3 ms·

I've never seen the point in DVORAK or other fancy layouts, until I read a post on Workman and Colemak and decided to give Colemak a try. To this day, I think

by toyg 3y ago

I've never seen the point in DVORAK or other fancy layouts, until I read a post on Workman and Colemak and decided to give Colemak a try. To this day, I think it's one of the best decisions I've ever made - it resulted in much more relaxed typing, and forever broke a bad habit of looking at keys while typing. How long did it take to reach that conclusion? Probably about a month. After achieving decent speeds on Colemak, going back to Qwerty just felt painful - even when I was going faster, it felt so much more stressful.

gnicholas 3y ago
Did you buy a new keyboard? I assume it's easy to set up on an iPhone? What about when you have to use a QWERTY keyboard, on someone else's computer or at a kiosk or something? I'd also be curious to know if folks would recommend this for kids, especially those who have not yet mastered touch-typing on QWERTY.
- toyg 3y ago
  > Did you buy a new keyboard? No, i just printed out the new layout and stuck it near the monitor. Eventually I moved to blank keycaps. > easy to set up on an iPhone? Why would I care about that? Phones are for thumbs, and thumbs have their own muscle memory. Besides, the strength of layouts like Colemak is typically in leveraging the home-row, which is really not a thing on phones, so there is no point. It would make more sense to investigate those fancy swipey versions (or make new layouts that leverage "home columns"?). > What about when you have to use a QWERTY keyboard I just go a bit slower. Which is fine, considering it's such a rare experience...
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    Huh, so you use Colemak on computer and QWERTY on iPhone? I assumed I'd have to switch everything over in order to get much of a benefit. But if this is viable I might give it a try. I figured I'd have to switch everything over, which would make things difficult when my wife borrows my phone, for example. Can I ask if you code much? Unlike most HNers, I don't, so I'm interested in its usefulness for writing emails and such, not the special chars used mostly for coding. Thanks for the feedback!
    - toyg 3y ago
      I'm not a programmer, but the advantages of Colemak are fundamentally related to writing English. Programming doesn't get any real boost, special characters are still an afterthought (pretty much all on right pinkie). And yeah, i only use Colemak on laptops/desktops. I don't use external keyboards with phones and tablets, so it's all done with two thumbs, which have their own muscle memory.

by toyg 3y ago

gnicholas 3y ago

Did you buy a new keyboard? I assume it's easy to set up on an iPhone? What about when you have to use a QWERTY keyboard, on someone else's computer or at a kiosk or something? I'd also be curious to know if folks would recommend this for kids, especially those who have not yet mastered touch-typing on QWERTY.

toyg 3y ago
> Did you buy a new keyboard? No, i just printed out the new layout and stuck it near the monitor. Eventually I moved to blank keycaps. > easy to set up on an iPhone? Why would I care about that? Phones are for thumbs, and thumbs have their own muscle memory. Besides, the strength of layouts like Colemak is typically in leveraging the home-row, which is really not a thing on phones, so there is no point. It would make more sense to investigate those fancy swipey versions (or make new layouts that leverage "home columns"?). > What about when you have to use a QWERTY keyboard I just go a bit slower. Which is fine, considering it's such a rare experience...
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Huh, so you use Colemak on computer and QWERTY on iPhone? I assumed I'd have to switch everything over in order to get much of a benefit. But if this is viable I might give it a try. I figured I'd have to switch everything over, which would make things difficult when my wife borrows my phone, for example. Can I ask if you code much? Unlike most HNers, I don't, so I'm interested in its usefulness for writing emails and such, not the special chars used mostly for coding. Thanks for the feedback!
  - toyg 3y ago
    I'm not a programmer, but the advantages of Colemak are fundamentally related to writing English. Programming doesn't get any real boost, special characters are still an afterthought (pretty much all on right pinkie). And yeah, i only use Colemak on laptops/desktops. I don't use external keyboards with phones and tablets, so it's all done with two thumbs, which have their own muscle memory.