Optimizing Dvorak: Rolling Through Space and Chording

[algorithmist]

Hi,
Have been browsing through the forums for quite some time;
Wondering what you guys think of the idea of the Dvorak layout optimization below,
in particular rolling through space without sacrificing hand alternation.

Two obvious problems with Dvorak is having 'l' on a pinkie and requiring lateral movement for 'i'.
Common suggestion to switch 'u' and 'i' is not a clear cut winner as about 30% of occurrences
of 'u' is in the digram 'ou', which becomes uncomfortable after the switch. I wanted
to avoid this drawback. Another goal was to keep the "spirit" of maximum hand alternation of Dvorak.

The first iteration was:
',upy    flcr.
aoeig     dhtns
;qjkx     bmwvz

Note that the "ou" here is still a roll. 'l' is moved to right index finger. 'cl' is a rather common digram, while 'g'
frequently appears in digrams with consonants, i.e. gn, gr, gl so we do not seem to lose hand alternation. While
'.' lost its position, mentally I can't roll through end of sentence, so its speed is irrelevant. Looking
at the digram frequency table it does not seem I'm sacrificing anything here. Indeed, it was much more
comfortable and faster than Dvorak on my Kinesis.

But today I noticed that using a thumb for the space key actually is slowing me down. Plus, when typing fast, the thumb was
hammering the key so hard that I was concerned I'll break the keyboard :biggrin:

So I moved the space to a regular key like this making it possible to roll through space and keeping all frequent digram intact:
,uopy    flcr.
aie g     dhtns
;qjkx     bmwvz
I've also got two new frequent rolls: "po" and "op". And as a side effect, I could now free two pairs of thumb buttons for SHIFT and ALT.
Meanwhile it feels nice, but will see the speed in several weeks. Any suggestions
of "obvious" improvements are very welcome.

[dorkvader]

First: Hello and welcome to geekhack!

About your layout, I am wondering how the "roll" 'ou' works out now, as it's a digraph using the same finger. I had thought those slowed you down and were uncomfortable.

That said, it's interesting you put space on a finger. I wonder the differences. Do you have the ' key on spacebar now?

That said, I do rather like the similarity to standard dvorak, and the "flcr" replacement seem like a good idea. I will have to consider it after work. Maybe I'll have to give it a try.

[Playtrumpet]

Really just glancing at the 2nd layout, you've created a problem with the 'qu' digraph. Also problematic would be the 'ju' and 'jo'. I'll come back with suggestions later because I'm always for the optimization of Dvorak.

[algorithmist]

Digram 'ou' is very comfortable: it's a roll from middle to ring finger. Note the gap in the middle of left hand. This is the space key on the index finger. It rolls very comfortably from/to  all vowels and is a hand alternation with most
frequent consonants.  

First: Hello and welcome to geekhack!

About your layout, I am wondering how the "roll" 'ou' works out now, as it's a digraph using the same finger. I had thought those slowed you down and were uncomfortable.

That said, it's interesting you put space on a finger. I wonder the differences. Do you have the ' key on spacebar now?

That said, I do rather like the similarity to standard dvorak, and the "flcr" replacement seem like a good idea. I will have to consider it after work. Maybe I'll have to give it a try.

When one changes a layout it's easy to see disadvantages even without looking at the frequency tables: you had a nice roll before the change but need some awkward keying after the change. The first iteration was, as far as I could see, and on my Kinesis, an improvement over Dvorak in any sense, unlike other Dvorak modif The second iteration looses some and gains some. One loss is "quick" becoming not so quick. But this is a rather rare combination and you gain, for instance "pu", "po", "ie" and many others. And most important, there is no mental break for the "space". And not only mental - thumb is a strong finger, but it's a slow one. For example, thinking about Kinesis' foot switch, would it be a good idea to put 'a', 'e' and 't' on your feet? The feet are stronger than the fingers...
 

I use the "Space" and the "Backspace" of my Kinesis for the "AltGr", "Delete" and "Enter" - for the Shift. AltGr defines another level of keys, mostly programming related characters, that
are easy to access without looking and hand movement, but not required to be fast. I mean, I wish the speed I print the programs, was my bottleneck :biggrin: , but I don't want to bo distracted for the key search on the keyboard. "Shift+ Space" is the macro for the Enter key. "AltGr + ," ("AltGr + q" in QWERTY) is the macro for " ' " . Backspace is put on "End" and Del is "AltGr + Backspace".

Really just glancing at the 2nd layout, you've created a problem with the 'qu' digraph. Also problematic would be the 'ju' and 'jo'. I'll come back with suggestions later because I'm always for the optimization of Dvorak.

[algorithmist]

Addressing uncomfortable bigram 'qu', I put 'q' on its qwerty key. Then 'qu' would be a nice roll:

quopy   flcr.
aie g   dhtns
;j,kx   bmwvz

And it seems we don't lose anything of importance by this change.
I also moved ',' as ",space" is a common bigram, so it must be comfortable. Besides, ',' and "AltGl/Shift + ," are rather common and should be comfortable.
It also makes bigrams "ja", "je" comfortable and "jo" rather OK, leaving only "ju" a single key combo. But losing the comfort of "ju" is a rather negligible price to pay for all the benefits we get.

[trepan]

I started tweaking the DV layout just to move the L,
and here's what I ended up with (been using it over
for a year now, most recently with a 109 key TECK).