Just thought I'd post an update on my progress with Colemak. I've been typing for 3 years now using Colemak. My primary motivation for switching was pain in my hands. That pain has not fully gone away, but it is much, much better. I find that my typing speed and endurance is limited by hand pain these days. I was a 110wpm typer on QWERTY. I peak around 105WPM on Colemak currently and average around 95 - 100 wpm.
So, with 3 years in, what would I tell someone who's thinking about Colemak? "Just do it!"
You won't type faster if you're already an accomplished typist. You WILL save WEAR on your hands. The analogy I frequently use is this: You're in a car and are driving to your destination. You have two routes that you can take to get there. One is 50 miles and takes 90 minutes. The other route is 101 miles and takes 90 minutes. If you're like me and want less wear and tear on your car, you'll probably pick the 50 mile route because it takes the same amount of time while requiring less maintenance on your car, and much less fuel.
If I had one piece of advice it is to avoid the mistakes I made when learning the layout. I stopped one month in and went back to QWERTY, then a month later I switched back to Colemak. BIG Mistake. Secondly, train by printing off a piece of paper with the Colemak layout on it. look at this piece of paper and not your hands. You'll learn much faster. Finally, type correctly. Don't go for speed. Speed comes with correct typing. Every typo you make costs you a minimum of 3 button presses and KILLS speed! It's ok to type words you know fast, and to slow down for ones that give you trouble! Over time your fingers will learn and adapt and become faster. Finally, it will take about 9 months, but the word "you" will begin to feel normal. QWERTY has awkward combinations too, but you don't notice them because you've become accustomed to them! I do type in QWERTY occasionally, and there are many words that are clearly more comfortable to type using Colemak.
*Overnight success?
No. Learning Colemak takes hard work and dedication. You will need to work at it. It took me about 1.5 years to get back where I was with QWERTY (to the point that I don't have to think about which letter I'm pushing on the keyboard and know exactly which finger presses each key as if it's a natural thing).
More about my setup.
* VIM
I am a full time VIM user (I spend most of my time using vsvim in visual studio doing C# programming). I also use VIM on Linux and BSD regularly for side and weekend projects. I also use ViEMU in Microsoft Word. I don't remap any vim keybindings. ( see https://github.com/dietsche/dotfiles for my vim configuration). Once you learn where the keys are, it's really not a big deal. Most vim keys are mnemonics (d=Delete, i=Inside, etc...), and surprisingly, many common vim key combinations are actually BETTER using Colemak. For example, "O" "n", "vt" and "di" in visual mode.
Because I spend most of my time in VIM, I've remapped CAPS-LOCK to ESC.
* C#
In an effort to reduce programming effort, I've remapped curly braces and square brackets. For example, { is [ and [ is }. Same goes for the ] and } combos...
* How I configure my computers:
I install the windows specific Colemak keyboard layout and use WIN+space to switch the keyboard for non Colemak users.
OpenBSD - I type arcane commands to turn on colemak ;)
Linux - has colemak pre-installed
Mac - has colemak pre-installed
My work computer and primary desktop computers are different. I use an Kinesis Advantage keyboard with the remappings described above. For other computers, I use this: https://www.gregd.org/stuff/RemapCapsLo … StoESC.reg to change the caps lock key to ESC.
Hope this helps anyone who's new and starting out!
Hit me up with any questions you might have - and happy Colemaking!!
Greg
Last edited by dietsche (19-May-2015 22:17:42)
