I'd like to ask you what do you think of my idea.
I write about 60% in English, 40% in Polish, about 95% on Kinesis Advantage, 5% on typical staggered keyboards. So I need a layout, which is not only optimal for English texts but also close to optimal for Polish texts and which is optimized for the Kinesis keyboard (lower ratio of vertical to lateral movement cost, Ctrl and AltGr combinations easily accessible in any position, additional thumb keys). I decided to use Colemak Layout with some modifications to adjust it to my needs. I implemented the layout by registry remapping (with SharpKeys) and all macros with AutoHotkey on my own computer and prepared another version as an AutoHotkey executable, which I can start from a pendrive on any computer. One of the modifications is that I assigned frequently used sequences of letters to rarely used keys, which are now activated with AltGr key (the underscore stands for space):
X = The_
AltGr+X = X
AltGr+x = the_ (0.08% single char vs. 1.12% 4-char word frequency, also reducing HE digraph frequency by 68%, what taking in account also low H usage in Polish, allowed me to keep H on its original (bad) position. All percentages are based on the analysis of my own past writings: 1,000,000 chars in English and 500,000 chars in Polish, where the frequencies differ from that presented in Wikipedia.)
AltGr+x = x
q = and_ (0.10% single char vs. 0.40% 4-char word frequency)
AltGr+Q = Qu (in English Q is always followed by u)
AltGr+q = qu
j = ing_ (0.15% single char vs. 0.38% 4-char word frequency)
AltGr+j = j
AltGr+J = J
; = tion_ (0.12% single char vs. 0.35% 4-char word frequency)
AltGr+; = ;
. = ._ (only where after a letter, 1.30% frequency)
, = ,_ (only where after a letter, 0.72% frequency)
As I calculated, the macros save me about 9% of keystrokes. While writing in Polish, I turn the macros off, but instead remap V (which is not used in Polish, but on the rare occasions of foreign names it can still be accessed with AltGr+W) to another Z (while retaining the Ctrl+V capability). The Z+Ż gives 6.21% in Polish. The sum of T+Z frequencies is about the same in English and Polish, so the load of the left index finger remains constant. But I had to swap D with F to compensate for 1.27% same finger for the left index alone in Polish, to make better finger load distribution and first of all to solve the problem of bad positions of H and D in Colemak layout. In my writing the frequency of D was: 3.40% EN (3.00% remained after introduction of the letter "and "), 3.22% PL and of H: 4.38% EN (3.27% remained after introduction of the letter "the ") and 1.36% PL (the average frequency of H in my writings is now 0.6*3.27%+0.4*1.36%=2.51% - fortunately not so high, so it may remain where it is) , of F: 2.24% EN and 0.45% PL.
I also added additional Ł as AltGr+I, because reaching AltGr+L would be awkward on non-Kinesis keyboards.
And below are the four layers of my layout in the following order: 1 - base English, 2 - English with AltGr, 3 - base Polish, 4 - Polish with AltGr
base English layer
English with AltGr layer
base Polish layer
Polish with AltGr layer
