I taught Anita some Python this weekend, and was peppered with questions like “where is the key for the two little lines?” “You mean a quote mark?” “Yeah.”
I’m going through much the same now. Moments ago I changed my keyboard layout to dvorak. Why? I type alot. Variety helps keep carpal tunnel at bay. And a few mental flexibility exercises definitely won’t hurt. (I’ll keep using qwerty at work.) Some observations:
- “the” is really easy to type. It just flows out.
- OSX has a key mapping that preserves qwerty layout when the cmd key is down–useful for muscle memory on cut, paste, open, close, tab, etc.
- Expect more typos the next few weeks. :-)
- ABCD is highly recommended.
- Pointer fingers go on “u” and “h”. Without the little bumps on the keys, it’s hard to get your hands oriented. Two small pieces of tape help.
- I’m getting better at this already.
-m
Indeed, going Dvorak is pretty lovely, if you use linux(debian) there’s a nice terminal/console program in the repo that helps with teaching the dvorak layout called dvorak7min and its not bad. Mainly though Typing Master Pro is how I learned and my next keyboard is going to be one as default dvorak whenever they get more in stock, check it out :) http://www.typematrix.com/dvorak/