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The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (pronounced /'dvoræk/) is a keyboard layout patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak, a professor of Education at the University of Washington, and William Dealey as an alternative to the more common QWERTY layout. It has also been called the Simplified Keyboard or American Simplified Keyboard, but is commonly known as the Dvorak keyboard or Dvorak layout. The Dvorak keyboard layout became easier to access in the computer age. Currently, all major Operating Systems (such as Apple OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and BSD) ship with Dvorak keyboard layout in addition to the standard QWERTY layout. DSK has failed to displace the QWERTY standard.

Original Dvorak layout

The layout standardized by the ANSI differs from the original or "classic" layout devised by Dvorak. Today's keyboards have more keys than the original typewriter did, and other significant differences existed:

The numeric keys of the classic Dvorak layout are

7 5 3 1 9 0 2 4 6 8

In the classic Dvorak layout, the question mark key [?] is in the leftmost position of the upper row, while the slash mark key [/] is in the rightmost position of the upper row.
The following symbols share keys (the second symbol being printed when the SHIFT key is pressed):
- colon [:] and question mark [?]
- ampersand [&] and slash [/]
- comma [,] and semicolon [;]

Modern U.S. keyboard layouts almost always place semicolon and colon together on a single key and slash and question mark together on a single key.

Modern operating systems

According to Microsoft, versions of the Windows operating system including Windows 98 and Windows NT 3.51 and higher have shipped with support for the U.S. Dvorak layout^[1]; users of earlier Windows versions must download a free update from Microsoft to use the layout.

Many operating systems based on UNIX, including OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Plan 9, and most GNU/Linux distributions, can be configured to use either the U.S. Dvorak layout or the UK/British Dvorak Layout.

Apple had Dvorak partisans since the company's early (pre-IPO) days. The Apple III used a keyboard-layout file loaded from a floppy disk: the standard system-software package included QWERTY and Dvorak layout files. Changing layouts required restarting the machine. The Apple IIe had a keyboard ROM that translated keystrokes into characters. The ROM contained both QWERTY and Dvorak layouts, but the QWERTY layout was enabled by default. A fairly perverse modification could be made by by pulling out the ROM, bending up four pins, soldering a resistor between two pins, soldering two others to a pair of wires connected to a Microswitch, which was installed in a pre-existing hole in the back of the machine, then plugging the modified ROM back in its socket. The "hack" was reversible and did no damage. By flipping a switch on the machine's back panel, the user could switch from one layout to the other. This modification was entirely unofficial but was inadvertently demonstrated at the 1984 Comdex show, in Las Vegas, by an Apple employee whose mission was to demonstrate Apple Logo II. The employee had become accustomed to the Dvorak layout and brought the necessary parts to the show, installed them in a demo machine, then did his Logo demo. Viewers noticed that he always reached behind the machine before and after allowing other people to type and asked him about the modification. He spent as much time explaining the Dvorak keyboard as explaining Logo.

Apple brought new interest to the Dvorak layout with the Apple IIc, which had a mechanical switch whereby the user could switch back and forth between the QWERTY layout and the ANSI Dvorak layout: this was the official version of the IIe mod.

It is generally believed that the Apple Lisa never had a Dvorak-layout option: keyboard mapping on the Lisa was a black art, known to only a few highly secretive engineers, who never published specifications. Only the bravest third-party developers ever tried to write Lisa software. The machine came with a set of applications that were all the user could want, by definition.

In its early days, the Macintosh could be converted to the Dvorak layout by making changes to the "System" file: this was not easily reversible and required restarting the machine. This modification was highly unofficial, but it was comparable to many other user-modifications and customizations that Mac users made. Using the legendary "resource editor", ResEdit, users could create keyboard layouts, icons, and other useful items. Many wonders appeared at user-group meetings. A few years later, a third-party developer offered a utility program called MacKeymeleon, which put a menu on the menu bar that allowed on-the-fly switching of keyboard layouts. Eventually, Apple engineers built the functionality of this utility into the standard System Software, along with a few layouts:QWERTY, Dvorak, French, and other foreign-language layouts.

Since about 1998, beginning with Mac OS 8.6, Apple has included the Dvorak layout. Apple also includes a Dvorak variant they call “Dvorak - Qwerty Command”. With this layout, the keyboard becomes QWERTY when the Command (Apple) key is held down. This makes transition for some people easier. For a number of years, Mac OS has allowed "on-the-fly" switching between layouts: a menu-bar icon (by default, a U.S. flag) brings up a popup menu, allowing the user to choose the desired layout. Subsequent keystrokes will reflect the choice, which can be reversed the same way.

