New Keyboard Layout - Colemak
 

For those life hackers out there. I recently decided to switch to a new keyboard layout called Colemak. After about two weeks, I'm back at where I used to type.

It's pretty amazing. It's even superior to Dvorak. Far more typing on the home row and comfort overall.

http://colemak.com/FAQ

http://colemak.com/wiki/images/8/80/...k_layout_2.png

Here's a really interesting article on the shortcomings of the QWERTY keyboard. Although it advocates Dvorak, it shows some history of why QWERTY is an horribly inefficient layout.

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/ergo/parkinson.html

interesting.

that's a great idea, to come up with a layout as fast as Dvorak but not as radically different from QWERTY that nobody wants to even try.

I thought the whole point of qwerty was to be inefficient?
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hah yeah wasn't it designed so typewriter keys wouldn't get stuck from all the realllly fast typers?

If I was learning to use a computer for the first time right now, I might give it a shot... but no way am I going to switch now.

Well, considering you are going to be typing for the rest of your life it might be worth trying. It's designed to be easy to learn. I've lost all my QWERTY skills and it's only been two weeks!

Yes. The existing keyboard was designed experimentally by Christopher Sholes, the inventor of the typewriter, to slow the typist down, because the keys in his 1873 machine fell back into place by gravity. It was designed to slow humans down so typewriters wouldn't jam. How is any of that applicable today?

What's wrong with the QWERTY layout?
It places very rare letters in the best positions, so your fingers have to move a lot more.
It suffers from a high same finger ratio that slows down typing and increases strain.
It allows for very long sequences of letters with the same hand (e.g. "sweaterdresses")
It was designed to prevent the keys from sticking, without any consideration to ergonomic or efficiency aspects.
It was designed so the word "typewriter" could be typed on the top row to ease demonstrations.
It suffers from an extremely high ratio of home-row-jumping sequences (e.g. "minimum")

Typing "LOL" will never be the same.

Well, I already type about 120WPM, so I can probably do without the extra few WPMs that I may or may not get by switching to Colemak...

haha in LOL in Colemak is "u;u" in QWERTY.

One disadvantage is normally I go "wow wtf asd;lkfjasd;lfkj" in MSN or something.
Now its "wow ardiehrstienoaorsietna"

And they go WTF?


If I type:
"This is me typing QWERTY style on the colemak keyboard. Nice encryption, isn't it?"

on QWERTY it becomes
"Ghur ur mf gj;ukd QWFPGJ rgjif yk ghf cyifmae efjbyaps. Kucf fkcpj;guyk, urk'g ug?"

LOL. :D

You're already faster than 98% of the population. Sounds like its already working for you.

Colemak seems too wierd, probably because i am too use to the qwerty style.

Dvorak is way weirder. I was going to try Dvorak until I accidentally found Colemak.

http://www.aarontoponce.org/presents...ges/dvorak.png

unless you're doing data entry and get paid for the # of jobs you do, whats the point?
60-120wpm is always gonna be fast enough for anything else.
i never sat at a computer chatting or typing a message and wished i typed 200wpm before

Who should learn Colemak?
People that suffer from Repetitive strain injury (RSI), or Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).
Anyone that experienced pain or discomfort while typing.
Writers, programmers or anyone who wishes to type as fast as they think, and slower typing might result in a loss of their train of thought.
Journalists, bloggers or anyone that needs to type in time-critical situations.
Students that take notes with laptops during lectures.
Anyone's that interested in lifehacks or doing things more efficiently.
People that often use instant messaging and chat software.
Anyone who spends over 10 hours per week at the keyboard.


For me, I'd just rather do things as efficiently and as comfortable as possible.