&#62; The QWERTY vs Dvorak argument is silly; both were designed at a time before any research had been performed into typing ergonomics, and the only reason to pick one or the other is largely based on hearsay and rumor.<p>I grew up using my own odd way of typing with several of my fingers, but didn't type by touch.  When I started studying comp sci I decided to finally learn to type properly. After a year or so of typing qwerty I had pain in my wrists and fingers.<p>Obviously I couldn't afford any injuries before my career even started, so I read up on dvorak and the decided the reasoning behind it was sound.  I switched and it was one or two weeks before I could type very well at all, and a month before I was what I call proficient. Since then no more pain.<p>So whether my fingers actually travel less or not, I don't really care. Something about it is better ergonomically, for me. It's been 5-6 years since then without any pain or discomfort (apart from 20+ hour sessions, and I deserved exactly what I got, that's just dumb).<p>AFAIK Dvorak wrote studies on this for some US gov't body, around WW1 or WW2 iirc.  I haven't looked for them but to call his research hearsay and rumour is not very fair. You need to back that up.