Keyboard Layout: Dvorak vs Colemak: is it Worthwhile to Improve the Dvorak Layout?

[Xah Lee]

On Jun 13, 6:45 pm, Gregory Ewing <greg.ew... at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Chris Angelico wrote:
> > And did any of the studies take into account the fact that a lot of
> > computer users - in all but the purest data entry tasks - will use a
> > mouse as well as a keyboard?
>
> What I think's really stupid is designing keyboards with two
> big blocks of keys between the alphabetic keys and the mouse.
> Back when standard-grade keyboards didn't usually have a
> built-in numeric keypad, it was much easier to move one's
> right hand back and forth between the keyboard and mouse.
>
> Nowadays I find myself perpetually prone to off-by-one errors
> when moving back to the keyboard. :-(

numerical keypad is useful to many. Most people can't touch type. Even
for touch typist, many doesn't do the number keys. So, when they need
to type credit, phone number, etc, they go for the number pad. Also, i
think the number pad esentially have become a calculator for vast
majority of computer users. These days, almost all keyboard from
Microsoft or Logitech has a Calculator button near the number pad to
launch it.

i myself, am a qwerty typist since ~1987, also worked as data entry
clerk for a couple of years. Am a dvorak touch typist since 1994. (and
emacs since 1997) However, i never learned touch type the numbers on
the main section till i think ~2005. Since about 2008, the numerical
keypad is used as extra function keys.

 Xah