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OT: Comp.keyboard

This post dosn't belong in this newsgroup, but I have gotten some interesting replies from other ngs that it is not related to. In any case Keytweak is a useful utility that might come in handy.

Aset keyboard It has been said that the most common letters were taken off the home row of the first typewriter keyboard to slow down the typist and prevent jamming. On a Dvorak keyboard almost sixty percent of average text is typed from the home keys. Transposing the letters 'etni' with 'dfjk' would put more than 55% of text on the home keys, up from only 26% on the qwerty layout. Thats more than twice the text typed without lifting a finger.

The change is quite pleasant and easy to learn. I hope you will pass this on.

To put e, t, n and i back where they belong, there is a keyboard remapping program that is free, downloads quickly and is very easy to use. I am typing this post on a keyboard remapped to the 'etni' transposition layout. The program is called 'Keytweak 2.11' and can be googled up by that name. It is available from several sites, including PC magazine.

1) After you have loaded the program click start. 2) Click the "KeyTweak" icon and a graphic of a keyboard will appear. 3) Click the "Full Teach Mode" at the bottom of the screen. 4) A box will appear. Click "Begin Teach Mode". 5) Press the key you want to reassign, then the key you want it reassigned to, in this case D to E. 6) Click "Remap Key#1 to Key#2" 7) The box will disappear and the scancodes of the keys will appear in the "Pending Changes" window at the bottom right. 8) Follow the same procedure (from 3) for E to D, and the remaining six remaps. 9) Click "Apply" and you will be asked if you want to turn off the computer to apply the changes. At the top there is also a clickable "Restore Defaults" to give you back your qwerty layout. I was able to remap in under three minutes and restore qwerty in thirty seconds, not including the restart.

You can try out the sample lines of text below to discover that your fingers already know where etni should go.

nineteen lean little saints settle in a nest jkjdfddj ldaj lkffld sakjfs sdffld kj a jdsf

an alien eats an ant antenna in atlanta aj alkdj dafs aj ajf ajfdjja kj aflajfa

elite sense entails a siesta in a satin seat dlkfd sdjsd djfakls a skdsfa kj a safkj sdaf

a stain is seen at a linen sale a sfakj ks sddj af a lkjdj sald

a latent latin talent tast tests in seattle a lafdjf lafkj faldjf fasf fdsfs kj sdaffld insane santa sails in sea salt kjsajd sajfa sakls kj sda salf

Reply to
skearney
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It has some bearing here, whereas some have indicated that they would like to use a keyboard as an input device other than it's intended use. The utility suggested would allow changing the input without changing the core program or the physical location of the key. Assuming a character input value and not the actual key scan code.

Otherwise... if one uses Winslows they could switch their keyboard to Dvorak by going to the control panel-keyboard-language-properties and select 'United States-Dvorak' and apply. No step through re-assignment or restart necessary. At the moment I can't think of an OS that Dvorak layout hasn't already been provided for including Apple DOS, PC- DOS(*.sys or ANSI remap),

*NIX, MAC OS and a few others. It's been several decades and Dvorak layout still has not caught on. Most folks are used to using the QWERTY and not many have a desire to change. Arguably like using Win instead of Nix.

FWIW it may be in your best interest to switch back to QWERTY if you share your machine. Just a suggestion to prevent interesting things being applied to or into your coffee by those less appreciative.

That bit about "slow down the typist and prevent jamming" is a classic tale told by typing teachers and should not be held as fact.

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Have fun damnit.

Reply to
doug

Thanks for your post, and the link, I didn't know Gould ever commented on the subject. It still puzzles me that e and i are not on the home row where they would alphabetically belong between d and l. I suspect that this did actually decrease speed to reduce jamming. My intent was to suggest that putting etni on the home row makes for a more ergonomic keyboard. Limiting the change to just four key pairs, and keeping the letters under the same fingers, offers most of the advantage of the Dvorak layout with far less effort to learn. The keyboard would appear as follows:

QWDRFYUKOP ASETGHNIL; ZXCVBJM,./

What do you think of the idea? You might try out some of the sample lines, it is kind of fun, damnit.

Whaf do you fhkji of fhd keda? You mkghf fry ouf somd ot fhd sampld lkjds, kf ks ikje of fuj, eamjkf.

Reply to
skearney

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