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In my experience as a Colemak typist and heavy vim (or vim-emulation) user, the best solution is to bite the bullet and _not_ remap any of the keys. This is obviously annoying for hjkl navigation at first but you get used to it pretty quickly. Plus there's the added benefit of being able to easily use hjkl for navigation everywhere that uses them but _doesn't_ let you remap, which is a lot of places.
I've decided somewhat recently that I'm just fine with qwerty, any money that I'm leaving on the table is probably fairly small because I think slower than I type...
Some of that change in perspective may have been a coworker who used Dvorak, and watching that dude type was a seriously painful experience.
Last year during a couple month break I had between jobs I decided I would learn a new keyboard layout as it was something I always wanted to do, but never wanted to commit to the learning process while I still needed to be proficient at typing. I chose to learn Colemak-DH [0]. Before learning I was around a 75-80 WPM Qwerty touch typist. I went all in and did a lot of heavy practice. It took me around a week to be a…
I'm also a vim keybinding user, but in Emacs evil-mode mostly. Vim keybindings are definitely made for qwerty, and to me not rebinding the keys just seemed insane.
I ended up spending a weekend, reviewed all the keybindings I use, and ones I should probably use more, then wrote it all out [0].
I remapped a lot of keys back to their qwerty positions, but I also took the opportunity to make some changes that I thought would be more ergonomic. I also came up with me own mnemonic system for the re-mappings.
For example:
| function | before | after | new mnemonic | Commentary |
|-------------------+--------+-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
| find file at pt | g f | g s | search file at pt | need to free up `g f' |
| find file.. w/ ln | g F | g S | search file.. etc | need to free up `g F' |
| end WORD | E | F | far WORD | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics |
| end WORD | g E | g F | far WORD rev | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics |
| end word | e | f | far word | |
| end word | g e | g f | far word rev | |
| find | f | s | search | right next to till :) |
| rev find | F | S | rev search | |
| visual mode | v | r | range | see note below |
| visual lines | V | R | range lines | |
| visual block | C-v | C-r | range block | |
| visual restore | g v | g r | range restore | |
| replace | r | v | revise | convert is another possible mnemonic |
| replace mode | R | V | revise mode | |
| goto mk | ` | j | jump | easier to reach and now mnemonic |
| goto mk ln | ' | J | jump to line | same key as j now, which makes sense to me |
[0] https://github.com/willbush/system/tree/main/configs/keyboar...
[1] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/main/configs/nvim/in...
[2] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e...
[3] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e...
This[1] links to http://www . workmanlayout.com/blog/ which is a 404. (space inserted to avoid auto link generation). Going to the main page of that site reveals some articles from the past few years, but also has online casino and crypto links disguised as posts. E.g.: > is your premier source for crypto insights, covering the latest news, trends, and guides on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and cybersecurity. Whethe…
I touch typed qwerty for about 20 years using really bad technique(full left hand two fingers on right that roamed). When I got my first split keyboard I switched to Colemak and went through a bunch of touch typing tutorials to teach myself proper form. Without switching layouts I don't think I could have forced myself to start using proper form in qwerty.
This makes no sense. It is _meaning_ that bounds certain Vim commands to certain keys, not the position of the keys on your keyboard. Moving the keys around doesn't change their meaning—"w" is still "w", for "word"—so making all those mappings is utterly pointless. Unless one uses a layout different from that of their physical keyboard, in which case WTF?
My hands' physical travels reduced by a lot ever since I learned vim. But I don't think optimizing fingers' travel would give as much boost in overall speed. On the other hand, though, you can argue that fingers travel between keys a lot more often than between keyboard and mouse.
What's everyone's experience? Was it worth it for you learning another layout?
First time hearing about this keyboard layout. I wonder how much marginal efficiency there is to be gained. My hands' physical travels reduced by a lot ever since I learned vim. But I don't think optimizing fingers' travel would give as much boost in overall speed. On the other hand, though, you can argue that fingers travel between keys a lot more often than between keyboard and mouse. What's everyone's experience?…
This is a problem with alternative layouts - you have to relearn or remap all the shortcuts for different apps as well as learn the new alphabet locations. Shortcuts sometimes use mnemonics, eg p to print or whatever, but they're often just in particular locations, like V for paste for example - it's just next to 'C' for cut - so if those two keys are separated on your new layout, it's confusing, and in any case, doe…
I have fond memories of those Sun keyboards with dedicated cut, copy and paste keys...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe the issue boils down to qwerty-hjkl become workman-yneo. hjkl don't have _meaning_, it's all about their specific location on the keyboard. So if yneo is now left/down/up/right, you now need to do something else for yank/next/end/open.
^H, ^J, ^K, and ^L _had_ meaning and that meaning is why hjkl do what they do. Their location on the homerow of a number of layouts is an accident. And they are not very useful in practice anyway. "Remapping" the whole keyboard around them is IMO a silly idea.
I can parse only High and Low which is what ^H and ^L do.
In my experience as a Colemak typist and heavy vim (or vim-emulation) user, the best solution is to bite the bullet and _not_ remap any of the keys. This is obviously annoying for hjkl navigation at first but you get used to it pretty quickly. Plus there's the added benefit of being able to easily use hjkl for navigation everywhere that uses them but _doesn't_ let you remap, which is a lot of places.