Resistance to change

Although the Dvorak layout is the only other keyboard layout registered with ANSI and is provided with all major operating systems, attempts to convert universally to the Dvorak layout have not been met with success. The failure of the Dvorak layout to displace the QWERTY layout has been the subject of some studies and of considerable debate.

However, in considering resistance to the adoption of the Dvorak layout, different segments of the market (non-typists, typists, corporations and manufacturers) differ in the extent, nature, and motivation of their resistance. Furthermore, the influence of these factors on the different segments of the market has changed over time, following changes in technology and awareness of Dvorak as an alternative keyboard layout. Resistance factors militating against adoption of the Dvorak layout have included these:

Failure to demonstrate an overwhelming inherent superiority in speed, economy of effort, and accuracy--noting that the significant issue here is the demonstrability. There have been very few studies done on the relative efficiency of each of the keyboard layouts, and those studies have been criticised for failing to adhere to rigorous academic standards.
Failure to achieve "awareness" in the general population of the existence of the Dvorak layout prior to the publication of Barbara Blackburn's achievement of 212 wpm using a Dvorak keyboard in the Guinness Book of Records in 1985. More widespread knowledge only came about in the mid-1990s when operating systems started to incorporate the Dvorak layout as an option.
Failure to overcome an investment in competence in the QWERTY layout made by an overwhelmingly large number of typists and typist trainers prior to the general availability of the Dvorak layout. This investment once established, and thereafter maintained by the typewriter manufacturers, has proved the most powerful influence up until the 1990s. Typing training in schools and secretarial colleges is almost always done on the QWERTY layout both because it conforms with the expectation of industry and because it reflects the competence of the teachers or trainers. It is possible^[2], but not common, for typists competent in the QWERTY layout to train themselves in the Dvorak layout, simply because the emphasis in typing has traditionally been on speed and accuracy. The only widely accepted superiority of Dvorak layouts is in the area of very high speeds that the bulk of typists do not aspire to, nor are expected to achieve. Some users have also noticed a reduction in carpal-tunnel syndrome when using the Dvorak layout: this may justify a month of slow typing during the transition. A reduction in efficiency while learning the Dvorak layout further mitigates against its adoption by typists already competent using QWERTY (and the organisations that employ them). Notably with the advent of self-teach typing programs on PCs the degree of influence that the QWERTY layout has in formal training is reducing, as nearly all of these programs come with Dvorak-layout options.
Failure to persuade large typewriter manufacturers to produce significant volumes of typewriters equipped with Dvorak layouts. It would be sufficient to argue that the manufacturers were responding to the large user base of the QWERTY layout, rather than giving regard to the plausible but unproven assertion that typewriter manufacturers had a vested interest in ensuring that typists could not type faster than the machines could respond mechanically. (An assertion that was obviously true in Sholes's time but is much less true now.)

Converting a mechanical typewriter to a new layout is difficult: much metal-cutting and soldering is required. A few gifted typewriter repairpersons are able to do this work: they are able to meet the limited demand for manual typewriters with Dvorak or exotic foreign-language layouts. The advent of PCs created the opportunity to use computer programs to change the value that was registered when a particular key on the keyboard was pressed: at worst, the contents of the character-generator ROM must be changed; with more recent designs, only a table in memory or the disk file storing this table needs to be changed. By the mid 1990s the Dvorak layout was an installable option on most computer systems. Touch typists proficient in using the Dvorak layout, in common with all touch typists, do not need to look at keyboards, and hence could set a PC to operate using Dvorak mode while using keyboards manufactured and labelled in the QWERTY layout. A traditional QWERTY-layout typist will however find this keyboard almost impossible to use, as nearly every key they press will produce a different character than they expect. Some Dvorak-layout typists have noted that this provides some degree of security against unauthorised use of their PCs. Others, however, physically modify their keyboards to match the Dvorak layout. On some modern operating systems, it is possible to switch keyboard layouts "on the fly," without the installation of additional software or reconfiguration. "On the fly" switching is very convenient if a computer is shared by users accustomed to different layouts: without it, a person who types on another person's machine may see gibberish on the screen. On the fly switching is particularly useful for users who rarely share their machine but must occasionally accommodate a system administrator who naturally expects any keyboard to be a QWERTY keyboard. (In a UNIX environment, this can be done with a shell script: if the script is named AAA, say, it can be invoked by the same keystrokes whether the current keyboard layout is QWERTY or Dvorak.)

