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Advice for emacs with Dvorak keyboard layout

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emacs

dvorak

There are lots of good discussions of emacs or of the Dvorak layout. There is even some discussion that touches on the combination, but I think it's worth pulling this into one thread so those of us using Dvorak and emacs don't have to read through dozens of pages.

I'm looking for specific pointers or general advice on using emacs with Dvorak. Emacs is extremely configurable, so I think there have to be some great tricks. What are others doing? Re-binding keys in emacs? Re-binding keys everywhere? Changing shortcuts in emacs?

Consider that many of us on Dvorak came from qwerty and some of us may go back in the future. In my case, I still have some familiarity with emacs on qwerty and I sometimes use qwerty, but not currently for emacs - muscle memory has outlasted explicit memory and my fingers sometimes go to the qwerty keys when thinking of emacs shortcuts. (Thank goodness for undo!)

My favorite thing about emacs was the many keyboard shortcuts (such as Ctl -f, -b, -p, -n, -d, etc.) and I have fully learned to touch-type Dvorak at ~ my old speed, but my brain seems to rebel at emacs shortcuts on dvorak. I learned emacs when I coded regularly ~10 years ago, but I stopped coding regularly ~5 years ago, and then I switched to Dvorak. There's good discussion of switching to Dvorak at is-the-switch-to-dvorak-worth-it, but my reason was that I wanted to a) slow myself down for a while because I was suffering from repetitive strain, and b) because I saw mixed reviews of the ergonomics of Dvorak and I wanted to give it a try. For me, it has worked really well - I recovered while slow and after getting back up to approximate full speed (~80 wpm) I can type more, longer without pain - but now that I want to code again I want to make reclaim emacs and I'm not giving up Dvorak.

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sage Avatar asked Dec 11 '10 20:12

sage


People also ask

Is Dvorak layout better?

Dvorak proponents claim that it requires less finger motion and as a result reduces errors, increases typing speed, reduces repetitive strain injuries, or is simply more comfortable than QWERTY.

Should I use Dvorak keyboard?

The Final Verdict. Although the typical keyboard features the QWERTY key layout, you should consider using a Dvorak keyboard layout. Reducing finger travel to the most commonly-used letters in English and learning to touch type may reduce hand and wrist strain and improve typing efficiency.

Is Dvorak better for RSI?

Since your fingers work less on Dvorak, you're much less likely to develop repetitive strain injuries from typing. RSI sufferers that switch to Dvorak commonly report their pain disappearing after a few months of use.

Is it worth it to switch to Dvorak?

Switching to Dvorak isn't something I'd recommend to anyone who can already touch type using QWERTY. There's no conclusive evidence that it'll make you faster, and learning is a pretty painful process if you need to type with even the slightest sense of urgency.


2 Answers

Just found this question while searching for similar information. I'm a new Dvorak typist, but I've been using Emacs for a few years. The chords are burned into my brain, and I'd rather not retrain myself.

What I've found quite workable is C-\ english-dvorak (set-input-method). The keyboard is remapped to Dvorak, but the chords remain the same (that is, C-x C-f is C-(second key from l-shift) C-(fourth key from caps)). This is a very convenient middleground, giving me the option to remap keybindings in the future, but not forcing me to learn two new systems at once.

If you set the variable default-input-method to english-dvorak, you can just hit C-\ to activate it. This doesn't work if your system keyboard is also mapped to Dvorak, but it's worked for me because I do mostly everything in emacs.

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Jack Henahan Avatar answered Sep 29 '22 08:09

Jack Henahan


I'm programming every day with Emacs on Dvorak, and I have kept the original key bindings. My main reason for not changing is to be able to use one colleague's Emacs, or start it up on an account I don't want to mess around with. I grew very accustomed of it, so I'm pretty happy with them now.

Obviously, a few one-handed short cuts became two-handed, such as C-x C-s or C-x C-c, but as Dvorak users are generally touch-typing anyway, we always have our two hands on the keyboard.

So, I can only suggest to keep trying, maybe concentrating on fewer commands at the time, and then building back?

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small_duck Avatar answered Sep 29 '22 07:09

small_duck