Dvorak (& Lojban)

[Andrew Sieber <absieber@eos.ncsu.edu>]

I've been typing w/ Dvorak for about two days now.  I've managed to
memorize the whole layout, but typing is still ridiculously slow.  About
the only word that flows naturally now is "the".  I am continuously
hitting wrong keys because I'm so familiar with qwerty.

Chris Bogart wrote:
> Its interesting how many Lojbanists
> have experimented with Dvorak.  It must be the same attitude that draws
> us to the layout and the language.  There's gotta be a better way of
> doing things...
I agree entirely.

Lee Sau Dan wrote:
> Perhaps  you're right.  I'm  also addicted to  Qwerty, although I know
> switch to  Dvorak would  speed up  my typing.   The main problem maybe
> that we cannot afford  the *extra* time needed  to train ourselves for
> Dvorak.   We've already got  a reasonably good alternative.  So, we're
> unwilling to pay the  cost  for the  switching, which brings  benefits
> which would be only marginal...
As a full-time student, I have to write lots of papers, and I'm going to
end up spending a LOT of time typing a couple of them because my Dvorak
speed won't be up enough by the time they're due.  I can't really afford
the time needed either, but I'm doing it anyway.  Qwerty is no longer an
acceptable alternative for me.
The time investment must be made at some point, and the sooner the
better.  Delaying only serves to add to the difficulty.
You also mentioned that you have done qwerty-Dvorak keyboard conversions
for X-windows on Linux.  Would you email me instructions on how to do
this?  Thanks.

Edward Cherlin wrote:
> Switching to Dvorak after 30 years typing QWERTY was an amazing experience.
> There was a kind of pain in the brain that I have never experienced
> otherwise. I imagine that it also occurs in total immersion language
> learning.
[snip]
> Each day after that, I was able to go a
> little faster and a little longer, until some time in the fourth week I
> didn't have to go back to QWERTY any more.
This IS total immersion learning for me.  I decided that when I started
typing with Dvorak (which was two days ago), I was not going to use
qwerty anymore.  I'm not going to switch temporarily back to qwerty to
type a couple papers that are due soon.  I'll spend many hours typing
what should only take half an hour to type if I have to.  (I'm typing
this message in Dvorak, and it's taken me over an hour so far!  In
qwerty I could have been finished in less than ten minutes.)  I have
read, and fear would be immensely true for me, that trying to retain
qwerty skills is an immense burden on one's attempts to learn Dvorak.

Seth Golub wrote:
> Good luck.  The first week is very frustrating, but it's worth it.
No kidding!  (About the first part.)  I hope the latter proves true as
well.

Sorry to anybody who's annoyed that I'm using this mailing list for
completely off-topic dialogue.  I guess I ought to at least mention
Lojban!
Actually, I just remembered that there was something I wanted to ask: in
English, completely different words are used to refer to physical
phenomena and the units used to measure them.  For example, the unit of
measurement of electrical current is the ampere, and the unit for length
or distance is the meter (or yard, etc).  There are only a few
exceptions, such as the volt, which measures voltage.  How is this
handled in Lojban?  I assume that whatever name is used, the same base
quantities are used that are used internationally, such as is the case
for metric prefixes, where "kilto" means "kilo".

--Andrew
absieber@eos.ncsu.edu