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From: bote@csense.uucp (John Boteler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Re^2: Dvorak keys vs. QWERT
Message-ID: <1990Sep10.201502.200@csense.uucp>
Date: 10 Sep 90 20:15:02 GMT
References: <1990Sep7.180323.8467@intek01.uucp>
Organization: Common Sense Computing, McLean, VA.
Lines: 24

From article <1990Sep7.180323.8467@intek01.uucp>, by mark@intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins):
> 
> I haven't tried Dvorak, but Donald Norman ("The Psychology of Everyday
> Things") claims that it's quite well documented that a conversion from
> QWERTY to Dvorak will increase speed by no more than 10% for the average
> user.  So it's probably not worth doing for the average QWERTY-comfortable
> touch-typist.

I never put much faith in statistics, especially not in statisticians!

They key here is not sheer numbers of keystrokes per minute, fostering
images of some typing boiler room, but, rather, the fact that it is
just plain easier to type the most common words because the fingers
need not fly all over the keyboard to locate frequently used letters.

I can type the word 'the' without ever leaving home (row, that is) under
Dvorak. Similar economies exist for many other frequently typed words.

Even if the speed numbers alone are not compelling enough, remember
the valid consideration of digital fatigue of typists' fingers. Ouch!

-- 
John Boteler   bote@csense.uucp           {uunet | ka3ovk}!media!csense!bote
SkinnyDipper's Hotline: 703-241-BARE | VOICE only, Touch-Tone(TM) signalling