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Emacs user learning Colemak, slowly

  • Started by jfmcbrayer
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  • Registered: 15-Apr-2014
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Hmm. What are the literal sizes (like in inches or cm) of size 16 and 20 on your phone? On my medium-sized phone (currently Moto G5S), size 16 is tiny, but 20 is kind of big.

Just did the World Game in 55s or 34 WPM. If I got over 45 or so, I'd feel like I could mobile type at a useful speed.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
  • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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IIRC, the Galaxy Note has a 5.6" screen. The active screen area is about 7 cm across horizontally. The full four column width of the MessagEase keyboard is:
@16: 40 mm
@20: 52 mm
@22: 70 mm (at this size it jumps to fill the screen width)

Right now I'm leaning towards a larger size for speed. I'm trying my hand at size 21 and nearly beat my old record once. I still make a ton of mistakes though.

Last edited by DreymaR (18-Jul-2019 14:45:04)

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

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Thanks. Those numbers are helpful.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Yay! I ended up practicing the MessageEase game a lot yesterday (using size 20). And today I set a new personal best! 60 WPM† on a touch screen – woo hoo!!! The test time went from 33.50→31.48 s so, 57.31→60.99 WPM; the game reported it as 60 WPM so let's call it that. But if I manage another perfect bout without any errors I guess I could push it to at least 62–63 WPM now.

It's a bit meaningless of course, as I don't type anywhere nearly as fast on normal text. But it's still nice! And it's nice to see that I'm improving!

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus
are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world.
In reality they seldom attack a human.

—————————————————
†: (160 C * 60 min/s) / (5 C/W * 31.48 s) = 1920/31.48 W/min = 60.99 WPM

Last edited by DreymaR (30-Aug-2019 13:59:53)

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

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  • From: Belgium
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Oh, that text... :-)  I typed it soo many times back then, and reached 62 wpm.  But by now this is not enough for top-50 anymore (now starting at 69).
Our own Pavel is there with 83 wpm though!  Impressive.

Not sure whether 60 wpm still earns you a T-shirt, but do ask Saied to update your entry on their map of champs. ;-)
(you probably have a new phone, they need to link your new game login id to your existing one.)

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Well, I got a new personal best at 50 seconds, 37 WPM, this morning.

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I just typed a 160-character phrase in 47 seconds (40 WPM) with #MessagEase #keyboard on #Android! http://bit.ly/hAjG4W

Just after that I got 42wpm. But I feel like that is not representative because it's possible to get muscle memory for those very particular words.

Last edited by jfmcbrayer (23-Jul-2019 00:07:31)
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Yeah. I can consistently do sub-35 s times on the test text now! Yay! But I also feel that my general speed has "opened up" as a result. And making the layout a little bigger was good for my accuracy and general speed it turns out.

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

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