Typing lessons that cover punctuation? - General

fomp
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13-Nov-2012 17:46:18#1 Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

I mentioned in another post that I'm not only trying to switch from QWERTY to Colemak, but at the same time, I'm switching from the Spanish/Latin American keyboard layout to the US English one, and I'm struggling with the punctuation keys. Just to give you an example, I'm used to my colon and semicolon being where you guys have the < and > signs. As for slashes, accents and brackets, they are completely mixed up (though I must admit that the US arrangement makes more sense than the one I'm used to).

Are there any online lessons (like the Colemak lessons) that could help me transition into US-style punctuation?

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Loonster
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13-Nov-2012 19:17:38#2 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

What about adjusting the Colemak layout so the punctuation in the correct Latin American spot?

Shai left the punctuation alone to make it easier for QWERTY users to transition to Colemak. The Latin American punctuation layout would be easier for you to transition with, and it appears to be superior than the QWERTY punctuation layout.

edit: If you really want to learn punctuation qwerty-style, I would try searching for "Qwerty Punctuation Lessons".

Last edited by Loonster (14-Nov-2012 07:40:53)

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fomp
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15-Nov-2012 22:00:38#3 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

Thanks, I'll remap the keys if I fail at learning the new punctuation. As for the US one being inferior, well, maybe it's a case of "the grass is greener on the other side"? :P As a programmer, US-style punctuation sounds much more comfortable if you're used to it.

By the way, Spanish/latam layout is QWERTY too, the letters themselves are completely unchanged from the US layout.

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DreymaR
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15-Nov-2012 22:33:02#4 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

The only way the non-US punctuation setups (I've studied a lot of them!) seem better to me is when it comes to dead keys. The most used accents are often accessible in each national layout.

I agree fully that the US punctuation setup is much better for a programmer. Most coding schemes (and hotkey schemes!) take advantage of signs that are relatively easy to type on a US keyboard but not all of them are on a national layout. Having to press, say, AltGr+] then Space (to release the Dead Key) to type a Tilde quickly gets old when your language or program uses it a lot!

However, the standard US layout doesn't have dead keys which is a horrible idea. Thankfully, the Colemak layout takes care of that without losing the easy-to-type symbol placements (as does my own Colemak[eD] AltGr-level variant).

Last edited by DreymaR (15-Nov-2012 22:33:41)

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Loonster
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16-Nov-2012 05:37:36#5 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

I should redo my comment. I saw some things I liked, and completely ignored everything else.

Shift + Comma = semicolon
Shift + Period = Colon

I love this simplicity. I will agree that all other punctuation is better in the US layout.

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DreymaR
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16-Nov-2012 14:51:37#6 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

Well, yes - the semicolon and colon keys are relatively logical but at a high cost. When the <> symbols get crammed onto one key in many layouts, I for got could never remember whether the shifted or unshifted one was the left one, and writing the <> digraph was no fun. So even though I agree with you I don't think the end result was worth it. ;)

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pinkyache
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16-Nov-2012 18:02:24#7 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

Spanish/Latin keyboard here:

https://www.goodtyping.com/teclatLAT.htm

Looks pretty chipper in places, brakets on the home row. But yeah, where's the tilde and the pound? I wouldn't have thought many people would use the <> symbols. They get an elevated slot on Dvorak. Kind of useful if you edit HTML, but that's about it.

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Loonster
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16-Nov-2012 20:17:27#8 Re: Typing lessons that cover punctuation?

DreymaR said:

Well, yes - the semicolon and colon keys are relatively logical but at a high cost. When the <> symbols get crammed onto one key in many layouts, I for got could never remember whether the shifted or unshifted one was the left one, and writing the <> digraph was no fun. So even though I agree with you I don't think the end result was worth it. ;)

I guess it depends on the way you think of <>. If I think of the symbols as less-than and greater-than symbols, I would be very confused. On the other hand, if I think of them as opening and closing brackets, its much less confusing. Opening symbols are typed before closing symbols, so opening symbols should get the higher key preference (unshifted).

The end result is probably not worth it for us to switch, but fomp is already familiar with this punctuation style.

His gains are two-fold:

He has 3 less keys to relearn.
He uses a potentially superior punctuation layout.

For him, I think it makes plenty of sense.

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