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    2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    • Started by angelic_sedition
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    • Registered: 11-Oct-2013
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    17-Oct-2013 03:36:36#1 2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    General info:
    I use Windows 7, Linux (mint), and Mac OS X (occasionally.. i don't know which version).
    I used keyhero and fastfingers to average my typing speed. (104wpm for qwerty)
    I had been using qwerty for about 5-6 years prior to switching.

    So the title is a bit misleading since I was already using an alternate layout before switching to Colemak, but I have pretty much adjusted to colemak now and feel that it was definitely worth the switch.

    I've been remapping keys and using what seems to be referred to as an "extend layer" here for a long time (with touch cursor, then with an ahk script, and now with pkl; still using xmodmap on linux), but I only found out that people actually use totally different keyboard layouts a few months ago. It was kind of mind-blowing. I was kind of angered that I never was told about other layouts when I learned QWERTY. I never even considered the design with regards to efficiency, ergonomics, speed, etc. Qwerty should have died in the 19th or 20th century. :D

    So after looking into keyboard layout for a while (Dvorak was the first that popped up) and finding carpalx, I quickly became disenchanted with qwerty. I was worried about how it would affect my performance to switch though, so I decided to try to learn a partially optimized layout to see if I actually noticed any big difference. My primary reason for switching was for the reduced movement and better design, but speed was also a factor (my previous speed with qwerty was 104wpm on average).

    I used 2-3 key swap/cycles for a few weeks to learn a slightly modified version of a keyboard layout called CarpalxQ. After about 1.5-2 months I was at 84wpm. Immediately after the first couple key swaps, I noticed a difference. This is totally subjective and might have just been placebo, but it definitely felt like my fingers were moving away from the home row a lot less and just felt... better (qwerty feels like a total mess when I type on it now). It also seemed to get easier to adjust as I progressed (time in between swaps started at 6 days and decreased from there significantly). It pretty much took no conscious effort and I devoted no special practice to it (I do type a lot). My hands don't hurt anymore (I type a lot). This makes me happy. Colemak is the key to happiness.

    Since the right hand home row for carpalxq is the same as colemak, and I had liked the switch, I decided to just go for colemak (more widely used.. linux has it as an option). I changed all the right hand keys in one day and then changed all the left hand keys the next day. It took me less time than before to adjust (maybe because I was very used to key changes at this time). I'd say this was definitely easier and less bothersome to do than I have seen it made out to be (I had read some blog about it taking half a year for some guy to learn).

    I'd highly recommend colemak to anyone interested who is open to change (try tarmak and I've found it's best to think before you type at first when switching; even if you don't, you'll notice the mistake of course and have to think about it after making a mistake). Colemak has only been an improvement on my experience with carpalxq. After 2 weeks I'm back at ~80wpm (not as fast as before, but I hope to be even faster once I get totally used to it). Even if you think that the benefits are meager, I think that the change was so easy (at least for me) that it would be worth it even with less benefit.

    I can still type with qwerty, albeit slower (and I have to look at the keyboard). I haven't encountered a situation where I need to use qwerty yet though (even on other people's computers on various operating systems). Even if I ever am prevented from using a software solution, I would invest in a hardware solution (I might end up buying a Poker II anyway).

    My conclusions:
    •Colemak/carpalxq took much less time to learn than I thought they would
    •I had pain with qwerty. I do not have pain with colemak
    •I feel like I have potential for much greater speed with colemak than I did for qwerty
    •Colemak feels better and is an attack on mindless herd conformity!
    •Colemak is available in essentially any situation (and with some practice, qwerty will still be very usable)

    Future goals:
    •I still need to improve my familiarity with the layout (occasionally hit keys for where the letter used to be)
    •Increase typing speed to at least 120wpm
    •More extend layers (currently experimenting with multiple ahk scripts) and more functionality; reposition altgr
    •maybe switch to an angle and/or wide mod
    •maybe try out non-staggered keyboards and ergo keyboards like ergodox; get a decent mechanical keyboard
    •get my "extend layer" to work fully with Linux (right now control is buggy :()
    Very much into future- learn steno

    Special thanks to DreymaR and lalop for drawing me to this forum after I decided to switch to colemak and getting me obsessed with this stuff.

    Let me know what you think :)

    Last edited by angelic_sedition (19-Oct-2013 16:29:57)
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    17-Oct-2013 09:11:29#2 Re: 2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    Nice! I too hope we can make those pesky control and shift keys work with Linux. My last attempt was to define them as Overlay1 keys, but I couldn't make the overlay work at all. I need a new brain.

