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    Colemaks

    • Started by jchthys
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    • Registered: 23-Jul-2012
    • Posts: 3

    Hello, everyone,

    I thought I'd share some Mac keylayouts that I've made. One, English Colemak, is the standard layout with support for other languages and special symbols using the Option key. The others are for foreign alphabets (Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew), but based on Colemak, so that they are easier for Colemak users to learn—especially for those who have switched their keycaps, as I have! Esperanto Colemak puts the ĉapelitaj literoj on the main layout to avoid using the Option key.

    Here's a link to the lot: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/699 … lemaks.zip
    To use them, extract them and copy the ones you want into ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts (where ~ is your user directory). After this (possibly after you restart the machine), you should be able to enable the layouts from System Preferences.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,364

    Welcome to the forums, and kudos for your effort! :)

    Could you post pictures too, please?

    Last edited by DreymaR (23-Jul-2012 18:41:56)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    Will do so soon. Note that the on-screen keyboard may be useful here.

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    • From: Sofia, Bulgaria
    • Registered: 05-Mar-2011
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    Just a question about the Cyrillic - why would someone using alternative layout like Colemak, use phonetic, non-ergonomic layout on another language?

    That's not really a question as much as an encouragement to learn a more ergonomic layout on the other languages one types. I'm well aware there could be many reasons why one would want to use phonetic, but just in case someone hasn't really asked himself the question :)

    Oh and thanks for posting your work, I hope many find it usefull. And ignore my post if I've misunderstood your original post, since I haven't downloaded your files.

    Last edited by pafkata90 (24-Jul-2012 22:52:18)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    I use phonetic layouts for typing Greek in particular, but I want one for Hebrew and one for Kyrillic as well.

    The great benefit of phonetic layouts is that you don't have to relearn a lot to type other scripts. If I want to type a greek_tau I want it to be on the same key as my T is. Same with the Hebrew Tav or the Kyrillic тэ. That much is simple enough.

    Of course some modifications must be made since for instance Greek lacks some latin letters but has its own peculiarities like ksi and psi. (Theta, on a side note, isn't peculiar - it's English that's to blame for losing its th letter 'þorn' long ago while the sound is still in use!) These should be placed as logical as possible to the latin-letter user.

    For a native Russian for instance, it's more of a toss-up whether to make your own ergonomic layout based on your language or to use a phonetic Kyrillic Colemak layout. For one, the former would be a lot of work and has yet to be done well to my knowledge! And then there's the question of multilinguicity. I'm Norwegian but type at least as much English as Norwegian in a typical day! For me Colemak is the logical layout choice because it's not bad for Norwegian (my locale variant has the æøå letters of course) and it's really good for English. For our Russian friend it may be on the whole easier to have a Colemak setup on both Kyrillic and Latin typing if he/she has to switch back and forth a lot!

    Oh, and do you remember the old topic by Checkit and others discussing the virtues of Colemak for international typing? I don't know about Slavic languages, but for the other European languages it seems to do surprisingly well!

    Last edited by DreymaR (25-Jul-2012 08:16:26)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    pafkata90 said:

    Just a question about the Cyrillic - why would someone using alternative layout like Colemak, use phonetic, non-ergonomic layout on another language?

    I think DreymaR has the right idea—I don't type that often in Greek, not being a native speaker (and still less in Cyrillic and Hebrew), so it makes sense for me not to re-learn a keyboard layout. Efficiency in transferral of skills from Colemak is more important here than efficiency in speed-typing.

    For native speakers of Greek, Russian, Serbian, Hebrew, etc., by all means an ergonomic layout tuned to the particular language is preferable—and then they may prefer a Latin layout made to be similar to that one, instead of Colemak!

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    • From: Sofia, Bulgaria
    • Registered: 05-Mar-2011
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    Yed, I meant if Cyrillic is your first. In your case, you're completely right :)

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