Re: Info about DVORAK Keyboard Design

Dvorak does state that the center finger is strongest, but for  
details I think you'd have to go back to his references. If you look,  
though, you'll probably see that your center finger is at least as  
well in line with your forearm as your index finger, so if it's not  
stronger, it's probably pretty close.

Finger strength probably isn't as relevant as it once was. Mechanical  
typewriters required a lot more force over a longer throw than  
electronic keyswitches do.

Dvorak states that his simplified keyboard gives a right-left load  
balance of 54% to 46%, so he believed he was favoring the weaker  
hand. Remember that in his layout the right hand carries the lion's  
share of consonants, so it spends more time off the home row. If you  
consider the entire keyboard instead of just the home row, you'll  
probably find the hands are pretty well balanced.

Of course, this will depend somewhat on the text you use to judge  
letter frequencies. There are bound to be differences, but then no  
two people type all the same text anyway.

For most details about Dvorak's work, get his _Typewriting Behavior_.  
It's about 500 pages, with several hundred references to earlier  
work. It looks like Randy Cassingham still has some for sale (http:// 
www.dvorak-keyboard.com/dv-order.html), or you could try your local  
library or an interlibrary loan.

Cheers,
Marcus


On Feb 15, 2007, at 5:25 AM, Yatin Sethi wrote:

> 1) DVORAK said - "For maximum speed and efficiency, the most common
> letters and digraphs should be on the home row, which is where the
> fingers rest, and under the strongest fingers."
> What does he mean by strongest fingers ??? Is the middle finger the
> strongest, coz he has placed the most common vowel (E) and most common
> consonant (T) under middle fingers ?? Or there is some other reason ??
>
> 2) Why were the vowels kept on LEFT side although the sum of  
> frequencies
> of vowels in Home Row is MORE than sum of consonants in Home Row ??