Interesting. But perhaps similar to re-inventing spats to use plastic instead of celluloid - too little, too late. Perhaps more useful to work out making thumb-typing on a phone better.
Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
151–160 of 233 posts
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#152I've been using this for a few years now. I deliberately only used it on a kinesis advantage (and typematrix I tried out for a while - lack of ergonomically placed modifier keys killed me though...). I deliberately use QWERTY on laptops and so on, so my fingers retain some memory of that and let me switch back and forth easily.
It took a while to get fast enough to be productive - it's a pain switching layouts.
The nice thing about using a kinesis advantage is that as it re-maps the keys in the keyboard, the computer isn't aware of keyboard mapping at all.
When I was trying out things like the typematrix or a MS keyboard that required drivers etc, it was always a pain getting things like BIOS passwords, login screens, etc. to work reliably.
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#153Instead of using an alternate keyboard layout, I found the alternative finger positioning described here works great for me: https://typingsoft.com/typing.htm
The trick is to keep you wrists straight
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#154I used hunt and peck for years before learning to touch type. After four years of touch type I'm still fairly crap. If I try to speed up i commonly get the letter order wrong of two successive letters. I'm a lot better than hunt and peck but I'm kind of disappointed. Would it be a major job moving to Dvorak and can you expect big improvements? Also is it better for the keys programmers use that others don't use so mu…
> Would it be a major job moving to Dvorak and can you expect big improvements? Don't expect improvements in speed. For me it's all about comfort. What's a major job for you? You can memorize the layout in a day, type painfully slow for a couple days, start to feel rather comfortable in a week or two tops (still likely slower, depending on how fast you were, but now you're accustomed to the pace you type at on your n…
Thanks for the replies everyone. The sense I'm getting is there's are no magic bullet keyboards out there and the best thing to do is stick with Qwerty and take some lessons. BTW I've seen a kid touch typing one handed at a phenomenal speed, the other hand being taken up with the mouse.
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#155A lot of keyboards optimize the wrong things at least as far as programming is concerned. All the optimizations seem to focus on letters but most of the time an editor or shell can auto complete keywords or identifiers. A ridiculous number of symbols seem to be a very long way from the home keys on weak fingers with modifiers required to access them. If I had to write huge amounts of plain prose and had RSI I think I…
I mapped all the programming keys to the alphabetic keys accessible via a third shift state. That buys me 24 symbol keys. Been using it for more than 10 years, works a treat.
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also wouldn't recommend. I switched to Colemak back in the day. Switched all my phone keyboard and everything. I was a typing god. Started a new job where I ended up having to switch to qwerty for pairing sessions, typing like I was using a computer keyboard for the first time, never mind interviews where one might need to live code on a foreign machine. Having to explain "oh hai, yeah I actually use a different keyb…
What’s so difficult about it? On Windows you just install an extra MSI for Colemak, add it to the standard desktop build and you’re off (you use win-spacebar to switch to the new keyboard quickly when sitting at the keyboard). On Mac you just switch to that layout (cannot remember the hotkey but there is one), no install required. Linux likely has 15 different ways to do it and you just have to pick the easiest one f…
I'm sorry, I've seen far too many smirks when explaining why my keyboard doesn't do the keys they want as I hurridly re-enable qwerty, or why I type like a 5 year old on their qwerty keyboard. And there's no way i'm getting someone to facilitate my keyboard fetish by installing/enabling any layouts. Plus, it's just _better_ when you can read the keys, and I can't go disassembling keyboards all the time to put the keys in the right place.
There's just too much friction. Only Apple has the power to re-educate the world's typing habits, only then will I get back on the train. I say this as someone who used Colemak for 2 whole years btw.
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#157I too suffered from wrist pain and fatigue in the past. The experimentation with different layouts helped a little but it felt like micro-optimization. What actually resolved the problem was switching to an unorthodox ergonomic keyboard where none of the keys required straining or unnecessary effort (kinesis advantage, using a different one these days). Also, most common problems were caused by placement of special k…
> I see analogy to guitar playing here. No matter how well you figure out finger positioning for a complex passage, you won't be playing with ease unless your elbow, wrist and spine are also positioned properly.
This is a good analogy, and instrument players all hit the fatigue issue.
On top of posture, a lot of the pro players seem to manage it with a mix of:
- regular muscle training to protect articulations
- regular resting periods and avoiding activities that hit the same moves
- medication as soon as there is any sign of things going wrong
I think there is no magic bullet (or magic keyboard/mice combination), and switching to an "ergonomic" setup is only a small part of the solution for most of us. ATP had a pretty good take on this in their 'ask app' section https://atp.fm/377
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#158Instead of using an alternate keyboard layout, I found the alternative finger positioning described here works great for me: https://typingsoft.com/typing.htm The trick is to keep you wrists straight
Since I (was) a gamer my left hand rests on WASD. It's just a natural position for me :)
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#159DON'T DO IT* I absolutely love Workman. It's gorgeous. I spent months learning it, getting fast with it. I even got the supercool matrix style keyboard, I was so into it. But now I use QWERTY, and I sold my matrix style keyboard. Why? 1. Using the standard is useful. Other people's computers use QWERTY. Terminals for typing things in airports use QWERTY. When you have to do first aid stuff on your system, you're not…
It's not about being faster, but to not suffer from RSI. QWERTY forces your hands to stay in abnormal position which can cause wrist pain. Ergonomic layouts (and column-staggered or ortholinear keyboards) are designed with that in mind.
Couldn't the hand positioning be mostly solved by remapping the few keys that pain you the most ?
For me it was the control key and escape keys, and the others keys are otherwise standard.
Also I'd argue people suffering from RSI shouldn't be striving for speed or efficiency that much. Some people switch their mouse hand or reverse buttons basically to detune, or split the load to other parts of their body, speed/efficiency be damned.
Re: Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s so difficult about it? On Windows you just install an extra MSI for Colemak, add it to the standard desktop build and you’re off (you use win-spacebar to switch to the new keyboard quickly when sitting at the keyboard). On Mac you just switch to that layout (cannot remember the hotkey but there is one), no install required. Linux likely has 15 different ways to do it and you just have to pick the easiest one f…
I'm sorry, I've seen far too many smirks when explaining why my keyboard doesn't do the keys they want as I hurridly re-enable qwerty, or why I type like a 5 year old on their qwerty keyboard. And there's no way i'm getting someone to facilitate my keyboard fetish by installing/enabling any layouts. Plus, it's just _better_ when you can read the keys, and I can't go disassembling keyboards all the time to put the key…
Can't you just plug 2 keyboards, with 1 of them GMK based?