Maybe a simple layout count doesn't really tell you all that much? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
]]>Qwerty may have more "inefficiencies" but in the grand scheme of things, Qwerty and Colemak have more similarities than differences when it comes to typing ability. That's why learning how to type for the first time is pretty difficult regardless of layout, and why a Qwerty expert can learn Colemak at a significantly faster pace (nobody talks about this too).
Learning a new layout is still hard though. People choose to learn a new layout rather than improve typing ability on qwerty, but I suspect the latter is easier/more practical for many... I think a big factor not mentioned is simply that most keyboards are qwerty ones, and so typists learning colemak can't easily "cheat" their way when learning.
(Btw, I don't consider the backspace position to be a "core" part of Colemak, and that could be applied to other layouts too).
]]>The scattered positions of the most frequent keys causes the user to end up looking down at the keyboard more often than would be ideal, and also make more mistakes. Qwerty seems to actively discourage you from touch-typing properly, and it takes discipline to overcome it. Then, when you add in the other terrible designs features of standard keyboards, like the backspace and shift positions, it all adds up to making typing an unduly awkward an inefficient experience.
Colemak has the effect of removing these irritations, and streamlines everything. The awkwardness disappears. The millstone is suddenly lifted, leaving the task of typing suddenly becoming less burdensome. The layout design itself seems to encourage touch-typing. If you are not a particularly great typist on Qwerty to begin with, the benefits seem all the greater, as a good technique will start to evolve naturally. Other innovations, like Extend, take these gains and build on them further still.
I agree for a large number of keyboard users, a large part of the time may be spent do other things - e.g. thinking - but what you really want from your keyboard is, when you are ready to type something, it becomes simply a useful tool, helping you do your job, and doesn't get in the way.
]]>Rare letters staying in place from QWERTY will not noticeably affect the feeling of a keyboard layout, as they are just that – rare. It's the common letters that really make the feeling. And more importantly, the common n-grams – but they will almost invariably consist of common letters. I guess that some letters like W are frequent enough in n-grams, but since there's also at least one other letter in an n-gram the whole feeling won't usually be the same nevertheless. :-)
But I guess the intense hand alteration of Dvorak is a special experience; I remember it vaguely. The rolls of Colemak may have a more subtle feeling to them.
]]>I can switch between Dvorak and QWERTY or Colemak and QWERTY, but I'm definitely struggling with switching quickly between Colemak and Dvorak, at this point. They feel pretty similar.
]]>I'm up to 50 WPM with Dvorak this morning on that test. I think I'm typing a lot faster than that when I'm just writing free-form, rather than having to drill random words, though.
It's probably gonna be pretty awkward when I go back into Colemak... but I'm not sure what technique is best for when to use which, and how much I should get my bearings before switching to another layout again.
I will say that Colemak and Dvorak feel very similar. QWERTY is such a mess that, until I make the mental switch into typing at 100+ WPM, it feels awful and clumsy. Dvorak, though I had fallen out of practice, feels so different even when I'm going slow.
]]>The last time that I posted, I was only a month into using Colemak, cold turkey. That was going pretty well - I was at nearly 60wpm, but things felt pretty clunky, and my accuracy was pretty low. At that point, I was totally unable to use Dvorak or QWERTY at all.
Shortly afterwards, I started doing tests with QWERTY, and was able to pick it back up quickly (with averages around 60wpm after a day or so of forcing myself to start using it again).
Another two months later, I started trying to reincorporate Dvorak. This has been significantly harder to do, and it's not a part of my normal workflow yet. Colemak is my current default at work. With QWERTY, I have my smartphone on-screen keyboard, and I often set my laptop to use it when I'm not set up at my desk with an external keyboard. With Dvorak, I just have a Chromebook at home that I use when I leave my normal laptop at work.
Colemak has felt very fluid recently, so I did a few tests to evaluate where I am just today. I did the same with QWERTY (after having to spend almost an entire minute switching my brain into QWERTY mode to do it at my desk!), and right now I'm writing this post in Dvorak because it's absolutely my weakest of the three.
Here's where I am! I'm really excited to be at this point, because I can switch between the three and type well enough that it's not too painful to practice and start doing switching drills (and get my Dvorak fluency back!).
All of these tests are done on 10 Fast Fingers' basic English test.
I plan to keep using Dvorak for the remainder of today and focusing on that accuracy. I still am finding myself slipping into Colemak for certain words and letter combinations that feel similar between the two.
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