Changing keyboard layout isn't an option. I tried a few times and gave up.
Same. It's very tempting, but if you ever use keyboards other than your own it's not very doable imo.
Workman Keyboard layout
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Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#12>> QWERTY was supposedly designed for typewriters to solve a very specific problem–to keep the types from jamming against each other. The most frequently used keys were placed apart from each other to prevent them from jamming. Isn't this a huge myth and if so, can we all agree to stop with it? I find it funny that people keep saying this while ER and ERT, very common letter combinations in English, are part of QWERT…
No - this is not a myth.
QWERTY was designed to prevent jams. The myth is that it was intended to slow the typist down.
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#13So how can I start trying this out?
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#14>> QWERTY was supposedly designed for typewriters to solve a very specific problem–to keep the types from jamming against each other. The most frequently used keys were placed apart from each other to prevent them from jamming. Isn't this a huge myth and if so, can we all agree to stop with it? I find it funny that people keep saying this while ER and ERT, very common letter combinations in English, are part of QWERT…
The keys are next to each other, but the typebars are not.
It's the typebars that get jammed, not the keys. Although when the typebars jam they keep the key depressed.
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#15Given it's stated purpose, I was surprised not to see benchmarks on things like the Linux kernel source code.
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#16Changing keyboard layout isn't an option. I tried a few times and gave up.
Same. It's very tempting, but if you ever use keyboards other than your own it's not very doable imo.
Having changed layout when I started learning Russian (since russian keyboard has letters in different places than their phonetic latin counterparts) I think it's just matter of how you learn. I had problems too, until I started learning by typing the same sentences that I used to learn Russian alphabet, which introduce letters in small batches of 3 or 4. After few weeks I was able to comfortably switch between both layouts every few sentences.
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#17I like seeing someone willing to rethink base assumptions, and to follow that thinking all the way to a brand new layout. However, I'm surprised to see that, even in a layout intended for programming, parentheses and brackets are placed as inconveniently as they ever are. Programming might only be 25-40% of my typing, but it's the most painful/annoying usage of the keyboard that I have -- far out of proportion with t…
Just letting you know, learning two layouts is not doable. The muscle memory of one will always be more powerful. I cannot type querty anymore after I have switched to dvorak programmer [1]. [1]: http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/
I've replied somewhere in in the thread, but you say that learning two layouts is not doable - it's perfectly doable, and I don't see why one would make such statement only based on own experience (unless you have some source for that, which I'd be very interested in)
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#18Seems a little strange to concentrate so much on keyboard layouts rather than switching to a split or ergonomic keyboard....
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#19I too found Colemak lacking. IMO it's because the most relevant keyboard layout metrics are
1) how well words break down into same hand "finger rolls", which help typing accuracy and to lesser extend speed
2) how often the same finger has to type multiple characters in succession
3) how often the same hand has to reach for the more awkward middle keys (y and b in qwerty) while also doing something with the middle finger
Finger travel distance is irrelevant. Common characters ought to be on the home row because your fingers can't roll across the top and bottom row.
Dvorak optimizes these very well. Workman seems to split bigrams across two hands, which prevents rolls. I would also recommend binding alt-gr to control in addition to making caps lock backspace.
Re: Workman Keyboard layout
#20I like seeing someone willing to rethink base assumptions, and to follow that thinking all the way to a brand new layout. However, I'm surprised to see that, even in a layout intended for programming, parentheses and brackets are placed as inconveniently as they ever are. Programming might only be 25-40% of my typing, but it's the most painful/annoying usage of the keyboard that I have -- far out of proportion with t…
Just letting you know, learning two layouts is not doable. The muscle memory of one will always be more powerful. I cannot type querty anymore after I have switched to dvorak programmer [1]. [1]: http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/
It's completely doable. Took me a little bit of fumbling to use QWERTY again after learning Dvorak, but it's easy to pick back up and do both.