[nostrademons]

Yes, but not for the reasons normally given.

I switched in college, basically by forcing myself to write all my papers and AIM chats in Dvorak. It was painstaking at first, hunt-and-peck, particularly since I didn't have an actual labeled keyboard (I'd made a printout of the Dvorak layout instead). Took me about 2 weeks to get up to about 30 WPM (I'd been a 90 WPM Qwerty touch-typist before). It was another 6 months or so before I matched my Qwerty speed. Oh, and in the process I forgot how to type in Qwerty; I eventually re-learned it, so I'm now bi-keyboardal, but it was unnerving at the time. I'd say my typing speed now peaks at about 10% faster than it was then, but I'm usually thought-constrained and not typing-constrained.

I'd say it was worth it for a number of non-obvious reasons:

1. The process of switching is very illuminating about how our brain handles subconscious, autonomic tasks - much like how I imagine learning a new language is. I found that about a week and a half in, I had half the keyboard mentally mapped in Qwerty and half mapped in Dvorak, such that I'd often type out unintelligible polyglot sentences. And for several years later, I'd be triggered by whatever was up on the screen: if I had an IDE open, I'd automatically type in Qwerty, while if I had an AIM chat or word processor open it'd be Dvorak. This is useful information whenever you're trying to build a new habit.

2. It's a built-in security device. Even if someone gets ahold of your computer, they probably won't be able to use it.

3. It helps a bunch with RSI. You stay over home row much more with a Dvorak layout, there's much less finger contortion, and so it's correspondingly less strain on your hands. Given how much I use my computer (and how I'm occasionally prone to tendonitis), this has been a godsend.

[agumonkey]

Your 1 reminds me of shifting leading hands on an instrument. Revisiting from scratch, crippled, is really an illumination. So much was possible without explicit understanding.

2 :)

3 Didn't learning new finger patterns also rewire the way you "handle" position and movement too ?

ps: about switching layouts, I realized that my brain associates layouts to certain machines. Typing in Qwerty on my laptop is easy, in Azerty on my parents machine is easy, but not the other way around. Doesn't help that they're both so close to each other I guess.

[funkypenguin]

2. I like it not so much as a strict security device (it's easy enough now-days to change the keyboard layout with the mouse), but as a means to discourage the annoying co-workers/bosses who rudely grab your laptop to "show you something".

4. I found my typing speed DID increase when moving to Dvorak, most likely for the fact that it enforced proper touch-typing discipline, since I _have_ to memorize the key locations now.

[ninjakeyboard]

Ya I almost never lock my computer on bathroom trips despite company policies because I have

1) A kinesis advantage

2) Colemak layout

3) No mouse (tablet)

Nobody can cheese me in the time it takes me to pee.