3 ms·

Last year during a couple month break I had between jobs I decided I would learn a new keyboard layout as it was something I always wanted to do, but never want

by ndeast 2y ago

Last year during a couple month break I had between jobs I decided I would learn a new keyboard layout as it was something I always wanted to do, but never wanted to commit to the learning process while I still needed to be proficient at typing. I chose to learn Colemak-DH [0]. Before learning I was around a 75-80 WPM Qwerty touch typist. I went all in and did a lot of heavy practice. It took me around a week to be able to touch type colemak-dh (slowly) and then a further few months to touch type at speed. I didn't want to lose my ability to use Qwerty so after getting up to a moderate speed of ~45 WPM I exclusively brought my colemak flashed happy hacking keyboard to work, and left qwerty at home. I have now equalized at about 60 WPM on both layouts after 8 months, and can pretty easily swap between them. Now I don't really know what to do, nor have I noticed really any perceived benefit of switching layouts. The biggest difficulty has been vim keybinds. I really don't want to have to remap all of my vim keybinds (as like the OP article states, I think of my vim commands based on their name and qwerty representation) so I have been relying on multiple keyboard layers to handle movement keys and the like. Having to use modifiers, remember the different locations between layouts, and stealing away previous CTRL+<key> modifiers from vim to accommodate this kind of sucks. I notice no difference in wrist (dis)comfort, it's just become more mental overhead to typing, and I am kind of stuck. I guess I am waiting to have some time to think about what I want to do, but balancing two layouts doesn't seem practical, or reasonable, or efficient. [0] https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/ https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/

willbush 2y ago
Your story is similar to mine. I also use Colemak-DH. However, I sort of quit Qwerty cold turkey. I also used to touch type about 80 wpm on Qwerty, and because I didn't maintain it or practice while learning Colemak, I completely overwrote my muscle memory. Overall, the layout is more comfortable for me, but hard to justify especially if you rather not tamper with default keybindings. I'm also a vim keybinding user, but in Emacs evil-mode mostly. Vim keybindings are definitely made for qwerty, and to me not rebinding the keys just seemed insane. I ended up spending a weekend, reviewed all the keybindings I use, and ones I should probably use more, then wrote it all out [0]. I remapped a lot of keys back to their qwerty positions, but I also took the opportunity to make some changes that I thought would be more ergonomic. I also came up with me own mnemonic system for the re-mappings. For example: | function | before | after | new mnemonic | Commentary | |-------------------+--------+-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------| | find file at pt | g f | g s | search file at pt | need to free up `g f' | | find file.. w/ ln | g F | g S | search file.. etc | need to free up `g F' | | end WORD | E | F | far WORD | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics | | end WORD | g E | g F | far WORD rev | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics | | end word | e | f | far word | | | end word | g e | g f | far word rev | | | find | f | s | search | right next to till :) | | rev find | F | S | rev search | | | visual mode | v | r | range | see note below | | visual lines | V | R | range lines | | | visual block | C-v | C-r | range block | | | visual restore | g v | g r | range restore | | | replace | r | v | revise | convert is another possible mnemonic | | replace mode | R | V | revise mode | | | goto mk | ` | j | jump | easier to reach and now mnemonic | | goto mk ln | ' | J | jump to line | same key as j now, which makes sense to me | Here is a minimal vim config [1] that I use if I find myself wanting to use (neo)vim. My evil-mode config [2] in Emacs. Remapping `less` keys [3]. [0] https://github.com/willbush/system/tree/main/configs/keyboard-firmware https://github.com/willbush/system/tree/main/configs/keyboar... [1] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/main/configs/nvim/init.vim https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/main/configs/nvim/in... [2] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e6a3c241f59a0d9414cbe/configs/emacs/default/modules/init-editing.el#L105 https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e... [3] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e6a3c241f59a0d9414cbe/users/will/less.nix#L6 https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e...
- alwayslikethis 2y ago
  I don't rebind my keys on Colemak for vim/evil. I got used to it pretty quickly. Beyond the basic hjkl movement commands I don't think anything is really meant for qwerty specifically. Remapping also breaks the mnemonics somewhat which I think is important. Emacs users got along just fine with Ctrl-n and p, so I see no specific reason remapping should be needed.
alwayslikethis 2y ago
I learned colemak a long time ago, and progressed just like you, except I didn't try to retain qwerty speed. I figured I can look at the key legends anyways. I initially reached about 50-60 wpm but after that the speed still seems to progress slowly. Now after several years I can type about 100 wpm which I was never able to on qwerty, and I didn't do any significant practice on typing speed.

by ndeast 2y ago

willbush 2y ago

Your story is similar to mine. I also use Colemak-DH. However, I sort of quit Qwerty cold turkey. I also used to touch type about 80 wpm on Qwerty, and because I didn't maintain it or practice while learning Colemak, I completely overwrote my muscle memory. Overall, the layout is more comfortable for me, but hard to justify especially if you rather not tamper with default keybindings. I'm also a vim keybinding user, but in Emacs evil-mode mostly. Vim keybindings are definitely made for qwerty, and to me not rebinding the keys just seemed insane. I ended up spending a weekend, reviewed all the keybindings I use, and ones I should probably use more, then wrote it all out [0]. I remapped a lot of keys back to their qwerty positions, but I also took the opportunity to make some changes that I thought would be more ergonomic. I also came up with me own mnemonic system for the re-mappings. For example: | function | before | after | new mnemonic | Commentary | |-------------------+--------+-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------| | find file at pt | g f | g s | search file at pt | need to free up `g f' | | find file.. w/ ln | g F | g S | search file.. etc | need to free up `g F' | | end WORD | E | F | far WORD | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics | | end WORD | g E | g F | far WORD rev | foot/forward are other possible mnemonics | | end word | e | f | far word | | | end word | g e | g f | far word rev | | | find | f | s | search | right next to till :) | | rev find | F | S | rev search | | | visual mode | v | r | range | see note below | | visual lines | V | R | range lines | | | visual block | C-v | C-r | range block | | | visual restore | g v | g r | range restore | | | replace | r | v | revise | convert is another possible mnemonic | | replace mode | R | V | revise mode | | | goto mk | ` | j | jump | easier to reach and now mnemonic | | goto mk ln | ' | J | jump to line | same key as j now, which makes sense to me | Here is a minimal vim config [1] that I use if I find myself wanting to use (neo)vim. My evil-mode config [2] in Emacs. Remapping `less` keys [3]. [0] https://github.com/willbush/system/tree/main/configs/keyboard-firmware https://github.com/willbush/system/tree/main/configs/keyboar... [1] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/main/configs/nvim/init.vim https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/main/configs/nvim/in... [2] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e6a3c241f59a0d9414cbe/configs/emacs/default/modules/init-editing.el#L105 https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e... [3] https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e6a3c241f59a0d9414cbe/users/will/less.nix#L6 https://github.com/willbush/system/blob/82253534b92f3ab87d8e...

alwayslikethis 2y ago
I don't rebind my keys on Colemak for vim/evil. I got used to it pretty quickly. Beyond the basic hjkl movement commands I don't think anything is really meant for qwerty specifically. Remapping also breaks the mnemonics somewhat which I think is important. Emacs users got along just fine with Ctrl-n and p, so I see no specific reason remapping should be needed.

alwayslikethis 2y ago

I learned colemak a long time ago, and progressed just like you, except I didn't try to retain qwerty speed. I figured I can look at the key legends anyways. I initially reached about 50-60 wpm but after that the speed still seems to progress slowly. Now after several years I can type about 100 wpm which I was never able to on qwerty, and I didn't do any significant practice on typing speed.