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Starting Colemak (USA QWERTY -> Colemak, touch typist for 25 years)

  • Started by unfy
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  • Registered: 15-Apr-2014
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Pas mal!

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Took the weekend off and didn't do a lot of typing either.  Had a bunch of really nice rain and thunderstorms ... well nice assuming ya weren't in tornado's path hehehe.

Got to work, did a 3min Qwerty test, and am typing this message out in Colemak as a warm up.  My hands hurt a little this morning - possibly weather related (it's a lil nippy). 

If this message is any indication, I am going to bomb the Colemak test. A LOT of typos :(.  In fact I think I'll have to aim for higher accuracy on purpose, although I know it won't matter - fingers just aren't in a cooperative mood today.

Took the Colemak test deliberately slow...

Qwerty: 85 wpm / 96% accuracy
Colemak: 31 wpm / 96% accuracy

Not having to correct constant typos helps keep effective speed up. Who would have thunk :P

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Very good. I'll try myself after I have some coffee.

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The chattering E is *really* starting to get on my nerves and *really* effects typing speeds / accuracy.  I'd switch back to the membrane cheap Dell keyboard - but once you get used to typing on a mechanical, there is just NO going back :D.

Morning 3 min typing tests.

Qwerty: 71wpm / 95% accuracy.
Colemak: 36wpm / 93% accuracy.

I'll admit that half of the Qwerty speed dip is the chattering E, the other half being Colemak-isms :).

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Morning 3min typing tests.

Qwerty: 85wpm, 97% accuracy.
Colemak: 34wpm, 95% accuracy.

The speed test flowed mostly fine although there were a few stumbling blocks.

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Slept in.

Morning 3min typing tests:

Qwerty: 87wpm / 96% accuracy
Colemak: 34wpm / 94% accuracy

Last night in replying to some other forum post somewhere (about keyboard layouts no less), I had noted that I had no clue what keyboard layout I was in when I started typing that message - it wasn't until I hit caps lock to backspace (and it worked) that I found out hehe. Slowly getting there :D

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3min tests:

Qwerty:61wpm / 90% accuracy
Colemak: 36wpm / 93% accuracy

Started with the Colemak speed tests this morning.  I think I'll continue to do this from now on. Felt far less jarring.

G, L and D continue to be hated characters.  We won't mention my seething hatred for the moved ; key yet.

During the Colemak test, hit runs of 45-50 wpm a few times.  It was an excerpt from ugly duckling - so plenty of G and L keys heh.

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Typed the above in Colemak then immediately started to take the Qwerty test.  It took about 90-120 seconds to adjust to Qwerty - was typing at 40wpm with constant errors as Colemak keys were being pressed.  After that, speed and accuracy recovered just fine.  I'm leaving the score as is just to demonstrate the change up effect.

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Qwerty: 96wpm / 97% accuracy
Colemak: 36wpm / 92% accuracy

First test was Colemak, which started out great, but after 90 seconds all the qwerty-ism typos started to kick in - which is a shame, felt like it was flowing nicely. And by flow I mean "felt completely natural".  I did a bit of Qwerty before taking the Qwerty test....

Took the weekend off from Colemak, wasn't around computers much as far as typing, and what time I was around them, was work or swapping hardware.

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Progress is steady, although not a rocket ship. The switching back and forth is prolly to blame. I'm content with the progress thus far - in particular being able to switch back and forth without losing any Qwerty skill etc.

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Colemak: 36wpm / 94% accuracy
Qwerty: 101wpm / 98% accuracy

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Started trying to use Colemak in vim and such today. It's amazing how much of it is more or less muscle memory based on position rather than a particular key value.

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Colemak: 39wpm / 91% accuracy
Qwerty: 95wpm / 96% accuracy

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I'd get into a stride and then make constant Qwerty mistakes. It's really weird - like I want to just zone out and type subconsciously at a decent speed, but then the Qwerty-ism's kick in.

F, D, and G are still my most hated characters.  Using shortcut commands can prove interesting - I'm thankful that most common shortcut positions are preserved in Colemak and that CTRL-R is typically unbound :D

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Type this bit in Qwerty as a warm up for typing test.  There are times when I've been using Colemak for the last couple hours or so, and feel the need to switch to Qwerty for something, only to have my typing get reqt by the change... defeating the purpose of switching... thus I'll end up switching back to Colemak heh.  Doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened at least three times in the last few days.  There's a thread on here where some unfortunate soul lost his ability to type qwerty and couldn't pick up colemak - it feels the same way during the quick-transition back to colemak sometimes.  And then trying to go back to Colemak, I'll even be more befuddled.

That said, there are times when I can switch back and forth between the two with absolutely no grace period needed and it all just comes out smoothly :D

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addition: I think, and I should note this on my thread, that most of my non-qwerty-typos are standard learning to touch type out of order key strokes.

