When comparing Dvorak Simplified Keyboard vs Colemak Mod-DH, the Slant community recommends Colemak Mod-DH for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” Colemak Mod-DH is ranked 3rd while Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Colemak Mod-DH is:
Some people find moving D and H to the bottom row much more comfortable (especially with flat keyboards). Curved keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage also help with lateral motion. Regular Colemak on these keyboards might be the ideal solution since then you help resolve some of the cons of regular Colemak without adding on the ones from Mod DH.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro More ergonomic
Designed with comfort in mind.
Pro Standard on all operating systems
You can find this layout on all operating systems.
Pro Opportunity to learn proper touch typing
Most people passively learn and use QWERTY-based layouts before switching to Dvorak. The switch gives them an opportunity to completely relearn 10-finger typing, which is where a significant portion of the speedup comes from. Coupled with more ergonomic key placement, this makes for a more enjoyable typing experience.
Pro Useful keys in home row
70% of more useful keys are placed in the home row.
Pro You can reuse qwerty layout
Since letters and symbols only change place, but not key, you can change the keys on your keyboard and get a full comfortable Dvorak layout, without having to buy a new keyboard.
Pro Vowels all on one hand making it easy to teach to kids
Pro Much less lateral hand movement compared with regular Colemak
Some people find moving D and H to the bottom row much more comfortable (especially with flat keyboards). Curved keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage also help with lateral motion. Regular Colemak on these keyboards might be the ideal solution since then you help resolve some of the cons of regular Colemak without adding on the ones from Mod DH.
Pro Easy to learn from Colemak
No keys change fingers from Colemak (with the possible exception of Z , which is rarely used, in one variant).
Pro 'HE' easier to type compared with regular Colemak
Pro Letter G goes back to its original QWERTY position
This puts ING all on the middle row. Regular Colemak has G in the top row.
Cons
Con Inconvenient for common key-shortcuts
Key bindings common to most applications, such as Ctrl+Z/C/V, can't be done on the left hand while mousing with the right. Shortcuts for other applications are out of the QWERTY positions they were designed for and aren't so convenient to access.
Con The U is directly under your finger while the I is far away
I
is used more--by about 2.5 times. In fact, U
is the least used vowel after Y
. The consonants TNSHRDLC
all appear more often. So why is U
directly under your finger? And why should you have to stretch for I
?
Con F is too hard to reach
F
is not an especially common letter, but it's used much more than the rare letters JQZ
. Why is it on one of the most difficult spots on the keyboard? It's also used in OF
, one of the more common bigrams, ranked at #13. Maybe some other languages use Z
more than English, but why is F
harder to reach than Q
?
Con L is too hard to reach
L
is not a rare letter. It's used even more than U
is in English. Why put it in a difficult spot for use with the weak pinky finger?
Con Not the standard keyboard layout
It will be difficult to frequently switch between computers.
Con The "ls" command is uncomfortable to type
This is a very common command programmers have to type often when working with the shell. It's pretty awkward in Dvorak, especially when you add common options. Try typing "ls ‐latr", and see how that feels.
Con Difficult for occasional moments when you have only one hand free
Hand-alternation is good for touch-typing with both hands, but problematic (a lot of horizontal movement) when typing with one. Can be avoided by temporarily switching to another layout.
Con Not easy on the right pinky finger
Most useful symbols for programming are on the right pinky finger, which is not very comfortable.
Con Doesn't account for finger length
The keyboard layout doesn't account for E being easier to press than C for example on a QWERTY layout, this can be seen for example using the workman key cap scores done here.
Con Not actually faster than QWERTY
Maybe it's more ergonomic, but that's debatable. You'll certainly get more benefit from an ergonomic keyboard than a change in layout. Dvorak's reputation for speed is due to a typo in the initial press report, and a biased (and since discredited) study run by Dvorak himself. Dvorak is all hype and no substance.
Con Regular Colemak is more standard
Mac and Linux have regular Colemak keyboard options. This isn't an issue if your keyboard is programmable through QMK, VIA, etc.
Con H, M, V, B change from original QWERTY position
Regular Colemak has these in their original QWERTY position. The learning curve increases somewhat in Mod-DH.
Con Breaks up ZXCV slightly
Breaks up ZXCV (moves V over one space). Could cause copy paste confusion if also using other layouts like QWERTY. For ANSI layouts the Z is also moved to a new position.
Con No Innate Layout Configuration In Keybr
Keybr supports Standard Colemak but in order to adjust to DH Mod you must use an extension like tampermonkey and run a Script like this one and adjust to fit whichever variant.