The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout

Aaron Toponce

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Presentation Overview

• The importance of typing.
• A history of the QWERTY Layout.
• The immergence of the Dvorak Layout.
• Benefits of typing with the Dvorak Layout.
• Data analysis of Dvorak vs. QWERTY.
• Sofware and hardware to start typing in Dvorak.

Typing Importance

• Word Processing
• Email
• Instant Messaging
• Surfing the Internet
• Programming
• A Random Arrangement of Keys

Christopher Latham Sholes

• Typewriter patent in 1868.
• Alphabetically arranged keys on 2 rows.
• Poor hardware implementation.
• Quick typing jammed keys.
• The wrong approach (rearrange vs hardware).

Momentum Builds

• Carlos Glidden and James Densmore.
• Moving frequently jammed keys.
• Digraphs, "th", "at", "ly", etc.
• Completely random placement.
• RUMOR: The word "TYPEWRITER" exists on the top row to aid sales.
• The Sholes Layout, aka: QWERTY, was born.

Myth Debunked

• MYTH: Sholes rearranged the keys from alphabetic order to QWERTY to slow down typing speed demons.
• FACT: The typewriter had not yet been introduced to the public.
• FACT: QWERTY was developed before public release.
• http://www.maxmon.com/1874ad.htm

Production Begins

• Sholes sold all rights to Densmore.
• Densmore went to Remington.
• In 1873, the 'Sholes and Glidden Typewriter' was released.
• Sold only 5,000 machines from 1873 to 1878.
• Version 2.0 was released selling 100,000 sold by 1900.
• Sholes tried changing the layout to something more logical.

QWERTY Becomes Standard

• Billions of typwriters and keyboards since 1873.
• Random arrangement of keys the typing standard.
• Touch typing with all 10 fingers.
• 30 years later, someone decided to make a change.
• Right when QWERTY became obsolete, it was widely used and distributed.

Dr. August Dvorak

• Distant relative of composer Antonin Dvorak.
• Education Psychologist and professor of education at the University of Washington, Seattle.
• In 1932, Dr. Dvorak set out to change the layout based on logic and research.
• Funded by the Carnegie Foundation.
• Resarched letters, digraphs and words, and studied actual typists.

The Dvorak Simplified Layout

Logical Reasoning

• Focus on the "Home Row" (70% of typing).
• Developed to improve typing efficiency.
• Stronger fingers vs weaker fingers.
• Reaching up versus reaching down.
• 88% of the U.S. population is right-handed.

Some Observations

• All vowels under the left hand.
• Most used consonants under the right hand.
• More commonly used consonants on the upper row.
• Least used consonants on the bottom row.

More Observations

• The QWERTY homerow hiccups.
• 31% of QWERTY / 70% of Dvorak.
• Alternating hands.
• aaron@hercules:~ wc -l /usr/share/dict/words
• 98569 words
• aaron@hercules:~ grep -ci '^[aoeuidhtns]$' /usr/share/dict/words
• 1970
• aaron@hercules:~ grep -ci '^[asdfghjkl]$' /usr/share/dict/words
• 154

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