¿Qué es Dvorak?
Thu Jul 20, 2006 17:44 (UTC -5)Yesterday this e-mail rolled into my now squeaky clean inbox.
Hola Webmaster—
I finally found an address that has a date from this year! Thanks so much!
I’m in Mexico & trying to help an amigo learn the dvorak keyboard in Spanish.
I’ve got the keyboard in Spanish, but am furiously searching for a tutor pgm for that specific keyboard.
Please send us any info you have on one.
Yes! The Dvorak Keyboard and You has been updated relatively recently, if only slightly. (See the page for information on the Dvorak keyboard.) I guess that does boost its reliability in the eyes of readers, especially because many Dvorak-related sites are old and derelict. Anyway, I replied thus:
Sorry, I’m not aware of any Spanish Dvorak tutor programs. Your situation is probably complicated by the fact that Dvorak was designed for the English language; there may be competing Spanish versions that all claim to adhere to Dvorak’s principles, but I don’t know.
However, if you have the time and inclination, and if your amigo is motivated enough, you could probably make your own course for him. I learned the layout by using this course:
http://gigliwood.com/abcd/abcd.html
You could try creating words and sentences that correspond to the keys that each lesson tests. In fact, if you can show me what the keyboard layout looks like and give me a huge list of Spanish words, I could write a program to generate a list of letters/words for each lesson, and you could put the words together into sentences (after all, my Spanish is pretty shaky).
Actually, I’m not so sure about the program. I mean, I’m a novice programmer, and so I’m trying to think about how it could be done. I do know that it can be done, though.
Anyway, if you happen to find a good typing tutor program, let me know and I’ll post a link to it on my site.
If nobody out there in Internet-land can recommend a good Spanish Dvorak tutor, I figure I could generate lists of words and things like that. After thinking about it for a second, I’ve realized how it could be done. Plus, it would give me a good opportunity to exercise my Visual Basic prowess (heh, that’s a good one) during a time when I’ve been immersing myself in JavaScript. If we go through with this, we could even post the tutorial on the web for any other Spanish speakers who want to use Dvorak(esque) layouts.
“What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages?” So ponders Carl Tashian, the creator of Lost in Translation, an exercise in machine translation gone wrong. Just feed it some text and watch as it gets translated back and forth between various languages. Here’s how it mangles this paragraph.
On a more comprehensible note, Tashian is related to Barry Tashian, a member of The Remains, a band that opened for The Beatles during their 1966 American tour, which was their final tour. Way cool.
How much do you know about major world religions, belief systems, and philosophies? Find out by reading the Big Religion Chart.
By the way, totally check out One Day in the Desert: Special Director’s Cut and leave some love on its Google Video page.
One year ago: “This book has once again confirmed my suspicion that I’m a horrifyingly slow reader.”
Two years ago: “Well, it’s probably all right because their legal department must have given it some thought!”
5 comments
#1 by Luke: Thu Jul 20, 2006 20:34 (UTC -5)
You’re just looking for that love…
#2 by Jordon: Thu Jul 20, 2006 21:08 (UTC -5)
Totally.
#3 by Anonymous: Fri Jul 21, 2006 03:43 (UTC -5)
I can help with the keyboard! If Spanish is involved lol, I can help, that’s one of my specialties.
#4 by kevin: Fri Jul 21, 2006 03:44 (UTC -5)
sorry, that’s me again.
#5 by Jordon: Fri Jul 21, 2006 08:13 (UTC -5)
That shouldn’t be happening. I thought I changed the code so that the name field was required, but apparently I didn’t. Now it’s fixed, and if you don’t enter your name, it will prompt you to.