Incompatibility between the two keyboard layouts on computers, where keys are assigned additional functions within software programs. In some cases related additional functions are assigned to keys that are physically proximate on the QWERTY layout, but not so in the Dvorak layout; for example, the Unix text editor vi uses the keys H, J, K and L to cause movement to the left, down, up, and right, respectively. With a QWERTY layout, these keys are all together under the right-hand home row, but with the Dvorak layout they are no longer neatly together. In many video games, keys W, A, S and D are used for arrow movements (their inverse-T arrangement on a QWERTY layout mirrors the arrangement of the cursor keys). In the Dvorak layout, this is no longer true. Keyboard shortcuts in GUIs for undo, copy, cut and paste operations are Ctrl (or Command) + Z, C, X, and V respectively; conveniently located in the same row in the QWERTY layout, but not on a Dvorak layout. Some of these issues can be overcome with programming solutions, but it adds a layer of complexity to using some computer applications with the Dvorak layout.The Mac OS offers an elegant solution: two Dvorak keyboard layouts are available on the Keyboard menu. The first, called simply Dvorak, remaps all the characters produced by a key (with and without modifier keys) from the old QWERTY key to the new Dvorak key. The second, called Dvorak QWERTY-Command remaps all the characters produced by the key-and-modifier combinations--except those in which the Command key is pressed] to the new Dvorak key; the Command-key variants are left the same as in the QWERTY layout. A curious and patient user can puzzle this out by using the Keyboard Viewer (Mac OS X) or the Keyboard desk accessory (older versions)).
Some confusion regarding which of the keyboard layouts designed by August Dvorak is the "real" Dvorak layout. This arose in part due to the existence of, in addition to the standard layout, layouts for left-handed (only) and right-handed (only) use. Also, while Dvorak specified a particular layout for the number sequence at the top of the keyboard, most implementations of the Dvorak layout retain the '1,2,3...9,0' arrangement: most people who want to type numbers quickly will use the numeric keypad rather than the top row.

An appreciation of the strength of the resistance factors (particularly the investment in typewriter manufacturing) suggests that the Dvorak layout would need to have been significantly superior to the QWERTY layout in order for the former to displace the latter in widespread use in the past. Logically, if the Dvorak layout was inherently at least as efficient as, or more efficient than, the QWERTY layout then we should see an increasing rate of use as resistance factors (such as lack of awareness, non-programmable machines, and one-style formal training) become less powerful. Unfortunately there are no surveys or studies looking at the rate of use of the Dvorak layout over time.

A discussion of the Dvorak layout is sometimes used as an exercise by management consultants to illustrate the difficulties of change. The Dvorak layout is often used as a standard example of network effects, particularly in economics textbooks, the other standard example being the competition between Betamax and VHS. These examples (particularly QWERTY) are used to demonstrate that inferior technologies sometimes succeed because they get locked-in to the market. Stanley J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis, two economists who have investigated these claims in several academic and popular papers, argue that the actual evidence in these cases does not support a claim of market failure or vendor lock-in; as they put it, "the claim that Dvorak is a better keyboard is supported only by evidence that is both scant and suspect," ^[3] but the validity of these suppositions have been called into question. ^[4]. All sides of this arguments suffer, however, from a lack of well designed studies on the relative strengths of the Dvorak and QWERTY layouts, and of surveys of the rate of use of the Dvorak layout over time.

Besides the Dvorak layout, there are other alternative keyboard layouts, such as Colemak. However, none of these alternative layouts has become widely used.

One-handed versions

There are also Dvorak arrangements designed for one-handed typing, which can provide increased accessibility for those who have difficulty with typical keyboards. Other users enjoy the ability to simultaneously type and control a mouse. Separate arrangements have been designed for each hand.

Note: The layouts depicted above are available under Microsoft Windows. There is another layout that is slightly different, where the numbers form three columns.

Programmer Dvorak

Programmer Dvorak is a Keyboard Layout developed by Electronics engineer Roland Kaufmann and targeted towards people writing source code for C, Java, Pascal, LISP, CSS and XML. The layout is based on the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, with several enhancements intended to make typing easier for programmers.

