5 ms·

I've used Colemak for a year and a half now. The common shortcut keys are in the same place still (ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc.). I use Vim and keep the default binding

I've used Colemak for a year and a half now. The common shortcut keys are in the same place still (ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc.). I use Vim and keep the default bindings and it works fine (though movement is odd.. up and down are inverted). I used to type at around 100 wpm with QWERTY and can reach that or higher now. I can still use QWERTY when I need to although I have to look down a bit. All in all I like it. It feels good and efficient to type. I initially switched because I wanted to learn to touch type on QWERTY.. Not only was it a struggle to change habits but QWERTY felt just.. Awful and slow. So I wanted to learn a new layout. Colemak seemed less radical than Dvorak and also more efficient (less finger movement). Learning a whole new layout was quite hard (especially in the middle of a semester), but I think it did make learning to touch type easier. The hardest part was 's' being moved a letter to the right.. I confused 'r' and 's' for a while now. So yeah, if anyone is thinking about trying it, go for it. Don't rearrange the keys, just print out the layout and look at that for reference so you learn the locations by feel.

m_ram 13y ago
I went from Qwerty to Colemak over a year ago and I'd say that my experience is similar to yours. I'm not sure if I type faster now, but I know that my hands no long hurt after long computer sessions. The movement keys in Vim do seem weird, but it's really just muscle memory. After a few days you don't even think about it.
- jjoonathan 13y ago
  hjkl are permanently burned into my muscle memory in their positions on the Dvorak keyboard. A few months ago, I was using ssh from a computer with a QWERTY keyboard and I did a double take when I re-discovered that they were right next to each other.
leod 13y ago
I'm a Vim user as well, and when I tried Colemak for a few months some years back, Vim was what made me go back to QWERTY. It was just too awkward as I would like to be able to work with both layouts. Creating new bindings didn't work for me at all (especially since I didn't want to lose the ability to use someone else's Vim, or a vanilla Vim). I think the key might be to focus on what shortcut key you're actually pressing instead of where it is on the keyboard. This turned out to be pretty difficult for me with the hjkl keys, which are, as you say, fairly odd. Interestingly enough though, today I can still write Colemak fluently whenever I accidentally switch to it, and it's a lot of fun! So I might give this whole thing with Colemak a new try, knowing that someone went the same route as I (keeping the default Vim shortcut bindings).
- thatswrong0 13y ago
  It also helps that I wasn't too proficient with Vim, if at all, when I started using Colemak, so I didn't have to deal with any burned in habits with Vim either.

m_ram 13y ago

I went from Qwerty to Colemak over a year ago and I'd say that my experience is similar to yours. I'm not sure if I type faster now, but I know that my hands no long hurt after long computer sessions. The movement keys in Vim do seem weird, but it's really just muscle memory. After a few days you don't even think about it.

jjoonathan 13y ago
hjkl are permanently burned into my muscle memory in their positions on the Dvorak keyboard. A few months ago, I was using ssh from a computer with a QWERTY keyboard and I did a double take when I re-discovered that they were right next to each other.

leod 13y ago

I'm a Vim user as well, and when I tried Colemak for a few months some years back, Vim was what made me go back to QWERTY. It was just too awkward as I would like to be able to work with both layouts. Creating new bindings didn't work for me at all (especially since I didn't want to lose the ability to use someone else's Vim, or a vanilla Vim). I think the key might be to focus on what shortcut key you're actually pressing instead of where it is on the keyboard. This turned out to be pretty difficult for me with the hjkl keys, which are, as you say, fairly odd. Interestingly enough though, today I can still write Colemak fluently whenever I accidentally switch to it, and it's a lot of fun! So I might give this whole thing with Colemak a new try, knowing that someone went the same route as I (keeping the default Vim shortcut bindings).

thatswrong0 13y ago
It also helps that I wasn't too proficient with Vim, if at all, when I started using Colemak, so I didn't have to deal with any burned in habits with Vim either.