Subject: Re: [lojban] The Dvorak of Lojban?

From: "Lex Spoon" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 12:16:47 -0500

"Matthew S. Ford" <[email-masked]> wrote:
> I am curious if anyone has tried remapping his keys on his keyboard to 
> something more pleasing for Lojban. A sort of Dvorak for Lojban.
> 
> I do not know much about Dvorak and how it makes typing nicer for English.
> 
> I also understand that such a layout could get in the way of typing 
> English things and trying to use it may not make much sense until most 
> of what I type is in Lojban. But I am still curious.
> 

Robert gave an excellent description of Dvorak. To make a Dvorak for
Lojban, you'd want to first figure out which letters are most common,
and then figure out which letter sequences are most common. Arrange the
keyboard so that the common letters are on the home row and so that
common sequences tend to move inward towards the center of the keyboard,
and there you are -- a superior keyboard.

The only thing left is hand alternation. I don't know Lojban well
enough to say whether it is practical, but it's certainly possible that
the simple trick of putting vowels on the left and consonants on the
right would work.

Incidentally, it takes roughly a month to learn Dvorak. I'd guess it
takes a similar time to learn any layout. So if you go for it, spend a
lot of time trying to get the design right before you start seriously
practicing with it! If you're really into it, you can write software
that will simulate typing and thus predict a level of effort and a speed
for writing a particular text; such a simulation is often used to
compare Dvorak to Qwerty, and it could certainly be used in designing a
new layout. Probably if you did some web searches, you could find
people willing to email the simulation they have on hand....

-Lex