Category:Dvorak

This category list comics that makes reference to the Dvorak keyboard layout. It was proposed in 1936 as an alternative to the existing, entrenched QWERTY layout, developed in the 1870s which are almost exclusively used today.

It has been referenced several times in xkcd usually making jokes about how supporters keeps claiming that typing speed is faster on a Dvorak keyboard although this has never been proven (see more details below).

The QWERTY keyboard is the standard in the US (and similar but slightly different version exist in almost every country using roman letters). But some features in its layout are based on mechanical considerations rather than the optimum placement for typing speed. For example, common letter combinations such as 'st' and 'th' had to be arranged so that their operating levers were separated from each other, lest they cause jams and slow down the typist. More than sixty years later, such mechanical considerations could be overcome, and Dvorak designed his keyboard layout with typing efficiency in mind.

The Dvorak keyboard was ultimately unsuccessful. It still persists today, but has never threatened the dominance of the QWERTY keyboard. Even if the Dvorak layout is more efficient (which is still a matter for debate, see the uncomfortable truth in 561: Well), QWERTY was and is the standard. This means that every keyboard user has to learn QWERTY anyway, and there is insufficient benefit in spending the time to learn a new layout, especially when you would have to switch back and forth between Dvorak and QWERTY as the situation demands (see 554: Not Enough Work). Hence it is often used in jokes about time management like the two mentioned before and 1445: Efficiency.

In 977: Map Projections Randall states that those who preferred the Dymaxion projection would write in Dvorak.