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Colemak keyboard layout

colemak.com

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Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#31

Post by ics »

veidr wrote: post #28
dmnd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how relevant this is to anyone, but this post is as good excuse as any to talk about my transition to Colemak. In January I moved from Qwerty to Colemak, and also from a staggered to a columnar keyboard layout (on a Kinesis keyboard[1]). My Qwerty speed was only 75 wpm and my accuracy was terrible. Also I couldn't touch type - I never learnt to type properly with Qwerty; I just started typing when I was…

I am very jealous of you -- my inability to maintain QWERTY after I switched to Colemak was what forced me to grudgingly switch back. I just couldn't do it; after I became acclimated to Colemak, my QWERTY was just destroyed. I had to think about where the keys were in QWERTY, and I realized I don't even really know, because typing is a doing-without-thinking activity. So I ended up having to look , which is extremely…

That's quite interesting, as I've had an opposite experience (substitutions ahead). Switching to dvorak lifted my speed on it as well as qwerty, and my Japanese has only helped my French. There was certainly a lot of weirdness at the moment the two sides reached the same level– if I froze up for a second, I might start mixing in French words or reaching for Command-Q with my left pinky. The only real obstacle has been slowdowns from going 6+ months without using one or the other which isn't all that hard to work around. For typing, triggers are anything with a 'd' in qwerty including the word 'dvorak' ironically, 'the' in dvorak. With language, the rhythm and intonation are usually a dead giveaway. In your case however, the subjects are quite similar. Colemak is a change from qwerty, but it's not as overtly different from qwerty. That might make the transition easier, but it could be one of the reasons switching between them is hard. Spanish and Japanese is also an interesting combination as the sounds are, at times, quite similar (and not just due to the Portuguese loanwords, a la パン or カステラ). Perhaps your difficulty is in finding distinctive enough triggers.

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#32

Post by enimodas »

dmnd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how relevant this is to anyone, but this post is as good excuse as any to talk about my transition to Colemak. In January I moved from Qwerty to Colemak, and also from a staggered to a columnar keyboard layout (on a Kinesis keyboard[1]). My Qwerty speed was only 75 wpm and my accuracy was terrible. Also I couldn't touch type - I never learnt to type properly with Qwerty; I just started typing when I was…

it took me a year from when i first started trying to learn colemak to actually completing it, had a 6month break in the middle, and many lapses, but after doing the trainer program for 10min for 2 weeks i fully switched and it went OK. I use it on my smartphone too, in the beginning i also had that thought that maybe it's worse on smartphones, but using swiftkey i haven't noticed all that much problems, only for words that look alike and have the same first letter, so usually when i get the first letter right the rest can be all wrong but it will still guess the right word.

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#33

Post by robinator »

dmnd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how relevant this is to anyone, but this post is as good excuse as any to talk about my transition to Colemak. In January I moved from Qwerty to Colemak, and also from a staggered to a columnar keyboard layout (on a Kinesis keyboard[1]). My Qwerty speed was only 75 wpm and my accuracy was terrible. Also I couldn't touch type - I never learnt to type properly with Qwerty; I just started typing when I was…

I use the Bépo layout (dvorak equivalent for French) on a TypeMatrix at work and a TrulyErgonomic at home.

I've had the same experience as you though, I switched to touchtyping, changed the layout, and the keyboard (columnar) at the same time, so I can always switch back to an AZERTY (french QWERTY), but only on a regular standard keyboard (and it's a pain to use BÉPO on a non-columnar keyboard, slow and lots of mistakes).

As for the speed, well, I was around 70wpm on AZERTY, and now (around 4 years later), I'm around 100wpm on BÉPO, so yeah, I'm never going back.

