Is it butchery to take apart a perfectly working Mac and rebuild it
for your own needs? (I'm not talking about trashing a compact Mac and
making a *gasp* Macquarium!)
No, no, this is much more sinister - I'm talking about removing the
keys from my perfectly serviceable iceBook and putting them back in the
wrong order! Of course I'm talking about changing the keyboard from
Qwerty to another configuration, specifically to Dvorak.
Dvorak, as most enlightened users will know, is a superior keyboard
combination which allows much faster typing speeds than Qwerty. Qwerty
was developed after it was found that the original keyboard layout
caused the hammers on mechanical typewriters to jam because the
operator typed much too quickly! Qwerty was created to slow the
typist.
Unlike most computer users, I have used non-Qwerty configurations
before, and, although it took a while to learn, it has become quite
natural. During my final year at university, I built a wearable
computer for my dissertation, which required some sort of input device
other than a trackball. The standard keyboard, it seems, amongst the
MIT academics who possessed wearable computers, was the Twiddler
controller, a one handed multikeyed device which also incorporated a
tilting mouse controller. I wanted one. However, the price of the
controller seemed too steep for my meager student means, so I searched
and found an alternative. I ordered a CyKey keyboard, based on the
concept of MicroWriting, a chording keyboard with seven keys - and half
the price of the Twiddler.
Well, let me tell you, the first few days of using the chords of the
CyKey were pretty much hell. I enforced upon myself the routine of
using the CyKey for all my word processing, browsing, data entry
- everything - but it didn't work out quite that way. I would
eventually, after a matter of minutes, yank out the CyKey and plug in
the Qwerty, ignoring the pangs of failure poking at my conscience. It
took me two weeks of intensive use for me to become proficient at using
the chording keyboard, meaning I no longer had to look up key
combinations from the manual, and I was attaining a workable typing
speed that didn't impinge on what I was typing. Still, I was only
getting a maximum of 20 words a minute - deathly slow, as I can touch
type at about 36 wpm.
However, one had to place into context the use of the keyboard. One
handed use meant I could use my left hand for other purposes, but it
would inevitably slow down my typing average as one of my appendages
was removed form the equation. The fact that I was probably reaching as
fast a speed as I could attain on the one handed keyboard is testimony
that the standard of Qwerty is not the one and only.
Thus far I haven't encountered any mass consumerism of Dvorak keyboards, despite the
availability of the switchable keyboard, nor is it looking too likely
to happen in the near future. However, there is always the option to
remove the keycaps of your keyboard and replace them in the Dvorak
arrangement, remembering to setup the keyboard layout in the OS.
Does this invalidate the Apple warranty? Probably, but you can
always refit them in the Qwerty layout if you ever have to send it in
for warranty service. Besides, the first Mac I ever bought, a Performa 630, came with the Dvorak
layout file installed in the System, although I never tested it.
So why is it I want to rearrange the keys on my brand new iBook? I
want to try Dvorak. Is it really a faster typing layout? Is it just as
easy to learn as Qwerty? This is what I want to discover. In reality,
I'll get an external USB keyboard and reconfigure the keys rather than
pull all the little white keys off my iBook (they're fiddly!) - at
least until Mac OS X supports Dvorak.
How is this ever going to benefit me other than (perhaps) a greater
typing speed? There is always the satisfaction of knowing that I dare
to Think Different.
P.S. Does anyone know how to switch keyboard layouts in Mac
OS X?
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