Since keyboard is a tool we use the most often, I wanted to ask about keyboard layouts.
What do you use, and what are your experiences with alternative?
Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#2qwerty
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#3qwerty.
If the alternate layouts do give any real speed advantages (which is open for debate, I've heard of studies proving both sides), it isn't enough to be non-standard, IMO. YMMV but it isn't uncommon for me to be typing at someone else's keyboard and I don't want to have to mentally switch modes, so I just stick with qwerty.
Also, as much as some hackers like to focus on typing speed (advocating dvorak, the essays by Yegge, Atwood, etc), speed of typing has never been my bottleneck to writing good code, so optimizing for it never seemed very useful.
FWIW, I don't even touch type, I have a very odd 5 finger no-look (but not touch typing) muscle memory system (3 on the right hand -- thumb, index, middle and 2 on the left, index and thumb) but that gets me about 90 wpm when I've timed it which feels plenty fast enough.
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#4If it weren't for vim, I would have definitely considered switching. I know you can map keys and all, but, it just doesn't make sense going through all the hassle.
Are there any bi-layouters out there?
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#5QWERTZ is the default here (Germany) however I've switched to QWERTY simply because that's the most convenient if you're using vim as an editor.
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#6Colemak was a lot of fun to play around with, however my frequent use of Vim makes any alternative keyboard unusable. Just scattering H,J,K,L throws my productivity for a loop.
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#7I'm quick with QWERTY (over 100 WPM), all my laptops use QWERTY, my tablet and my phone both use QWERTY, my TV uses QWERTY... It would be silly and pointless for me to switch. I might be able to increase my WPM slightly but my WPM with QWERTY is good enough.
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#8German Mac default QWERTZ, which is different from German PC QWERTZ. The most defining characteristic is @ being alt+L. Windows users trying to check webmail are bound to hit cmd+Q (and quit the foreground app) and Mac users on a PC will hit win+L from muscle memory (logout). Fun.
This might well be the reason why I never liked TeX at all. But I just love the placement of … and many other 'alt' glyphs that have nothing to do with coding.
I have also mapped the caps lock key to ']', which is the single most useful key ever for iOS dev in Xcode 4. Helped me more than switching to Dvorak would, I guess.
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#9qwerty with spanish layout, because I'm french and really need all the accent chars (spanish qwerty is a perfect mix).
Re: Poll: What keyboard layout do you use?
#10typing speed has never been a limited factor for anything I've done. so I don't feel the need to optimize it.
did start learning shorthand once, but I found the simpler solution to my particular problem (nobody agreeing on the meetings conclusions) was just to have the discipline to write a short summary meeting email to all attendees.