I started learning Dvorak
Few months ago I started learning Dvorak. I had some free time to spare so I said to my self that I will try to learn dvorak keyboard layout before end of a summer break (1.9.2024).
Why I even started learning Dvorak
I was bored.
No really, I did not know what to do. I don’t have school so I have a lot of free time and I don’t know what to do. When something like this happens, I do one of these things. Ricing my desktop, watching YouTube, or just programming random shit without any value (like most of my projects).
So I did one of these. I started watching YouTube. I was was watching some Primeagen ’s video (I don’t remember the exact video) but he was talking about vim and Dvorak. And I knew some stuff about Dvorak before but I never wanted to learn it. But this was exactly the thing to cure my boredom.
How I started learning Dvorak
I watched A LOT, really like so much videos about Dvorak. Why should I learn it and why shouldn’t. My biggest concern was that I type also in Czech, so i need characters like á, ř, ě etc. but this was easily solvable by using dvorak-ucw rather than dvorak keyboard layout. It is excatly same as a dvorak keyboard layout but with the aditionals characters. I can use them by using the right alt and the letter.
For example AltGr + r creates ř etc.
The second concern was a vim. I’ll talk about that later.
So I started on learn.dvorak.nl . First i needed to memorize the home row and then the rest of the stuff.
I was stuck at the home row for a looong time. But eventually a progressed and memorized the entire alphabet. But now there is the second part. Getting fast and accurate.
Getting faster and more accurate (hopefully)
Once I memorized the entire alphabet I needed to be faster and more accurate. At the time I was getting 10WPM and around 85% accuracy. This was bad.
So I started practicing on Monkeytype . And it kinda worked. Right now after like 2 months of learning dvorak I am getting around 35 - 40 WPM and around 90% - 100% accuracy. I know the accuracy is kinda bad as well as the speed but I am just learning it. I wasn’t learning Dvorak every day for a 2 months but like twice a week. But last week I’m trying to at least practice on Monkeytype for at least an hour.
But I think it’s kinda ok. I can type what I want and that is important. But yeah, it is frustrating. I’m trying to only type on Dvorak but it is just so slow compared to my 90 WPM on qwertz (default keyboard variant for czech layout).
Vim
Vim experience in Dvorak is interesting. I wouldn’t say it’s bad but I am not getting used to it. It is like relearning Vim motions. I need to think so much when I’m trying to code in Dvorak because in vim everything is somewhere else. And no… i dont want to use Dvorak remap.
The hjkl is seperated so I need to relearn that, and everything is out of place.
Shortcuts
Control C, Control V. Can’t do it with one hand… That really annoys me. But probably not a huge deal.
Also I need to relearn all the shortcuts, that is kinda pain.
Is learning Dvorak a waste of time?
Depends on what you are doing. I think for me it is not. And I will still continue on learning and using Dvorak (probably). I spend a lot of time writing on a keyboard and on Dvorak it feels way better. Most of your typing happens on home row.
Update: 30.8.2024
I have been practicing dvorak regularly and now I am giving around 55 - 60 WPM. But still my accuracy is around 95%. But the speed is already quite good, I can normally write quite fast. Of course, it could be better, but I’m quite satisfied with it.