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    Is this ANSI keyboard layout better than Colemak DHk?

    • Started by Aditya9106
    • 1 Replies:
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 21-Jun-2022
    • Posts: 7

    I swapped G and V key on Colemak DHk with Angle mod on the ANSI keyboard and found 0.7 reduction in the finger effort in Layout Analysis Tool made by stevep99. Also, 0.1 reduction while swapping ' and ; keys. Now the total reduction is 0.8 (From 1.738 to 1.730).

    It makes sense to type key V and G required the same index finger, and to type ' and ; needed same pinky finger and  I found both the position of V and ; better in Colemak DHk, and the frequency of the both of them was lower. So that swapping them was a good idea.

    Use the below layout on the ANSI alternative keyboard on Layout Analysis Tool.

    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0  -  =
    q  w  f  p  b  j  l  u  y  '  [  ]
    a  r  s  t  v  k  n  e  i  o  ;
    x  c  d  g  z  m  h  ,  .  /

    This keyboard layout looks more symmetric than Colemak DHk by key usage frequency too.

    Do you think the above layout is better than Colemak DHk on the ANSI keyboard? (I don't care about the keyboard shortcuts as they are not prime concerns here and can be changed accordingly.)

    Last edited by Aditya9106 (13-Sep-2022 14:43:38)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    The semicolon-apostrophe swap is useful; I use it as part of my Sym(bols) mod. See my BigBag for more info.

    Some swaps may look better in the analyzer than they are in reality, but a simple G-V swap shouldn't cause much trouble in that respect. I agree, it may be slightly better. But I don't think it should matter a lot and it will mean that you can't get your layout premade anywhere should you happen to get on, say, a Linux or Mac computer or an EPKL install for Windows that has preimplemented Colemak-DH variants. That may or may not matter to you. The main reason we haven't moved V from where it was is to preserve the Ctrl+V shortcut, which also may not matter to you – in which case there may be a small optimization potential left to tap into as mentioned.

    Personally, I'd think the benefit of a G-V swap, if real, is hardly noticeable in the long run. There are many other things you can spend your time on that will bring a lot more benefit, such as getting and learning good layer and sequence tools (Extend, tap-Extend, Compose, thumb key layer mods, etc etc...). Again, see the BigBag or SteveP's pages.

    Last edited by DreymaR (12-Sep-2022 10:03:16)

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