Are there any experts (or casuals) here using Dvorak or any other alternative layouts? As someone who can type quite well with qwerty is it worth the time to cross over?

There have been some studies which showed that the gains are minimal.

Better spend the time learning another language.

I think the main problem when writing code is you use so many unusual keys that you never ever will reach such speeds that you are hampered by the keyboard layout.

Dworak and alike is probably only useful if you type pure english at a high pace. Like those that used to write down everything at courts.

Most coders, and writers in general usually spend a lot more time thinking about what to write than actually hammering the keyboard.

@Voxera Yup, although I don't regret learning qwerty as alternative to the german qwertz layout. Many symbols used in programming can be accessed quicker.

Neo2 is also very coder friendly. And it is frirndly for typing european texts. I tried learning it a while ago. But it's hard to get used to it when you always typed qwertz/qwerty...

@Voxera this is exactly where my own thought process took me. I'm also so far invested in typing qwerty I can't imagine having to sit there and 'hunt and peck' at keys again learning a new layout, thanks for the reinforcement!

@nickpapoutsis this is the kind of advice I came here for haha. I think I will just concentrate this into learning a new language instead of bothering with reprogramming my brain to a new keyboard layout.

@K4R70FF3L I actually saw a massdrop for a cool looking programmable keyboard with ortholinear keys that mentioned alternative layouts which is what got me on this to begin with. I'm still probably going to buy it, but I don't think I have the dedication to fully change my every day layout.

@K4R70FF3L the ortholinear 40% is what I was looking at. I feel like switching y and z is a great idea and easy enough to adjust to, I think even more so the ortholinear and blank keycaps would help me to improve over changing layouts. I'm going to give this a shot. Thanks!!

@K4R70FF3L Thanks for my 10th ++!!!

@BadReg Maybe your brain is special though and you can pick it up in a day :)
I would suggest investing into a proper keyboard that's very easy to type with and as a bonus it has programmable keys.
You should also check the one mentioned above.