dvorak.md

   1 ---
   2 title: Dvorak resources
   3 date: 2021-06-16
   4 ---
   5
   6 Since about 2011 I've started using dvorak as my main keyboard layout and like the efficiency compared to QWERTY.
   7
   8 ## Table of contents
   9
  10 - [Notes](#notes)
  11         - [Note to self (2015-10-30)](#note-to-self-2015-10-30)
  12 - [Dosbox](#dosbox)
  13         - [Update (2020-06-11)](#update-2020-06-11)
  14 - [Dos](#dvorak-in-dos)
  15 - [Russian (2014-10-07)](#russian-2014-10-07)
  16         - [Update (2015-04-16)](#update-2015-04-16)
  17
  18 ## Notes
  19 ### Note to self (2015-10-30)
  20 Note to self: x-keyboard-config on arch linux overwrites the
  21 file where the dvorak russian keymap is stored and by that the
  22 xserver fails to set the keymap, returning to default qwerty.
  23 This can be solved by loading the keymap from a custom
  24 location? Or maybe to pin the file so that the package manager
  25 doesn't overwrite it?
  26
  27 ## Dosbox
  28 Dvorak is also usable in dosbox via a custom mapper file that your can find [here](files/dvorak-0.74.map)
  29 You can enable the layout by saving this in your settings directory and `mapperfile=dvorak-0.74.map` to your sdl section of your dosbox config.
  30
  31 ### Update (2020-06-11)
  32 Dvorak is now built in as a keymap in dosbox.
  33 You can enable the layout by running `KEYB dv103` in a dosbox
  34 prompt or setting the following in your dosbox config file.
  35
  36 ```
  37 [dos]
  38 keyboardlayout=dv103
  39 ```
  40
  41 ## Dvorak in dos
  42 To use dvorak in dos download this [file](files/dvorak_dos.tar) containing dvorak.com
  43 Transfer it to your C:\DOS folder for example and add this to your AUTOEXEC.bat:
  44
  45 ```
  46 C:\DOS\DVORAK.COM
  47 ```
  48
  49 When your computer boots the program will say DVORAK is loaded and you're good to go
  50
  51 The MS-DOS supplemental disk also contains a dvorak keyboard layout. Install and put this in your AUTOEXEC.bat:
  52 ```
  53 KEYB DV,,C:\DOS\DVORAK.SYS
  54 ```
  55
  56 ## Russian (2014-10-07
  57 When learning russian I had to type some stuff in russian, as I found
  58 out that there was a phonetic keyboard I was excited but it didn't work on
  59 dvorak layout. So some guy named Oleg made a phonetic russian keyboard
  60 layout in dvorak and you can download it
  61 [here](files/phonetic_dvorak.gz). When you want to use it you
  62 have to append the information from the file to
  63 `/usr/share/X11//xkb/symbols/ru`
  64 When you want to load it you can type
  65 ```
  66 setxkbmap -layout ru -variant phonetic_dvorak</pre>
  67 ```
  68
  69 ### Update (2015-04-16)
  70 Since having to setup the keyboard after login can be useful if you
  71 don't have the rights to edit system configuration files on your system(eg.
  72 work) but it's not a durable solution for your own system. If you want to
  73 make these things semipermanent you can use the handy program called
  74 [localectl](http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/localectl.html)
  75 which writes an xorg.conf.d/ file. In my specific case these are the
  76 commands to set the keymap for the console and for within X. For the
  77 console I only use normal dvorak whereas in X I want to be able to
  78 switch(with menu key) and use the right alt as compose key.
  79
  80 ```
  81 # localectl set-x11-keymap --no-convert dvorak,ru pc104 ,phonetic_dvorak compose:ralt,grp:menu_toggle
  82 # localectl set-keymap --no-convert dvorak
  83 ```