Was going to learn dvorak but luckily stumbled onto colemak

Started by losty
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DreymaR
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From: Viken, Norway
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02-May-2007 20:38:17#26 Re: Was going to learn dvorak but luckily stumbled onto colemak

Vilem: I don't think I am any more viking than you are hun, give or take a few genes. The image is from a museum park where I work a week almost every summer teaching kids about the Roman army; it's a lovely approach when they can see us do movement drills and catapult firings in armor between telling them facts. I posted that image to defuse the tension that wad ostensibly felt. I didn't want to start a spamfest about it, so if you have any more urges to talk about my non-Colemak hobbies or world domination plans please send me an email about it instead?

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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wad
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09-May-2007 01:36:56#27 Re: Was going to learn dvorak but luckily stumbled onto colemak

As a final note on the subject, I have made a page on my own wiki for the modified layout described above.

http://www.waddles.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/Culemak

Also more in the blog.

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zubari
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10-May-2007 01:42:15#28 Re: Was going to learn dvorak but luckily stumbled onto colemak

Strangely enough, I find that the it is much easier to hit the "B" spot than the "J" spot.

In fact, I find that reaching for the J either leaves my middle and ring fingers on the top row, or result in a rather unnatural pose if I try to keep the other fingers on the home row.
B, on the other hand, doesn't seem to require any contortion at all.

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DreymaR
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From: Viken, Norway
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10-May-2007 08:26:56#29 Re: Was going to learn dvorak but luckily stumbled onto colemak

This is the case if your hands angle slightly outwards like most typists think they should. This angle makes the W and F/P (QWERTY E/R) a bit of an awkward stretch (not much) and the ZXC keys quite difficult but to me it seems to facilitate the stretch to B somewhat. Colemak J is more of a real stretch of the hand so I agree with you.

All this makes a curved and/or non-staggered keyboard a better alternative. But there aren't always ideal hardware solutions for such a keyboard. I for one have taken to using either blank or Colemak modified boards, and the one board I have seen that could support a better hand angle AND be moddable AND has Norwegian keys (the Siemens KBPC E) I haven't found yet. I also haven't found any blank boards with a better ergonomy except the TypeMatrix (it's not "meant to" be used blank but it's possible) and that one wouldn't be easy because it has so many special keys that would also be blank; plus I don't like its look too well.

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

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