or make other disparaging remarks just because you decided you had invested too much effort in Dvorak. What's wrong with the fact that Colemak actually has a user base in the short time it's been around as opposed to the other layouts which as far as I can tell don't have anyone but the person who came up with them using them. I found this only because I was experimenting with Google Reader. Glad you find Dvorak works for you after the fourth try. Most probably wouldn’t give it more than one try. I have to say I gave Dvorak one try and that’s about all I wanted with it. Colemak was a much, much better experience. If small advantages lower the barrier enough to allow someone who wants to switch actually switch to something more comfortable than QWERTY, then those advantages made a big difference. For those of us on the go using a notebook computer all the time and will not be carrying around an expensive oversized custom keyboard, perhaps the advantages of Colemak are a bit more important. I don’t see the need to label people that are enthusiastic about something that they use everyday with a derogatory label like “fanboy” or make other disparaging remarks just because you decided you had invested too much effort in Dvorak. What’s wrong with the fact that Colemak actually has a user base in the short time it’s been around as opposed to the other layouts which as far as I can tell don’t have anyone but the person who came up with them using them.

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