One year with Colemak
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One year with Colemak
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: One year with Colemak
#2I wish this would have gone more in depth in his experience with colemak and vim. I've considered switching keyboard layouts in the past, but applications with lots of keyboard shortcuts (like vim) make it seem too difficult.
Re: One year with Colemak
#3I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago. In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Qwerty.
Nobody can use my machines. My girlfriend already knows to Ctrl-Shift to change keyboard layouts, but that's on my PC where Windows is in English. On my laptop with Windows in Spanish it's Alt-Shift. Even I get confused sometimes.
Most games I play don't recognize layouts, so WASD doesn't work. I have to Ctrl-Shift before launching a game. And that's on Windows 8 that has per-session layout. Windows 7 is per window layout so if Ctrl-Shift doesn't work inside the game I have to manually configure keyboard.
Copy Cut Paste become Ctrl I, Ctrl B and Ctrl . I think this is not a problem in Colemak.
My first language is Spanish. After learning Dvorak I no longer use accents or ñ (just Alt-164'd that one) so it's a pain when I type something more or less official that can't have spelling errors.
After that rant, I'm still relatively happy with Dvorak. At least I have something to say on job interviews.
Re: One year with Colemak
#4I wish this would have gone more in depth in his experience with colemak and vim. I've considered switching keyboard layouts in the past, but applications with lots of keyboard shortcuts (like vim) make it seem too difficult.
I've recently been making the switch to Norman and use vim. I initially tried to remap a bunch of keys (especially hjkl) but you end up going down a path of remapping more than you want.
So I've just started getting used to using the same keybindings just in a different spot. So far it's not too bad. Like anything, you get used to it.
Re: One year with Colemak
#5I wish this would have gone more in depth in his experience with colemak and vim. I've considered switching keyboard layouts in the past, but applications with lots of keyboard shortcuts (like vim) make it seem too difficult.
A nice thing about Colemak is that is was designed to be somewhat compatible with Qwerty. Specifically, Z, X, C and V are in the same place, so those still work in shortcuts as well. For other shortcuts, I learnt them quickly enough, but it can sometimes be a bit more difficult when you are looking at the keyboard, it is confusing if the characters do not match. For example Ctrl+S is now Ctrl+D (the D on the Qwerty keyboard), and Ctrl+F is now Ctrl+E on Qwerty.
Re: One year with Colemak
#6I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago. In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Qwerty. Nobody can use my machines. My girlfriend already knows to Ctrl-Shift to change keyboard layouts, but that's on my PC where Windows is in English. On my laptop with Windows in Spanish it's Alt-Shift. Even I get confused sometimes. Most games I play don't recognize layouts, so WASD doesn't work. I have to Ctrl-Shift before…
As a person with RSI in both wrists, I'm glad I changed to Dvorak last year, including a change to the kinesis keyboard.
That being said, I can never apply to grad school anymore because I can no longer type in qwerty and won't be able to take the way portion of those electronic tests very well. (And that would affect my performance in other sections)
Re: One year with Colemak
#7If you're serious about increased typing speed you're probably better off switching to a two-handed chording system http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861&cpage=1#comment-16162 . Alternative layouts for conventional non-chorded typing don't seem to be worth the disruption.
Re: One year with Colemak
#8I'm just over the year mark with Colemak as well. Used the Tarmak transitional layouts to get to full Colemak and now use wide-angle mods as well to further improve keyboard ergonomics. On a good day I can hit 70wpm which is faster than I could ever manage with Qwerty. To find out more about this stuff visit the Colemak forum and get chatting with the legendary DreyMar..
Re: One year with Colemak
#9I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago. In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Qwerty. Nobody can use my machines. My girlfriend already knows to Ctrl-Shift to change keyboard layouts, but that's on my PC where Windows is in English. On my laptop with Windows in Spanish it's Alt-Shift. Even I get confused sometimes. Most games I play don't recognize layouts, so WASD doesn't work. I have to Ctrl-Shift before…
As a person with RSI in both wrists, I'm glad I changed to Dvorak last year, including a change to the kinesis keyboard. That being said, I can never apply to grad school anymore because I can no longer type in qwerty and won't be able to take the way portion of those electronic tests very well. (And that would affect my performance in other sections)
I've been looking at the Kinesis keyboards to try to get some relief from wrist pain. Which do you use? Have you tried the MS Natural, or did you go straight to Kinesis?
Re: One year with Colemak
#10I switched to Dvorak about 7 years ago. In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Qwerty. Nobody can use my machines. My girlfriend already knows to Ctrl-Shift to change keyboard layouts, but that's on my PC where Windows is in English. On my laptop with Windows in Spanish it's Alt-Shift. Even I get confused sometimes. Most games I play don't recognize layouts, so WASD doesn't work. I have to Ctrl-Shift before…
Internalization is a big plus for colemak. I used to use a US keyboard as a french speaker which caused me lots of problems. With colemak, I can easily type all language specific characters: ¿øéàößåñ
This could easily been added to dvorak in much the same way. The hard part is getting the different drivers to support it.