While the alphabetic keys are placed as on the original Dvorak layout, most of the others are changed. The most noticeable difference is that the top row is devoted to brackets and other operational characters, and the numbers must be accessed using the shift key. Also, differing from most Dvorak implementations but following August Dvorak's original design, the numbers are not placed in ascending order.

File:Keytronic-Opaque-DVP.PNG

The Programmer Dvorak layout

Programmer Dvorak on kaufmann.no

Other languages

Although DSK is implemented in many other languages other than English, there is a possible issue about it. Every Dvorak implementation in other languages leave the roman characters in the same position as the English DSK. However, other (occidental) language Grammars can clearly have other typing needs for optimization (many very different as English). This raises a point which questions Dvorak Simplified Keyboard's typing optimizations as language free, and can be another possible cause of Dvorak not replacing QWERTY worldwide.

An implementation for Swedish, known as Svorak [1], places the three extra Swedish vowels (å, ä and ö) on the leftmost three keys of the upper row, which correspond to punctuation symbols on the English Dvorak layout. These punctuation symbols are then juggled with other keys, and the Alt-Gr key is required to access some of them.

Another Swedish version, Svdvorak by Gunnar Parment, keeps the punctuation symbols as they were in the English version; the first extra vowel (å) is placed in the far left of the top row while the other two (ä and ö) are placed at the far left of the bottom row.

The Swedish variant that most closely resembles the American Dvorak layout is Thomas Lundqvist's sv_dvorak, which places å, ä and ö like Parment's layout, but keeps the American placement of most special characters.

The Norwegian implementation (known as "Norsk Dvorak") is similar to Parment's layout, with "æ" and "ø" replacing "ä" and "ö".

A Finnish DAS keyboard layout [2] follows many of Dvorak's design principles, but the layout is an original design based on the most common letters and letter combinations in the Finnish language. Matti Airas has also made another layout for Finnish [3]. Finnish can also be typed reasonably well with the English Dvorak layout if the letters ä and ö are added.

There are some non standard Brazilian Dvorak keyboard layouts currently in development. The simpler design (also called BRDK) is just a Dvorak layout plus some keys from the Brazilian ABNT2 keyboard layout. Another design, however, was specifically designed for writing Brazilian Portuguese, by means of a study that optimized typing statistics, like frequent letters, trigraphs and words.^[5]

The most common German Dvorak layout is the German Type II layout. It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. There is also the NEO layout [4] and the de ergo layout [5], both original layouts that also follow many of Dvorak's design principles.

There are also French [6] and Spanish [7] layouts.

World record

As of 2005, Barbara Blackburn is the fastest typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Using a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, she has maintained 150 words per minute for 50 min, 170 word/min for shorter periods of time, and has been clocked at a peak speed of 212 word/min. Blackburn failed her typing class in high school, first encountered the Dvorak layout in 1938, quickly learned to achieve very high speeds, and occasionally toured giving speed-typing demonstrations during her secretarial career.

References

^ Microsoft.com: Alternative Keyboard Layouts
^ Bigler, Jeff. "The Dvorak Keyboard". Retrieved 2006-03-21.
^ S. J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis. "The Fable of the Keys". Retrieved 2006-06-06.
^ "Dissenting Opinion". Retrieved 2006-06-06.
^ "O que é o teclado brasileiro?". Retrieved 2006-06-08.

External links

DvZine.org - A website advocating the Dvorak layout with a webcomic zine
The Dvorak Keyboard - A Brief Primer - by journalist Randy Cassingham
The Dvorak Keyboard and You - More information about the Dvorak keyboard and how to switch
Introducing the Dvorak Keyboard - with many additional links, including information on many methods of reconfiguring your computer (various OSs) to use Dvorak
Make Mine Dvorak -- An MSN Slate (magazine) editorial.
Photograph: August Dvorak and typing class at University of Washington, Seattle (November 14, 1932)
Doomtech.net's guide to learning Dvorak, including instructions on installing both English and Norwegian Dvorak on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
Programmer Dvorak on kaufmann.no

Typing tutors with Dvorak support

Free Open Source Software

DvorakNG - A free, open-source typing tutor for Linux.
Dvorak7min - A free, open-source typing tutor for Linux.
TypeFaster - A free, open source typing tutor for Windows.
KTouch - Another free, open-source typing tutor for Linux. This software is part of the KDE Educational suite.
GNU Typist - A Free, open-source typing tutor for DOS, Windows, Unix.

