Peter Crowther <Peter.Crowther at IT-IQ.com> said:
> Another interesting concept is 'familiarity' vs. 'usefulness'.  Example: How
> many people on this list type using a QWERTY (ok, ok, AZERTY and so on)
> keyboard rather than Dvorak?  (I raise my hand here).  Why?  Because I
> learned to type on one, and I can't afford the loss in productivity while I
> familiarise myself with another layout.  Compare with other arguments about
> short-term versus long-term losses --- I'm losing a small amount of
> productivity each day because I can't afford the major one-time investment
> to re-train.

A few years ago I was taking a long break between contracts, and I realized
I would have enough time to switch to Dvorak, so I did.  I used the typing
tutor programs (maybe not enough) to get up to 20 words per minute after a
month or so.  Since I was at a steady 79 wpm before that on Qwerty, it felt
like I had had a stroke (keystroke? :-).  The speed has only gradually come
back up, as I've had to use Qwerty occasionally (e.g., typing taunts in Red
Alert, logging in in Windows, etc).  I haven't measured my speed in a while,
but I suspect I'm at around 50 wpm.  In a few more years I should be able to
say it was an investment that was worth it.  After all, typing speed is
rarely a limiting factor in my programming time, although once I wrote 5600
lines of debugged, tested, documented Smalltalk code in four 8-hour days.
If I recall, there were more than 7*4=28 "function points" in that code :-).
My fingertips were actually bruised (classical piano sure helps, though).

A month after I switched, I mentioned it to a few of my friends, and they
said they had already started using Dvorak too!  They were also using
special "two-bowl" keyboards to reduce carpal tunnel syndrome.  Oh yeah, my
wife switched at the same time as me.  She hardly even remembers Qwerty now.

If you want to try Dvorak, make sure to switch when you have enough slack
time, like at the start of a long vacation in which you intend to type a lot
(but don't have to *produce* a lot).  I haven't bothered to buy a special
Dvorak keyboard, as popping the caps off and rearranging them has worked
fine for me.  The keys are different heights in different rows on most
keyboards, so the surface will be a little bumpy, but hey - think of a
piano.  Also, switch the key caps (or use the new keyboard) on day one, and
stick with it religiously.

When my vacation was over and I started working again, I tried using Qwerty
at work and Dvorak at home.  Big mistake.  Later I just installed the Dvorak
drivers at work and popped off the keycaps with a bent paperclip.