Dvorak Keyboard Layout

[Eric Wald]

Von Fugal wrote:
> I feel like I should say you oughta go 100% dvorak at first, like the
> others said. Maybe even so far as to have dvorak be the only layout (no
> out) until you've got it down. But at the very least, have dvorak be the
> default layout, and only revert if you absolutely must.

I used to use the Dvorak layout just for typing, and can attest that it
doesn't work all that well.  Particularly when editing just a character
here or there, I found myself unconsciously using Qwerty.  I'll have to
try again sometime as pure Dvorak, just to see whether I can stick with
it this time.

> I did this last summer, 100% dvorak for a couple months or so. I would
> still be in it, but vim is just too big a hangup for me. Andrew claims
> it's not that bad to just use the home keys as the fall in dvorak. I
> guess the home keys are just too engrained for me.
>
> With the caps lock thing, however, you could quickly switch to qwerty
> while in command mode, and back to dvorak. Is this something a vim macro
> could do?

Even better, vim has a 'keymap' option.  Just create a keymap/dvorak.vim
file in ~/.vim/ (or your preferred place for vim plugins) and :set
keymap=dvorak to have it switch to the Dvorak layout for insert and
replace modes only, leaving command modes in qwerty.

- Eric