A very clever setup, but is it necessary? Programmers, on the whole, don't need to type very fast because they're thinking and coding while typing. Writing code is not like writing an e-mail or a blog post where the brain can work much faster than the fingers.
This keyboard optimizes perhaps the widest part of the pipe - which is awfully fun to watch, but lacking in real productivity increases, I believe.
I agree with Steve's point, but he's mostly talking about typing fast to participate in online communities, write more e-mails, etc. That sort of stuff doesn't require a "programmer's" Dvorak keyboard - so my point still stands. The act of programming doesn't require extremely fast input - especially as a lot of people use macros and shortcuts now anyway.
Using Dvorak to be a better participant in online forums, etc, is awesome, but you can use a regular Dvorak keyboard for that.
If you are going to learn Dvorak and you are a programmer, you might as well learn "Programmer's Dvorak" and be able to type your programs faster in addition to being a better participant in online forums etc, don't you think?
Maybe, but I guess like authors who say you only get the best results when writing slowly with a pen, I feel that speed should never be of the essence when typing code.
That said, I'm not a Java programmer, so I'm somewhat biased in my appreciation of brevity ;-)
Comments
A very clever setup, but is it necessary? Programmers, on the whole, don't need to type very fast because they're thinking and coding while typing. Writing code is not like writing an e-mail or a blog post where the brain can work much faster than the fingers.
This keyboard optimizes perhaps the widest part of the pipe - which is awfully fun to watch, but lacking in real productivity increases, I believe.
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/programmings-dirties...
I agree with Steve's point, but he's mostly talking about typing fast to participate in online communities, write more e-mails, etc. That sort of stuff doesn't require a "programmer's" Dvorak keyboard - so my point still stands. The act of programming doesn't require extremely fast input - especially as a lot of people use macros and shortcuts now anyway.
Using Dvorak to be a better participant in online forums, etc, is awesome, but you can use a regular Dvorak keyboard for that.
If you are going to learn Dvorak and you are a programmer, you might as well learn "Programmer's Dvorak" and be able to type your programs faster in addition to being a better participant in online forums etc, don't you think?
Maybe, but I guess like authors who say you only get the best results when writing slowly with a pen, I feel that speed should never be of the essence when typing code.
That said, I'm not a Java programmer, so I'm somewhat biased in my appreciation of brevity ;-)
Okay :) Just for the record, I am not a Java or any other verbose language programmer either.