Using Dvorak Keyboards for Programming?

I am seriously considering remapping my keyboard to a Dvorak layout. (For those of you who don't know what this is, read this.) However, I do a lot of programming, scripting, and marking-up (mostly Perl, C++, and HTML). I found a "programmer version" of Dvorak here, but I'm still not sure if it's worth the effort to switch.

Any thoughts?

Intresting, I will have to take a look, and maybe try it.

You know, it just dawned on me yesterday when looking at a new Clie PDA that QWERTY were the first row letters from left to right...

Never paid any attention...yeah yeah off topic, I know

It's disorienting at first... I can't tell if it would be faster or not because it's taken me a long time to quickly with the traditional QWERTY layout.

I am used to the standard and would be slower on a non-standard keyboard.

lol changing might be okay, but remapping means your letters would be the wrong places!!!

Yes, computer, that is the only problem I have had with the layout so far.

well it suggests little stickers until you get a permanent solution, or remember it.

just get some scotch clear tape, write the letters with biro pen, put another layer on top, and hay presto

But most of the people geeky enough to want to try the Dvorak layout don't look at the keys when they type anyway . . .

no, not normally, but until you learn the layout, you need to look at the keys... unless you use trial and error

Emacs has a dvorak keyboard layout module, and I hooked up one of my friends with it. He already types something like 125 wpm anyways, but wanted to go even faster . Trouble is that the guy likes vi, so that put an end to our dvorak experiment.

Windows comes with a dvorak keyboard layout by default. Settings->Control Panel->Keyboard. Set it up as an alternate layout with alt+shift used to switch between layouts. It just will not be the "programmers Dvorak" that was mentioned earlier in this thread.

I personally couldn't do it. Touch typing is more a muscular reaction than a thought process (IMO). I don't think I could switch in and out of two different modes.

Well, it sounds like you either switch all the way or don't switch at all . . . that is, if I learned Dvorak, from day one I would never use Qwerty again.

I agree. All or nothing. Just out of curiosity, I have been playing with Dvorak just to see if I think I could do both. With time, it would probably be possible, but damn, it sure is hard.