This seems risky. Many years ago, I could happily type in QWERTY and Dvorak (Colemak and Workman didn't exist yet), 60wpm on each in consecutive minutes. But I was having trouble with my joints (genetic condition). Moving my hand over to the arrow keys was a problem, so I modified Dvorak slightly to put the arrow keys in the middle (QWERTY's Y, G, H, B), put some letters and other keys on the number row, and put the numbers up on the function keys. It was close enough to Dvorak that it only took a few days to learn, but it had the unexpected consequence of <i>breaking my Dvorak typing ability</i>. The two were too similar.<p>Nowadays I use Workman [1] and put the arrow keys on the home row on a different layer (same locations as Vim).<p>[1] <a href="https://workmanlayout.org/" rel="nofollow">https://workmanlayout.org/</a>
I thought about trying Dvorak over 30 years ago but quickly discovered it is a wasted effort since everywhere I go there are QWERTY keyboards. What am I suppose to do, carry a Dvorak keyboard around with me (with the right adapters as well)?
I came to a similar conclusion about trying to learn popular layouts. I was always somewhat curious, but on a few occasions I had shooting pains down the back of my right hand, and I couldn't type or mouse with it for days.<p>I looked at Colemak (and the Tarmak training layouts) which seemed unnecessarily complicated, so I made my own transitional layout. First keeping most of the keys on the 'same fingers' but not necessarily same column as Qwerty (the P and R swap hands and O changes finger):<p><pre><code> Q W D F {P} Y U K L ;
A S E T G H N I {R}[O]
Z X C V B J M , .
</code></pre>
The transition was fairly painless, so I went down that rabbit-hole and ended up making what I call the Qwickly layout[0] (with QwickSteps training layouts)[1].<p>The final layout I'm using is:<p><pre><code> Q W U D P Z H Y L ,
A S E T G F N I R O
K X C V J B M ; .
</code></pre>
<i>I can still type in Qwerty but I have to look at the keyboard for a while until the muscle memory kicks in again.</i><p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly">https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly</a>
[1] <a href="https://github.com/qwickly-org/QwickSteps">https://github.com/qwickly-org/QwickSteps</a>
I went through the entire process of learning Colemak-DH last year, and made sure to maintain my ability to type QWERTY. I would bring my reprogrammed HHKB to work every day, and switching between layouts at home to keep the skill. Eventually I realized that all the new layout did was add an extra layer of cognitive friction when it came to keyboard shortcuts. Now a year later I am back to just using QWERTY.<p>Glad I tried it, now I know I could do it all over with only a little bit of discomfort, but I never saw any of the oft lauded benefits of switching keyboard layouts. Maybe at 60-70WPM I am just not fast enough to notice improved efficiency, or my youthful joints have yet to decay enough to have pain from typing. Who knows.
Just yesterday I was thinking about making a switch. I was concinced that I was gonna switch to Dvorak. Today I'm very confused. Maybe workman as someone said here. But does it benefit other language typing or just english? If qwerty was made to slow down the typers, what about other languages like German, Russian. Did they do that too? I'm not gonna switch if I have to type with same layout in other languages.<p>It's a big decision
I tried to learn dvorak, and colemak, and both ended up requiring too much investment to be worth it. This is very tempting, even though I promised myself I'd stop messing with keyboard layouts
I just gave the layout a quick spin, and it's indeed very easy to learn when coming from regular QWERTY, and it's almost eerie how much finger travel it saves. I may just go and switch to it. Thanks to the author!<p>(Apologies for not referencing Dvorak or Colemak in this comment)
I'm skeptical that this would be easy to learn. I haven't thought about what row certain keys are on for about 25 years. I imagine there would be a long period of frustrating typing and not being able to get things done as fast as you need, with constant corrections.
Sounds silly but the only change I do for the letter keys is inserting / (or whathaveyou) at [h] and shifting the [hjkl;] to the right. That way, right-hand fingers are resting at hjkl which makes vim-movement a lot more ergonomic.<p><pre><code> Q W E R T Y U I O P
A S D F G / H J K L
Z X C V B N M , .
</code></pre>
What do we call this layout?
I learned to touch type Querty as a teen. Then about 35 years ago I switched to Dvorak figured everyone was going to do it. Turns out not many did. But I’m still happy I switched. It’s easy enough to add Dvorak as an input method to any OS. Only problem has been leaving it on a company computer and having my coworkers mystified when their login password doesn’t work :/
I still think that what’s even sillier than QWERTY is the fact that the keys are angled up to the left on both sides. Sure this (sort of) makes sense for your right hand, but the left hand does not naturally fit the keys going in that direction.<p>I’ve considered moving to an ortholinear split keyboard [1] for this reason, but it seems like I’m so used to the “broken” way that it would take too long to retrain muscle memory at this point. The other downside is readjusting when needing to use a laptop keyboard.<p>I’m just ranting that they didn’t do standardize on something that made more sense a long time ago, instead of everyone being so locked into the broken way that there’s no going back at this point.<p>[1] <a href="https://ergodox-ez.com/" rel="nofollow">https://ergodox-ez.com/</a>
I don't understand how Dvorak is supposed to be hard to learn. It took me 2 months to get from "where are the letters" to being able to touch type faster than I previously could. From the start you're typing words, not "asdf".
This is interesting. However, having a layout similar to what you already know makes it harder to have a clear mental separation between the two. It also makes it harder to use it as an excuse to learn proper touch typing.
I used to type dvorak for about 10 years. Ultimately all programs shortcuts (except a few, like i3wm) are designed with the assumption that you are using qwerty, as are all coworkers. So, eventually, I moved back.
I think there's a huge missed opportunity of learning keyboard layouts with a smartphone. You get labels for free, and it's much easier to learn how to manage 2 fingers than to manage 10 at once. But once you get proficient enough to touch type(not that touch), you can still map the muscle memory onto a physical keyboard and you will already be 80% done. The remaining 20% is locating the right key with the right finger, which will sort itself out once you start typing. I learned Dvorak this way.
I switched to Colemak dhm a while back and I'm really happy with it. I've been using a ZSA moonlander at home and at work, and it's subtle, but I can definitely tell that this layout is easier to use. It's especially great with this keyboard and its macros and layers.<p>My laptops are still QWERTY though, and it's not too hard to code switch. It didn't take me too long to learn the new layout, though there was a short awkward period where I was bad at typing regardless of layout.
Along with the switch to Dvorak some decades ago, I remapped CapsLock to be an additional Ctrl, and I started using Emacs key bindings (C-n, C-p, C-f, C-b) instead of the arrow keys.<p>I'm still typing in Dvorak, but I'm almost sure that it's primarily the change of cursor keys that made my typing much more relaxed. It saves a lot on wrist travel.<p>However, I did send a lot of unintended print jobs to our office printer when Notepad didn't ask for confirmation after pressing C-p.
I’ve been thinking about a similar idea for years after studying how qwerty came to be.<p>FYI I once came across a very old “how to type manual” which said your fingers should rest on the top row. That explains a lot. And suggests why something like this makes a lot of sense — unfortunately manual memory is a PIA to change.
Just use Norman or Workman if you are going to go through this effort.<p>Also, use a programmable keyboard, so you can use it wherever without having to jump through OS hoops.
Has anyone tried it without flipping the P and ;? I understand the reasoning, but having it be a symmetrical flip might be even that much easier to learn?
We need to agree as a society to slowly transition to Dvorak or Colemak one key at a time over the next couple of decades. Every year we announce a new pair of keys which needs to be swapped, OSs roll out an update and people manually pry out the keys from their physical keyboards and swap them.