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Colemak via Tarmak

  • Started by bph
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  • From: Viken, Norway
  • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
  • Posts: 5,343

Indeed, such passages will trip you up for a while! But after a while, the cognitive dissonances subside. I think it's fairly smooth for me now; I did several passages of fairly complex text at good speeds yesterday and felt I didn't have to think much about the positions of D/V/M/H anymore.

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Neato! Thumbs up! (Or rather, thumbs in a relaxed home position but anyway...)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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yes - its getting there..

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Impressive!

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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  • From: Chicago
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Do you guys show better results doing these all-low-case-no-punctuation-single-words tests than typing a real text? I surprisingly do not type faster in the 10fastfingers one minute tests than I do that in Amphetype texts full of capitals, commas, and quotes.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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It's an interesting question for sure! I think that the extra time required for punctuation may be largely offset by the better typing flow of real text. It should matter what you're used to as well, so typing in the eventually very familiar Amphetype window may get you in the flow better than in some "foreign" window.

I have the same impression as you. But the book I'm typing in Amphetype now (Behrens' Greek and Roman Mythology) has some passages with a ton of capitals, punctuation and weird references looking like this {193} one; those do slow me down by at least 10–20 WPM. Interestingly, I don't care about using CapsLock but just hold down a Shift key while typing ALL-CAPS TITLES GALORE. (Whoa, the hyphen does trip me up dangit.)

The masterful Sean Wrona specifically prides himself on being able to type extremely difficult text in flow. So I think one can get used to that. Once you're in good flow, a shifted symbol character is nothing more than two key presses with a slightly longer jump. But getting there takes practice ... and the ability to stay calm.

Note that Wrona also uses sticky Shift to avoid having to hold down the Shift key. At his speeds, it gets too tricky to time a hold-down modifier so that you get One True Character Shift and not DOuble CApitalization UGliness. I believe he's right, but I haven't gotten quite used to it yet. I've implemented Sticky Shift in my TMK files, but in OSes you still have to activate it in system menus.

Last edited by DreymaR (06-Oct-2017 13:09:15)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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10 fast fingers is a good baseline metric as it is so similar every time

plus it gives you a cool graphic to link to

it does actually have (minimal) punctuation, it has the ' in the simple top 200 test (i.e. the standard one)

My record is higher in typeracer, but thats because some of the texts are significantly shorter

amphetype is as easy or as hard as you want to make it

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  • From: Chicago
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Regarding the Caps Lock, I do not use it as well, and I do use sticky shift, the amount of DOuble CApitals is dropped to zero. :)
As I'm using Let's Split/ Planck combination 100% of time now, I have three shifts on the board, and the third is the sticky one under my right thumb is that I use all the time. I may get rid of two shifts under pinkies completely, seems like they are not in use any more. My Navigation layer is closely resembling Extend. :)

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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The two other Shift keys should rightly become Extend2 and Extend3! :-)

Furthermore, combos of Extend keys could give even more Extend layers (and holding down only one of them should maintain that mapping layer). That way, with three Extend keys you could have 7 Extend layers for keypads, hotstrings and whatever else one could think of.

Yeah, I haven't thought past four layers, myself. ;-)

Last edited by DreymaR (07-Oct-2017 18:45:57)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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boom! major bike accident mid oct has left me with a bionic left shoulder and encroaching RSI issues

hopefully this is where colemak starts to pay off with its increased ergo-ness

quick 10fastfingers indicates i'm back down to 70wpm

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Oh dear! Let me know if you need to type one-handed for a while.

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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needed one of those single handed maltrons for a bit! but credit card wouldn't stretch to it ;)

but I'm recovering slowly and back to two hands now

but i've got to take it easy and keep up with arm/hand physio as well as doing all i can to alleviate RSI on the keyboard side as well

new found respect for one handed typists..

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Damn, for a while there you were the perfect lab rat for the Mirror Colemak mod... what a wasted opportunity! ;-)

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

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no doubt it won't be the last of my accidents. Now I know I'll give you a shout when I next have an 'off' as they say..

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left hand improving with use, I think i mistook RSI for just coming back after a period of not typing

fingers seem to be toughening up again..

just hit a 70 on 10FF so its coming back!

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not bad, always getting faster :)

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happy that things are getting back to normal - lot less painful of late..

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not bad for a bionic arm!

Last edited by bph (11-Jan-2018 19:13:15)
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  • From: Viken, Norway
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You're a Bionic Boomer! ^_^

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

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