Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito? - Experiences

Lardoon
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07-Feb-2008 19:06:08#1 Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

I spend 10 hours a day in front of my computer (at least for 5 days a week and for the last 5 years) so I decided to give touchtyping a serious try..
After investigating a bit I decided to learn Dvorak (Programmer Dvorak) but after further investigation decided to go with Colemak and started learning it this week (on flat keyboard).

In the mean time and due to a recurring shoulder pain I have decided to go for a Kinesis keyboard which should arrive home soon.

I am obviously looking to reduce RSI strain but what excites me more is the prospect of increasing rather substantially my wpm.
The "problem" is that I am rather fast for a "hunt and peck" typist (ie around 40 on text copies and 60 on composition) so I decided to set my target at 100+ wpm

I have been scouring the web for as much info as I could find and now think that the Colemak is probably the best compromise (ie relatively large user community and it seems easier to learn than dvorak - although not being a touch typist, I am not sure if this argument holds water... But at least there are less differences compared to QWERTY which should make the switch easier whenever I'll have to in the future)..

Anyway my main concern is to find the optimal keyboard layout for programmers on Kinesis.
Since using the kinesis keyboard for programming seems far from ideal (https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=332) I am looking at ways to improve this.
The approach I want to take is to use Colemak as a base but take ideas from "programmer layouts" The arensito approach ( http://www.pvv.org/~hakonhal/main.cgi/keyboard and http://www.pvv.org/~hakonhal/main.cgi/k … ito_devel) for this sounds quite good (ie remap all frequent special characters to "easy" keys accessed with "Alt Gr") I also like the re-mapping of some keys like arrows, home and end which I use extensively to navigate text, together with Ctrl and Shift)

Anybody have any comments or experience regarding the above? Input greatly appreciated!!

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ChessWhiz
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08-Feb-2008 02:27:06#2 Re: Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

I use Colemak on standard keyboards and Arensito on my Kinesis at work. On top of that, I use QWERTY when I play StarCraft, due to the hotkey locations. I also used to use Dvorak, but dropped it in favor of Colemak about 8 months ago. My speeds:

QWERTY: 80 WPM
Colemak: 80 WPM
Arensito on Kinesis: 60 WPM
Old Dvorak speed (now I can't type it at all): 95 WPM

I blame the low Colemak speed on the fact that I've only used it for 8 months or so. I'm still gradually gaining speed. Anyway, I'm still trilingual (hah), and definitely have some experience in this area. My advice is to go with pure Colemak, even on the Kinesis. Having the numbers and punctuation bound with Alt+Gr has been more of a hassle than a feature for me.

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Lardoon
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08-Feb-2008 10:18:33#3 Re: Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

Thanks for info ChessWhiz.

I am curious as to what you would "blame" the low speed on the kinesis? Is it because you have not been using it for too long or because of the layout or just because of the keyboard design itself? (the 2 main things I am hoping to get out of this keyboard is good ergonomics/less RSI risk and increased speed)

Thanks for the advice regarding using arensito or not for special characters..

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jammycakes
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08-Feb-2008 10:48:27#4 Re: Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

Colemak and the Kinesis go very well together for text once you learn the layout. Don't even think of sticking with qwerty on the Kinesis though, it's painfully awkward.

Personally I didn't take to the Kinesis for programming, though for some people it's fine: it seems it's very much a case of YMMV in that respect. My big problem was the position of the curly brackets and the arrow keys, I never got used to them. However, you can re-map these keys in the hardware level if necessary, and it may be possible to find a more satisfactory arrangement that way.

Finally, if the Kinesis doesn't work out, you can get your money back if you return it within 60 days. (Note that their distributors have different terms and conditions -- e.g. their UK distributors, the Osmond Group, only do 30 days, so you may want to check up on that.)

http://hi-games.net/typing-test/watch?u=16

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ChessWhiz
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08-Feb-2008 17:23:22#5 Re: Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

The "blame" for slow Arensito is simple: I haven't used it as much. It's not a worse layout than Colemak on most accounts -- it's just a bit harder to learn, and I like Colemak's conventional symbol locations more (Alt+gr combinations annoy me because they require two keypresses). They are both really quite good layouts, and both immensely better than QWERTY, but you really only need know one of them, and I would suggest Colemak. However, since I haven't used Colemak on a Kinesis, I don't really have all the information needed to make a fully-informed judgment call.

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boli
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04-Mar-2008 21:54:20#6 Re: Kinesis keyboard for programmers: Colemak + Arensito?

Howdy guys. I've switched to Colemak 6 months ago and got a Kinesis Contoured keyboard two weeks ago. I'm also a software engineer. The layout I've come up with is shown at https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?pid=2418#p2418 (I didn't change the Colemak layout really, but moved some of the other keys around)

Last edited by boli (04-Mar-2008 21:55:36)

typeracer.com / hi-games.net / keybr.com

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