4 ms·
I use Colemak (http://colemak.com/ http://colemak.com/), and I'm up to about 70 WPM (measured at typeracer.com, not anything more scientific). Unfortunately, I
by zck 17y ago
I use Colemak (http://colemak.com/ http://colemak.com/), and I'm up to about 70 WPM (measured at typeracer.com, not anything more scientific). Unfortunately, I did no QWERTY tests before switching, so I can't compare, but I doubt I was significantly higher.
I'd recommend it. There are a few modifications I'd make, but overall it's quite nice. They've written programs to check finger travel distance, and it beats QWERTY and Dvorak. A reason to choose it over Dvorak is that it keeps WAZXCVB in the same place, so those common Ctrl-keys are just as easy to press.
There's several versions for Windows, including one that can be run off a flash drive, and work without installation (http://colemak.com/Windows http://colemak.com/Windows), and Colemak is also built in to X on Linux.
Although depending what you're doing, switching to an alternate keyboard layout can be a problem. For example, if I were a sysadmin, going around to different computers and fixing them, it would be infeasible to switch, unless I put the time in to being able to context-switch my brain quickly, so I could touch-type both.
- mbrubeck 17y agoNice! Though as a vim user I would rather have a layout that messed with zxcv and instead left hjkl alone... (Colemak is especially bad, with J below K.)
- zck 17y agoOuch, that would be a pain to use. All four of them are on the same finger, even! The problem with leaving hjkl where they are is that it wastes a huge amount of prime real estate. In colemak -- as you've seen -- those keys are used for hnei, all commonly typed letters. jkl are much less common.
- mbrubeck 17y agoWell, maybe not leaving them on home row, but keeping them grouped together nearby, maybe on the M,./ keys.