Other Keyboard

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (pronounced /'dvoræk/) is a keyboard layout patented by Dr. August Dvorak and William Dealey in 1936 as a more efficient alternative to the more common QWERTY layout. more...

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It has also been called the Simplified Keyboard or American Simplified Keyboard, but is commonly known as the Dvorak keyboard. It never achieved widespread use, and is used by only a very small minority of computer users.

Overview

The Dvorak keyboard was a response to the QWERTY keyboard which had been in use since the 1860s, and which had been invented to slow down the rate of typing and hence avoid key jams. With advances in typewriter construction, this need was reduced, and by the introduction of electric typewriters in the 1930s, it was thoroughly obsolete. Dvorak and Dealey thus set out to create an "efficient" layout without the need to avoid key jams.

They studied letter frequencies and the physiology of the hand and created the layout to adhere to these principles:

• It is easier to type letters alternating between hands.
• For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common letters and digraphs should be the easiest to type. This means that they should be on the home row, which is where the fingers rest.
• Likewise, the least common letters should be on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
• The right hand should do more of the typing, because most people are right-handed.
• It is more difficult to type digraphs with adjacent fingers than non-adjacent fingers.
• Stroking should generally move from the edges of the board to the middle. An observation of this principle is that when tapping fingers on a table, it is easier going from little finger to index than vice versa. This motion on a keyboard is called inboard stroke flow.

The layout was completed in 1932 and was granted U.S. Patent 2,040,248 in 1936. It was designated an alternate standard keyboard layout by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1982. In 1984 the Dvorak keyboard had an estimated 100,000 users.

Also, due to some of the above principles and other preferences, there is considerable variation between implementations in the placement of punctuation on the English layout.

Modern operating systems

Apple included Dvorak keyboard layout since around 1998 with Mac OS 8.6. It is also included in their latest Mac OS X under, System Preferences → International → Input Menu.

Microsoft included the Dvorak layout earlier than 1998. On Windows XP, it can be set up in the Control Panel → Regional and Language Options → Languages → Details....

GNOME (Linux/UNIX) can be configured using Gnome Control Center → Keyboard

KDE (Linux) can be configured using KDE Control Center → Regional & Accessibility → Keyboard Layout.

Read more at Wikipedia.org