there are two big arguments for a denser layout, notably you move your hands less, which means you can type faster, statistically speaking. It makes it easier. Generally you see typing speed track roughly with this over time.
And since you move your hands less, it’s ergonomically better for typing, so you get less strain, you have better ergonomics in general, you can type longer, and even faster since there is less strain.
Different layouts optimize for different things, some optimize for efficient roll combinations, some optimize for switching between hands as optimally as possible. Some don’t really do any of that (qwerty) which also have a significant impact on typing.
psud@aussie.zone 1 year ago
I originally learned qwerty and touch typed at 60WPM, during a really boring job before smartphones and before we had internet to the desktop at work and I entertained myself learning to type again, but on dvorak
So after 3 months I was back to 60WPM
I really like that dvorak has all the vowels on the left of the home row, and t and h are on the right of the home row right where finger tapping cadence works for “th”
So my speed hasn’t increased, but my fingers don’t need to move as much for common words. I don’t think it’s worth it if you play games on the computer, many games don’t map keyboard controls well. Eg Minecraft moves everything to whatever key is in the same place as the qwerty key; 7 days to die doesn’t change anything, so you need to choose keys for everything, or if you’re happy with the defaults, just change the ones that conflict when you fix “wasd” to “,aoe”