Re: A question about Dvorak's original arrangement of numerals - 7531902468

Thanks.

Your Dvorak typewriter looks exactly like the one on  
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/ergo/parkinson.html (The first 
picture), I also noticed on the 5th picture, there isn't number 1 on 
conventional keyboard (QWERTY).

I use 7531902468 mainly for fun, but I found it more comfortable in 
typing Chinese. You must use an IME to type Chinese. First, you have 
to type the pronunciation of the character you want, but there are 
too many homophones in Chinese, you have to use the number key to 
choose the most appropriate character. The most frequent character 
comes first, most of the time, you just have to hit the numbers 
123456. So 7531902468 is more comfortable.

Dvorak is not good for programming, even worse than QWERTY, the key  
semicolon is not so comfortable to type, the keys [] {} are too far 
away. (On the other hand, it proved that QWERTY is worse for typing 
English text.) 

I made my own customed layout, rearranged the punctuation keys. I use 
C# for programming, I calculated the frequencies of punctuation keys 
of some C# source codes. And analyzed them, the layout is as follows:

unshifted:
 CAPS < { ( [ $ # ] ) } > / * `
  TAB ' , . p y f g c r l - + \
   BS a o e u i d h t n s = ENT
SHIFT ; q j k x b m w v z SHIFT

shifted:
 CAPS 7 5 3 1 9 0 2 4 6 8 ! ^ ~
  TAB " ? : P Y F G C R L | & %
   BS A O E U I D H T N S _ ENT
SHIFT @ Q J K X B M W V Z SHIFT

I put BACKSPACE on the CAPS keycap, CAPS on the `~ keycap, `~ on the 
BACKSPACE keycap. It's more convenient to hit the BACKSPACE now. 

Of the key frequencies, semicolon (;) is the most frequent, equal 
sign (=) is the second, then (){}[]. The remaining punctuation keys 
are not so frequent, I can put them anywhere I want... There is 
always a carrige return after semicolon when programming, so the 
semicolon should be put on the left side of the keyboard. Although I 
don't like the position of semicolon on Dvorak, but I can't find a 
better place to put it.

The are definitely no carriage return after the equal sign when 
programming, so I put the equal sign on the right side of key S. I 
prefer to use field names that are prefixed by a undersore, I use 
underscore a lot, so I put it on the shifted state of Key =. 

The arithmetic operators are placed together: + - * / %
(Backslash is more useful than %, so I put % on the shifted state of 
key \)

The logical operators are placed together: & | ^ ! ~
The conditional operators are placed together: ? :

Like Dvorak's concept of alternating hands, I put (){}[] separately, 
not together. I put () on middle fingers, like the most frequent keys 
E and T on Dvorak. {} are on ring fingers, [] are on index fingers. 
The keys <> are put on the key 7 and 8, I did this only because it 
looks more balanced.

@ sign is something to do with letters (E-mail addresses are mainly 
formed of letters), so I put it on the shifted state of semicolon. $ 
and # are something to do with numbers, so I put them near numbers. I 
rarely use @, $ or #, so it doesn't matter where they are.

I didn't concern dead keys or AltGr, because I don't like them...

And, the numbers have an attribute of "shift=caps", that is, when the 
caps lock is on, the number row keys are:

 CAPS 7 5 3 1 9 0 2 4 6 8 / * `

I'm slight dissatisfied with the key dash (-) and much dissatisfied 
with the key slash (/). Especially when making comments for source 
codes. But I can't find better places for them. 


As I mentioned above, you must use number keys when typing Chinese, 
so there is another layout slight different from my Programming 
Layout, it's my Text Layout. It is used as my system default layout 
and used for my Chinese IMEs.

unshifted:
 CAPS 7 5 3 1 9 0 2 4 6 8 / * `
  TAB ' , . p y f g c r l - + \
   BS a o e u i d h t n s = ENT
SHIFT ; q j k x b m w v z SHIFT

shifted:
 CAPS < { ( [ $ # ] ) } > ! ^ ~
  TAB " ? : P Y F G C R L | & %
   BS A O E U I D H T N S _ ENT
SHIFT @ Q J K X B M W V Z SHIFT


I like Dovark layout very much, it is the best layout for English 
text, and a lot better for typing Chinese than QWERTY. 

As Chinese, I found it hard to use Dvorak, some people around me 
think I am a weirdo (actually, they are right, I AM a weirdo.), some 
people think I just wanna be different from others, some said "Why 
bother?". What I wanted from Dovrak layout is just COMFORT. 

Actually, I don't care about what others think of me. And I will 
never go back to QWERTY.

BTW, an important advantage of my customed layout is that it's very 
secure: Other people nearly can't type anything on my keyboard, haha. 
They can only type three characters: a, m, 3

--- In [email protected], "Patrick Horne" <prl.horne@...> 
wrote:
>
> Yes, the correct hand position for the numbers has the left index 
finger on
> 1 and the right index finger on 2. Dvorak perhaps felt that the 
workload of
> typing numbers would be balanced more equally between the two hands 
if one
> hand typed the odd digits and the other hand typed the even ones. 
That may
> be true; the regular layout (1234567890) probably overtaxes the 
left hand.
>  
> Early typewriters had neither a 1 nor a 0; the typist was expected 
to use a
> lowercase l and a capital O. (And the exclamation point had to be 
typed as a
> period with an apostrophe superimposed by means of the backspace. 
That's why
> it often looks peculiar in old typescripts.) The 0 eventually became
> standard, but the 1 was still omitted from many typewriters until 
recent
> times. The book from which I taught myself to type even instructed 
me not to
> use the 1 key if it was available but to use l instead! I 
disregarded that
> advice because the 1 was properly designed and blended with the 
digits
> better than the l did, and also because it was easier to type a 
string of
> digits entirely on the top row without reaching down for the l. When
> computers became popular, many typists continued to use l for 1, a 
practice
> that corrupted many a database.
>  
> I have a Dvorak typewriter that uses Dvorak's arrangement 
(7531902468), but
> on my own custom-designed computer keyboards I use 1234567890. For 
the
> shifted keys on my Latin layout I use !@#$%?&*(), whereas Dvorak 
specified
> #()"%_¢$@*. (Shift-7 in Dvorak's layout is the cent sign, a c with a
> vertical stroke through it. I mention this because the character 
may not
> show up correctly on some reader's computer screens.)
>  
> Scott Horne
>  
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>