Freeware

Stamina Typing Tutor 2.5 - Freeware typing tutor for Windows
KP Typing Tutor for DOS - Typing tutor with Freeware version for MS-DOS.

Online

A Basic Course in Dvorak - by Dan Wood
A Basic Course in Dvorak (split into individual lessons) - by Dan Wood (split by Jeff Bigler of MIT)
A Basic Course in Dvorak (with words per minute timing and accuracy rate) - by Dan Wood (functionality by Ned Friend)
An Online Course in Dvorak - You don't need to change your layout to Dvorak to use this. It's also available in twenty languages.
PowerTyping - Flash-based Online Typing Tutor for Qwerty and Dvorak. Includes typing games.
Hebrew Keyboard Tutor - Shows several keyboard layouts -- good for comparing various keyboards

Dvorak tools

QWERTY to Dvorak converter - a Java applet that will convert the input in real time and test your typing speed
Qwerty to Dvorak Online Converter - a little real-time input converter that works through simple JavaScript
Online Qwerty to Dvorak Converter - another javascript tool that includes basic text editing features (IE only)
QWERTY to Dvorak converter - Use this to convert already-typed blocks of text
Dvorak Assistant - Free Windows utility to toggle Qwerty/Dvorak without administrative access or modifying system settings
- Quicker Access to Dvorak Assistant - Short, easy-to-remember links that are helpful when using public computers
Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to design one's own layout
Dvorak with Qwerty-based Ctrl Key Support - Dvorak keyboard layout that reverts to QWERTY for Ctrl Key shortcuts, thereby solving some compatibility problems

Comparison to QWERTY

Dvorak vs QWERTY Tool - A tool to compare the efficiency of Dvorak, QWERTY and Colemak
Qwerty/Dvorak Typing Analyzer - Accepts typed and pasted content.
Dvorak and Qwerty Finger Movement Distances - Accepts typed and pasted content
Words Possible on Dvorak and Qwerty Home Rows
Dvorak vs. Qwerty - A comparison of the two keyboard layouts
Barbara Blackburn, the World's Fastest Typist
Peter Klausler ran an evolutionary algorithm with startling results
Keyboard Compare Applet for Dvorak and Qwerty Keyboards (on Jon A. Maxwell's site)

Controversy

The Curse of Qwerty by Jared Diamond provides the traditional story of the history of the typewriter including the claim of superiority of the Dvorak keyboard.
The Fable of the Keys - Article by Liebowitz and Margolis questioning the Dvorak keyboard's superiority.
- The Fable of the Fable - Web page questioning the credibility of Fable of the Keys.
Typing Errors - Article in Reason Magazine by Liebowitz and Margolis alleging evidence against the Dvorak layout's superiority.
- Cassingham letter Letter to the editor of Reason Magazine by Randy Cassingham criticizing the claims made by Liebowitz and Margolis.
- Market failure again? an article of Gene Callahan in defense of the free market, stating that the Dvorak-technology was not technologically superior.
QWERTY and Path Dependence (EH.Net Economic History encyclopedia)

Foreign language layouts

Finnish DAS layout
Finnish Matti Airas layout
SHIAR.org, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Esperanto Dvorak layouts
New Zealand/Aotearoa Māori Dvorak layout
UK, United States-International, and US One-Hand Latin-9 Dvorak layouts for Windows.
A UK Dvorak layout for Mac OS X 10.2 and up.
A proposal for a Hebrew optimized layout
Hungarian Dvorak layout (offline)
Another Hungarian Dvorak layout with installation instructions
Thomas Lundqvist's Swedish Dvorak layout
Spanish Dvorak layout Included into the new Linux distributions like dvorak(es). Derived from a normal qwerty keyboard.
Dvorak international extended layout Adds dead key support and all characters available in the US-international layout to US-Dvorak without breaking anything.

[microsoft_alternative_keyboard_layouts-1] Microsoft.com: Alternative Keyboard Layouts

[2] Bigler, Jeff. "The Dvorak Keyboard". Retrieved 2006-03-21.

[3] S. J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis. "The Fable of the Keys". Retrieved 2006-06-06.

[4] "Dissenting Opinion". Retrieved 2006-06-06.

[5] "O que é o teclado brasileiro?". Retrieved 2006-06-08.

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