Re: Dvorak (& Lojban)

[HACKER G N <c9709244@ALINGA.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU>]

On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} wrote:

> Now, when a friend asks me how to type a certain character, I'll first
> imagine that I  had to type  that  character.  Then  from the intended
> movements of my  fingers, I can tell my   friend which keys  he should
> press in order to type that character.  To specify  the keys to press,
> I  use the corresponding letters  on  a QWERTY  keyboard (unless he is
> also a Chanjie typist, in which case I  tell him the Chanjie radicals)
> It is  a  translation  from the   key  positions into English  letters
> (according to QWERTY positions).


Does this mean that there are only as many keys on a Chanjie keyboard as
there are on a QWERTY keyboard? Because if so, that's pretty impressive,
considering how many characters there are in Chinese.


>     HACKER> I'm not surprised, because Dvorak is intuitive; QWERTY
>
> Well... what IS "intuitive"?
>
> QWERTY was  designed  in such a   way so as to  avoid   the jamming of
> adjacent types in a typewritter when  one types rapidly.  (If you have
> a mechanical  typewritter, try pressing  the keys for 2 adjacent types
> simultaneously, and  you'll find that the  types jam together.)

Of course. I already said this in the bit you snipped out.

>Isn't
> that intuitive (from the aspect of mechanical engineering)?

I'm not talking about what's intuitive from the aspect of mechanical
engineering, but what's intuitive from the aspect of USING the keyboard.

>
> Dvorak was designed to minimize hand/finger  movement.  In this sense,
> it   is ALSO  intuitive   (from  the aspect  of the   typist,  esp. on
> non-mechanical devices).

Which is the most useful sense for this discussion.
>
> So, whether something is "intuitive" depends on  the aspect from which
> you view it. It is a  very  subjective  judgement, and  is  highly
> cultural dependent.

That's obvious. But it doesn't stop some things from being intuitive from
whatever perspective and other things not being so. Dvorak is intuitive from a
user's perspective and QWERTY isn't. Which is the whole reason why Dvorak
is easier to learn as a second keyboard design than QWERTY is. That's the
whole point!

Geoff

 > >
>
>
> --
> Lee Sau Dan                     'u&u40(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
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> | http://www.cs.hku.hk/~sdlee                        e-mail: sdlee@cs.hku.hk |
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