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

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    17-Oct-2013 22:45:17#3 Re: 2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    I actually have both control and shift working with xmodmap (control may be buggy though) which is what I have been using since I started using Linux recently. I haven't looked into XKB yet, but I plan on switching over to modifying my layout with it since xmodmap lacks some functionality (a great portable solution maybe, but I don't think you can even have dead keys with it for example).

    Anyway, if I can't figure out a way to do control and shift with XKB then I may try using xmodmap for control and shift along with xkb for the rest of things, but I'm doubtful that capslock would work as a modifier for both (setting capslock as a mode switch key on xmodmap would probably override whatever it is set to in xkb). One solution might be to do the capslock layer with only xmodmap and do everything else with xkb.

    I need to mess around a bit more, and I'll see what I come up with.

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    18-Oct-2013 11:30:52#4 Re: 2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    Okay, so tell me: If I want Caps+A/S/T to act as the Alt/Shift/Ctrl keys, how would you do that with xmodmap? I use Caps as a level 5 switch in xkb, so I wouldn't want to lose that effect for the other keys.

    I suppose that a hybrid solution might be possible?

    Last edited by DreymaR (18-Oct-2013 11:31:48)

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

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    18-Oct-2013 22:30:22#5 Re: 2 Weeks Into Colemak and Loving It

    Right now I'm not so sure that it will work. The levels are a bit different, and I think setting capslock as a mode switch key might mess up the rest. I know it doesn't mess up altgr stuff if you leave those sections blank, but I don't know what happens when you add a new modifier. Let me know if it works if you try it.

    For adding shift and alt you would put this into a file, save it, and type "xmodmap filename" in terminal. This is a temporary change and goes away upon restart.

    keycode 66 = Mode_switch
    keysym s = s S Shift_L
    keysym a = a A Alt_L

    (assuming keycode 66 = capslock)
    *if this doesn't work you might need to add "add mod5 = Mode_switch" at the bottom

    If that works and the rest of your extend layer still works, then a hybrid solution is possible. If the rest of your capslock commands stop working, then it probably isn't worth trying to get control to work.

    More detailed explanation:

    The levels for xmodmap look like this:
    1. normal
    2. shift
    3. mod5/mode switch keys(I think)
    4. shift + mod5 (doesn't work)
    5. altgr
    6. shift altgr

    The format for remapping is as follows:

    keycode or keysym (code or sym) = 1 2 3 4 5 6

    Leaving any of the numbers blank won't change what they are. If you type "xmodmap -pm" in the terminal, it will show you all your current modifiers. So to make capslock a modifier key (which will be listed under mod5), you write this (assuming caps is keycode 66):

    keycode 66 = Mode_switch Mode_switch

    Level 4 doesn't work for me (I don't know if this is just for the Mode_switch keysym), so using capslock and shift will still work with what you list for level 3 for for your others keys.

    Shift and alt work fine for me. Shift is just "keysym s = s S Shift_L NoSymbol NoSymbol NoSymbol" (NoSymbol replaces anything there with no symbol; you would probably just leave this out)

    To get all this working you would put this in a file and then go to that directory in the terminal and type "xmodmap filename" This is temporary and will be undone after restarting.

    keycode 66 = Mode_switch Mode_switch
    keysym s = s S Shift_L

    You could also paste this directly into the terminal:

    xmodmap -e "keycode 66 = Mode_switch Mode_switch" ; xmodmap -e "keysym s = s S Shift_L"

    Control is a bit more difficult and is buggy for me. I've tried doing it many ways, and it works, but typing at a normal speed causes control to be hit randomly (meaning a new tab will randomly open or it will randomly try to save the web page). I'm not sure if this is just a problem for me, but I haven't been able to fix it (other than the bug, it works).

    For control you have to unmap the keysyms under control (Control_L and Control_R) and then remap them like this:

    clear control
    keysym t = t T Control_L
    add control = Control_L Control_R

    I tried this with both keycodes and keysyms and also tried adding a modifier keysym to control without clearing like this:

    keysym t = t T Meta_R (since I didn't have Meta_R mapped)
    add control = Meta_R

    That works but causes the same glitch. Any letter I've tried to put control on for level 3 causes this glitch.

    Maybe there's just something wrong with my computer because my mouse cursor has been glitching all over the place recently too. That's probably totally unrelated though..

    Last edited by angelic_sedition (19-Oct-2013 15:37:36)
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