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#37

Post by jjoonathan »

mbrock wrote: post #29
veidr wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very jealous of you -- my inability to maintain QWERTY after I switched to Colemak was what forced me to grudgingly switch back. I just couldn't do it; after I became acclimated to Colemak, my QWERTY was just destroyed. I had to think about where the keys were in QWERTY, and I realized I don't even really know, because typing is a doing-without-thinking activity. So I ended up having to look , which is extremely…

I use Dvorak, and I have almost no problems typing QWERTY. But this only came after I became completely fluent in Dvorak. When I still had to think to type Dvorak, I couldn't switch to thinking about QWERTY without getting all confused. Now I just peek a little at the keyboard with QWERTY, especially for non-alphanumeric symbols, but it's no problem.

Same story here. There was a time during my transition to Dvorak where I kept tripping myself up if I tried to type QWERTY, but once the Dvorak layout went into muscle memory QWERTY came right back without any special effort on my part. I still have to peek, but I had to peek before I learned Dvorak too (that's why I switched to Dvorak).

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#38

Post by jjoonathan »

m_ram wrote: post #13
thatswrong0 wrote: post #8

I've used Colemak for a year and a half now. The common shortcut keys are in the same place still (ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc.). I use Vim and keep the default bindings and it works fine (though movement is odd.. up and down are inverted). I used to type at around 100 wpm with QWERTY and can reach that or higher now. I can still use QWERTY when I need to although I have to look down a bit. All in all I like it. It feels goo…

I went from Qwerty to Colemak over a year ago and I'd say that my experience is similar to yours. I'm not sure if I type faster now, but I know that my hands no long hurt after long computer sessions. The movement keys in Vim do seem weird, but it's really just muscle memory. After a few days you don't even think about it.

hjkl are permanently burned into my muscle memory in their positions on the Dvorak keyboard. A few months ago, I was using ssh from a computer with a QWERTY keyboard and I did a double take when I re-discovered that they were right next to each other.

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#39

Post by beaker52 »

I switched to Colemak in December last year so I'm 6/7 months in. Anecdotes and tips within.

At the same time I picked up KeyboardRemap4Macbook (not just macbooks, but osx) which has some other interesting features. One important one I use daily is using held down spacebar to enable arrow navigation by UNEI, and "return" on O. Related is the terribly named but essential PCKeyboardHack which allows one to remap the CAPSLOCK key to backspace, giving me a more accessible backspace key. I suspect this is a double edge sword though, lowering the cost of an error.

When I started with Colemak I was slow. I forced myself to write even urgent mail in it, else I wouldn't succeed. I ended up writing emails as if English were my 2nd language but after a week I was over it.

Changing my phone to Colemak was a very helpful aid. Avoid writing in Qwerty.

I also learnt for a while on a keyboard without the letters on the right keys. This screwed me up big time at first (i didn't touch type) but I pushed through. Now I work daily on a keyboard with Qwerty layout but don't give it a second thought and it just serves to mess with the minds of my colleagues.

I still have to look for numbers because I just don't type them frequently.

I haven't had a massive speed increase because my speed is limited by my ability to decide what I'm going to write which is dreadfully slow. I make fewer errors.

Going back to qwerty is relatively easy if I free my mind. I typed cowboy Qwerty with my hands flying all over the keyboard for so long that it is possible for me to call it back. I am sure this is made easier in part by the two layouts being typed in completely different styles, Colemak formally and disciplined by correctness and touch, Qwerty as an untempered and free dance of my fingers and hands.

Re: Colemak keyboard layout

#40

Post by jjoonathan »

1123581321 wrote: post #6
deadfall wrote: post #2

I am cautious to change my keyboard layout because I use a lot of different machines. Has anyone tried this or the Programmer Dvorak layout? Ref: http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/

I use regular Dvorak and it is not pleasant to switch to a fresh machine.

Another Dvorak user here. I would compare my annoyance at switching keyboard layouts to the annoyance of switching between different physical keyboards (deep 90s style key wells to shallow laptop keys, for example). Actually, switching layouts is slightly less annoying.
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