sotolf said:Believe me, I'm working in a place that packages meat, so you can think how good the industry keyboards there is, in addition to having to be watertight, they are usually smudget with a thick layer of fat, blood and meat rests, after trying to work on those keyboards for a while almost anything is a blessing.
OMG, my condolences. I hope you do not need to type essays on these keyboards.
Nono, mostly it's just small stuff when I'm there, mostly just pinging a server or change a printer or something, but as often as I can I'm doing it with vnc, then I don't have to change into the whole hygiene clothing and stuff as well, so luckily it's not that often ;)
]]>ckofy said:After that, the average office Dell or HP keyboard with mushy keys and slimy keycaps feels exactly like a rusty butternife. :)
Believe me, I'm working in a place that packages meat, so you can think how good the industry keyboards there is, in addition to having to be watertight, they are usually smudget with a thick layer of fat, blood and meat rests, after trying to work on those keyboards for a while almost anything is a blessing.
OMG, my condolences. I hope you do not need to type essays on these keyboards.
]]>After that, the average office Dell or HP keyboard with mushy keys and slimy keycaps feels exactly like a rusty butternife. :)
Believe me, I'm working in a place that packages meat, so you can think how good the industry keyboards there is, in addition to having to be watertight, they are usually smudget with a thick layer of fat, blood and meat rests, after trying to work on those keyboards for a while almost anything is a blessing.
]]>But it is still a hassle to be different. To further the analogy, sometimes you have your knife on you and they still force you to use the dull, rusty butterknife from 1873.
You know, your analogy is absolutely correct for me! Because I'm carrying around not a flash drive, but a mechanical programmable keyboard with physical layout that works best for me, with switches and keycaps that I like. After that, the average office Dell or HP keyboard with mushy keys and slimy keycaps feels exactly like a rusty butternife. :)
]]>I guess I'm saying that, when you learn and grow with the layout and equipment best suited to you, you're far more likely to get your desired results.
It is an unskilled worker who blames his tools, but a highly skilled worker who maximizes them.
]]>It really is flipping a switch dude, but not gonna say more than that. Thank Ryan Heise for hosting the file. I shortened his link back in '08.
Though I have an equivalent AHK.exe for ColemakDH, I don't have such a convenient URL for it. It's in my email/thumbdrive instead.
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I totally agree with you. There is nothing wrong with defying standards. In fact, it should be encouraged! It would be easier to defy them in the future!
But it is still a hassle to be different. To further the analogy, sometimes you have your knife on you and they still force you to use the dull, rusty butterknife from 1873.
I still use ColemakDH whenever I can (like right now), because I love it, and I too will "bring my personal knife" wherever I go.
]]>But standards matter, when it comes to using some random setup and you have to negotiate your input method with a friend, admin or even your boss.
I know that back when I used Colemak I felt supremely confident I could use it at work regardless of the OS.
OS X is essentially the hardest to deal with because installing keylayout files or KarabinerElements are equivalently awful, permission-wise.Back in the pure Colemak days, especially once Lion came out, it was just flipping a switch.
ColemakDH feels like working in a kitchen and having a personal knife that I always have to bring, whereas Colemak was just the nicest knife already available.
This knife is still better, but you can't take it everywhere.
I have the standard keyboard by my desk which I pull out when "normies" need to use my computer. But I also need to pull out a mouse, because I'm using trackball :)
Regarding "bringing a personal knife", this is exactly what I'm doing. What is wrong with that? Say if technician coming to your house, he is bringing his own screwdriver but not using yours one, why when it comes to computers, we suppose it always should be used with attached periphery?
And for poor Windows users switching to Colemak is not "just flipping a switch" and will not be that in observable future.
Open terminal; xmodmap "Dreymar's file".
That does the trick on anything not running Wayland, though the command takes like 4 seconds to execute.
It's about as easy as the instant 'setxbmap colemak'. Reverting it is the same 'setxkbmap us'.
I've already made a post on hassles Wayland causes.
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OS X still requires going into settings (i.e. an admin password), making it equivalent to running an executable on Windows, like downloading bit.ly/clk or ryanheise.com/colemak.exe
For Windows I always use AutoHotKey or PKL. In most cases, people don't want you installing things on their stuff. Running something is okay though. Especially if you explain it's a script.
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I agree when it comes to standards, for normies; Colemak, ColemakDH, Dvorak, Dvorak switching U and I, your momma's custom layout, and anything in between are all the same. Once you deviate slightly, you're a freakin weirdo.
But standards matter, when it comes to using some random setup and you have to negotiate your input method with a friend, admin or even your boss.
I know that back when I used Colemak I felt supremely confident I could use it at work regardless of the OS.
OS X is essentially the hardest to deal with because installing keylayout files or KarabinerElements are equivalently awful, permission-wise.
Back in the pure Colemak days, especially once Lion came out, it was just flipping a switch.
ColemakDH feels like working in a kitchen and having a personal knife that I always have to bring, whereas Colemak was just the nicest knife already available.
This knife is still better, but you can't take it everywhere.
There is pretty much only one situation that I can see having a hard time on, and that is with the Red Hat certification exams. They'll let you use Colemak, sure, but Colemak-DH may be pushing it. But having said that, I think it would take no time at all if you practiced on vanilla Colemak and eventually went DH. It's probably far easier to go back to unaltered Colemak than it is to go back to QWERTY!
And as a side note, "vanilla Colemak" sounds like a refreshing drink. I get thirsty almost every time I type it.
]]>Even the switch to DH was difficult primarily because of it, but after like 2 days of it, honestly it was amazing.
These days the worst part of switching back to Qwerty, when I have to of course, is having to type the 'c' key with standard fingering or with my index finger.
I can never even decide where to put my fingers on the bottom row at that point, because I don't want to mess up my technique for when I use ColemakDH again.