Doxory?

jesse has decided I'm a programmer. My hands sometimes hurt. I'm doing most of the right things with regard to posture and medical attention. Should I switch to Dvorak?

Asked 2 years ago

geoff: Dvorak will hose you completely for a few weeks, and hose you a bit for a few months, and you won't reach your peak speed for a good year at least. So if that is a problem, put it off. And it will frustrate you to tears -- it's like going to physical therapy and re-learning to walk. But it is awesome. I am faster and much, much more accurate, and I'm very glad I put the time in. You'll find that your fingers hardly move from home row. I used an OS X shareware program called Ten Thumbs to learn. Oh, also, the placement of some of the symbols used in programming languages is a little awkward, but you get used to it.
kyrandil: My understanding is that Dvorak puts the keys you press more often under the stronger fingers and on the home row. So, certainly if you were typing English, it would help. But Perl uses lots of other symbols not conveniently accessible in either keyboard layout. I'd certainly recommend trying it (and then possibly remapping keys to be optimal for Perl)
androidqueen: from what i've heard it helps a lot.
ntn: It makes your computer that much less sharable.
lakmiseiru: Sure, why not give it a try. See if it helps? If you're doing everything else, give it a shot.
Yoyo: Look at you writing not-code, this question, right now.
seph: It's supposed to help. Why not try it
Ian: Everybody's doin' it!
stardust9121: A friend of mine did - it was a pain in the ass for a while but apparently worth it in the end.

jtu: Depends on how your hands are hurting, Dvorak may or may not be able to help. Also, I tense my hands when I am frustrated, which makes using new things with long learning curves difficult/counterproductive.
dzm: Once it becomes ingrained and you stop thinking about typing, old bad habits return pretty quickly.
kevinr: Microsoft doesn't make Dvorak Natural Keyboards, does it?
tibbetts: Programming isn't the problem, it's messaging (IRC/AIM/Zephyr) and email. Dvorak is only a tiny fraction better than qwerty. Try dictating your email, or doing more verbal communication.
Mark: film your hands for a day, and compare what you're doing at the start of the day vs. when they hurt - and see which of your "right things" are actually slipping. Only look at dvorak if you are *sure* that finger motion distance has anything to do with your pain, *or* if you want to intentionally slow yourself down by forcing the retraining.
shadow: Just keep qwerty and forget how to touch type.
quince: ew. I don't know that I could date a dirty Dvorak user.

If you make a stupid choice because a website tells you to, it's your own damn fault.