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summarybot • today at 1:04 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

Actually programmers use the symbols far more frequently than the numbers. The number row on Programmer Dvorak is, from left-to-right,

  & [ { } ( = * ) + ] ! #
Looks really weird at first glance! but if you try it out, [square brackets] and (parens) are symmetrical fingers on opposing hands. By hand, [] is the ring fingers (2,0 on a qwerty). {} is (3,4 on the left-hand) and () is 5,8 aka your pointing fingers, left hand then right.

Having the luxury of the parens and frequent symbols (especially if you code Clojure or a Lisp) on the tippy-top row is awesome.

Plus, the numbers are also split by hand!

From middle-going-out:

Left hand: 91357 Right hand: 02468

Which lets you type numbers without looking for them by eye :)

Replies

jandrese • today at 3:23 PM

> Plus, the numbers are also split by hand!

> From middle-going-out:

> Left hand: 91357 Right hand: 02468

What is the advantage of this order vs. numerical order? If I'm reading your post correctly the numbers are arranged 7531902468 on the keyboard, with maybe a space in the middle? Is there some mathematical property where odd and even numbers are more likely to alternate than for odds or evens to be found side by side? Maybe 0 is more likely to appear so they want it on an index finger? It just seems unlikely that the next most common digit is 9, unless this was developed by people who set prices on items.

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