Last edited by unfy (21-May-2014 22:13:52)
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Colemak: 41wpm / 91% accuracy
Qwerty: ...

32wpm / 71% accuracy the first test.  which was weird cause i warmed up after the Colemak test...

95wpm / 94% accuracy the second test. That's better :D

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A lot better / flow this time around in Colemak.  New keyboard yet again so that plays it's part in the speed / accuracy discussion as well.

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Congrats on breaking 40 WPM.

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Colemak: 43wpm / 90% accuracy.
Qwerty: 31wpm / 69% accuracy ... and I gave up trying to retake the test.

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The first half of the Colemak test was closer to 50wpm / 96% accuracy.  Then something happened and it went to pot. 

Been trying to type this in Qwerty as a warm up, but it's not going so well.  For some reason I just can't get it to come out correctly when taking the typing test. I can type just fine here, but not during the test. Whatever.  I'd say that here my typing speed is appropriate / 80-100wpm as usual.

I've pretty much have moved to Colemak all-the-time now.  F, D, G are still my most hated characters. The moved semicolon is still rage worthy but not as bad.

I miss the clicky keyboard (replaced with mx brown's with o-rings).  Coworker is happier but I'm not heh.  At least I have old-clicky at home :).

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jfmcbrayer said:

Congrats on breaking 40 WPM.

TY TY!

Sadly, need to get accuracy up now.  I've been quite happy with how Colemak flows now, just need fewer typos.

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edit: the most unfortunate key, other than the semicolon, IMHO, is L.  There is just something about it's positioning that irks me.  Been meaning to add it to my list of unliked characters, but just haven't.  IE: typing the word "like" is totally weird. Possibly because of the vault, but I dunno.  I typo the L alot, but not because of Qwertyisms...

Last edited by unfy (23-May-2014 21:54:26)
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Just glancing at the Colemak layout, L is in Qwerty's U spot, which is Dvorak's G. I wouldn't have thought that key would give you great stress, unless there are other weird tight circular loops like 'like'.  Are you moving your hand or stretching the finger?  Or both?

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My finger ends up straightening completely out, and my forearm does move forward maybe a quarter inch to hit it.

I might have my wrists too far away at this particular moment, dunno.

And yes, it's in a strong spot, and I never had any problems with Qwerty U... so... I really dunno why I'd have some issues with Colemak L.

It's possible cause at my normal wrist position I end up brushing the Qwerty I ? I dunno.

I'll pay more attention to it as I go to see what's going on.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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L is one of the keys (like G) that used to sit in a too good position in QWERTY and therefore will feel awkward when you focus on it. In Dvorak, it's even worse off on the pinky (I think). Judging by its frequency in English I'd say it gets more or less what it deserves in Colemak, but note that it is more common than most other keys on the Colemak upper row.

See my Tarmak sig topic and look up the heat map animation if you're interested in seeing it illustrated!

Last edited by DreymaR (26-May-2014 08:44:43)

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

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I think I had some problems with L during my first month of my switch, but like RS, EIO and PG problems, it will solve itself out after a month or two.

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No tests today.

I've had a really shitty start to the the day (dead truck battery, blew a tire out, etc).

I am all Colemak, all the time.  Quite a bit of it is now completely subconscious typing, although my error rate is still too high.

I dunno if I'll switch back to qwerty for art applications or not.  It's probably about time to actually install Colemak as a proper OS level keyboard rather than using the hack exe :D

Custom keycaps to match Colemak would prolly help with the art thing.  Since not so much "typing", being able to see the keys wouldn't hurt.

R and S weren't too big of a problem for me.  At first couple days, yeah, but not so much afterward.

I'd say that F, G, D, and L would be my most common typos over the weekend - although I is also high on the list for whatever reason.  G is more or less a problem in that I'll hit the Qwerty G frequently... similarly with D - alot of the times that I type "today" i end up with "togay".  Similarly, "end" can come out as "eng" frequently.  I dunno what is causing that, but it's how it is.

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unfy said:

G is more or less a problem in that I'll hit the Qwerty G frequently... similarly with D - alot of the times that I type "today" i end up with "togay".  Similarly, "end" can come out as "eng" frequently.  I dunno what is causing that, but it's how it is.

I get that sometimes, too. I think it's the unaccustomed reach for 'd' that then makes you overreach.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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You think too much! I thought I was bad. ;)

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

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Still in a sour mood from yesterday.  I'll try to get some speed tests in tomorrow.

Something fun to note, it may take 5-10 minutes before i can type qwerty.... since i've not practiced every day this will be interesting hehe.

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Did a lot of running around today at junk yards trying to make truck better.  Too tired to attempt speed tests etc.

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Been real busy with real life.

Am still Colemak all the time.

Dont practice Qwerty, so I know that it's suffering badly.

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Same here. Still measuring slow progress, no time to post about it.

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