Rather agree. I'm sure there'll be a bit in it in terms of efficiency and comfort, since Colemak is more recent, but Dvorak is available on Windows out of the box.
I switched to Dvorak over 20 years ago and I've been quite happy with its availability. I use Dvorak shortcuts (so, for example, w and v are next to one another), and standard Emacs bindings, and when I used vim I used the standard bindings with that too. Main issue I've faced is that some programs use WASD, and they do it by keycap rather than scancode, so now the controls are wonky.
(Regarding QWERTY speed, I type on a split keyboard on my own PC, which has helped keep my QWERTY muscle memory fairly good; people that see me type are often surprised that it's not what I'm used to. I can barely type Dvorak on a normal keyboard, though, and I have to look at the keys to type QWERTY on a split keyboard.)
I love typing in Dvorak. Although I don't use it on my phone. I didn't find the switch particularly painful. I just switched one day... and had a chart printed out that I looked at whenever I couldn't remember something and eventually I just, didn't need it.
I don't think it took particularly long... a few weeks? Maybe a bit more. I had to do the same thing when I picked up the ErgoDox and programmed in certain layers.
But now my fingers just dance across the split keyboard from side to side. It's really enjoyable and feels great.
I'm a programmer, not a professional folder contents lister. Anyway, I'll typically use my 4th finger for l, because my hands are a slightly weird shape perhaps - and if I know I'm going to type ls -la, I'll put my 3rd finger on it.
Try typing CreateVertexBuffer or SetVertexDrawTestFlags on QWERTY. Or consider the humble underscore!
> Always found Colemak to be much more programmer-friendly than Dvorak.
> E.g. try typing ls -la on Dvorak.
The ls case is a legendary fallacy of not enough programmer friendlyness of Dvorak. I have just searched "ls dvorak" on HN and I ended up with dosens of messages about how non-comfort is this popular command to type.
Nobody has demonstrated any second example though.
You searched specifically for "ls dvorak" and your conclusion is that its programmer unfriendliness is a "legendary fallacy" because "nobody" demonstrated other examples?
A quick google for `dvorak programmer unfriendliness` would give you plenty of leads. Whether you agree or not is another matter.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on QWERTY. It's just... the level of confirmation bias gets me every time. "I'm definitely right because nobody presented evidence to the contrary to me on a silver platter"
> You searched specifically for "ls dvorak" and your conclusion is that its programmer unfriendliness is a "legendary fallacy" because "nobody" demonstrated other examples?
I am seing this example not a first time. I'm also going to write my qwerty vs dvorak article on my blog so I am gathering all the examples of pros and cons of these two layouts.
The golden path is to start with Dvorak hardware mapped keyboard (TypeMatrix 2030 USB) and then later buy a programmable keyboard (ErgoDox EZ Shine) and make your own Dvorak-based layout with your own affordances for programming.
Sucks goat's dick, of course. For me the 7531902468 was the only working way to grok the fourth row, and all braces are in perfect positions for me, especially while lisping. That's in addition to general awesomeness of Dvorak.
T. Dvorak User