Qwerty and Dvorak Key Programming

Question

Can I connect 2 keyboards and one with a Dvorak layout and the other with a QWERTY layout? (In OSX)

Answer 1

You can make this Linux on X Windows, and OSX (another Windows-based X-operating system) can also do this.

Find the device identifier for the keyboard:

$ xinput -list | grep -i key
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ LITEON Technology USB Keyboard            id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ LITEON Technology USB Keyboard            id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Then change the layout using setxkbmap:

$ setxkbmap -device 9 dvorak

Answer 2

You can do this using any wired Dvorak or rewritable keyboard.

Kinesis Advantage should do the trick. It has QWERTY and Dvorak modes, but it's quite expensive ($ 300), and the layout may not be for everyone.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Answer 5

Open source karabing elements solved this for me. It has a Devices tab that allows you to specify which keyboards will receive the new key mapping, or which ones should be ignored. So I leave my OS on QWERTY, apply the Dvorak mapping to my keyboards, and then leave my paired keyboards intact.