OT: keyboard layouts

[Taavi Burns]

On Fri, Dec 12, 2003 at 10:06:40AM -0500, Fraser Campbell wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to get myself a new keyboard for Christmas.  I'm considering the 
> split keyboard (Microsoft Natural IIRC) or a dvorak layout.

And these two are mutually exclusive how?  :)

You can easily use both.  If you're interested in alternative layouts
for the keyboard, you should be quite prepared to NOT be looking at the
keys anyway, so the glyphs on them shouldn't matter.

> I find that if I type a lot (programming session of any significant length) 
> then the top of my hands start to really ache.  Anyone have 
> experience/recommendations on the effectiveness of different keyboards in 
> reducing typing fatigue?

I can type about 10WPM on a Dvorak layout (vs >70 on a qwerty), so I
haven't exactly switched over myself.  The Dvorak layout "feels" better
to me, though, even while being thoroughly frustrating because it's so 
slow.  ;)

I have a few coworkers who use keybaords from Kinesis.  I believe that
one of them uses it with a Dvorak, while the other still uses qwerty.
Kinesis offers a selection of keyboards ranging from nearly
traditional to "pretty far out and pricey".  So again, it depends how
much you want to spend.

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards.htm
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/us_versions.htm

BTW, the guy who uses Dvorak does use vi; he's just learned where the
control keys are.

-- 
taa
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