I'm trying it out now! Confusing on day one-and-a-half, but I think it feels okay. :-)
bph: Sure, we might have one Colemak some day. But it'd have to be my Colemak[eD]-CurlAngleWide, or it won't happen! ^_^
Seriously though, I'm not sure we'll get to a point of unification. We've been fairly democratic and open to experimentation which I feel is good and has led to significant developments. On the other hand, too much diversity may get paralyzing and divisive. Now we've whittled it down to one main Tarmak line which is very good because it's what meets the newcomers! And I think we may manage one main Curl mod which would be awesome because the Curl mods are confusing enough as they are without having to make choices.
It may also be somewhat up to Shai, certainly as long as we're on his site! I haven't heard any desire from him to change anything; in fact, he was actively promoting the fact that Colemak development was finished in 2006. Possible improvement vs the need for stability, it's not easy. Vanilla Colemak has stood the test of a goodly decade's worth of time and that's something. At this point, I feel that the DH mod has to be the underdog, an alternative for the adventurous but not a default in the way of simplicity for those who prefer that! We'll have to work for its visibility on this and other sites, of course.
stevep99: I've realized that although the down-out positions feel good they're not quite as comfy as the down-in ones. And on a matrix board it's a significant difference, of course. Choosing the down-in positions as defaults is the more unifying choice.
I'm envisioning that we can promote one mod as the main one, the (Curl-)DH mod. Then I can dispense with obscure terminology like DvbgHkm for the most part, and everything will look a lot brighter. As you can see, I'm willing to move over to your side of the field for the most part, given that we can agree on the better M position.
Some points:
• I won't care what you personally use! Only what we jointly promote.
• I imagine there should be a variant or two still hanging around; both our current mods may be kept as subvariants!
• That way, there will be one main DH-mod, but still freedom of choice and experimentation for the adventurous. (May require a little code hacking for them.)
• For the matrix people in particular, I think we should promote your current mod as an alternative.
• In the long run, I think one extra changed key is a minor problem. For the benefit we at least perceive, it'll be very worth it!
Looks like we may pull this one off, then! Hooray! And then, off to update a ton of code and documentation... haha!
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