I was looking at some of the alternate keyboard layouts, and on some, all the numbers and symbols had been remapped. What would be the optimal rearrangement of the number/symbol keys?
Also, are there any other changes that would make colemak better (ignoring the need for ease of learning or hotkeys, since rearranging the number keys would clearly make learning very difficult)
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possible changes to colemak
- Started by nathan
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nathan said:
(ignoring the need for ease of learning or hotkeys, since rearranging the number keys would clearly make learning very difficult)
but that would be ignoring some of the main selling points of Colemak!
How would it make it a better Colemak if you go counter to the philosophy that brought into existence.
The optimal arrangement for numbers is a separate numeric keypad.
Symbols would depend entirely on the purpose.
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I am not requesting a change to the actual colemak layout, but an alternate, unofficial layout for people who want to transition from the current colemak to something that better (hopefully).
Also, the times that the distribution of numbers is not mostly equal is when you are typing them in programming. 1,0,2,9 would be most common then.
Last edited by nathan (22-Apr-2008 03:55:09)
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I'm sure you know about the myriad projects out there that have already done what you seem to be asking for? Arensito, Capewell, Klausler, Amuseum, etc etc. Some remap number keys, some don't.
However, as has been reiterated on these forums none of them seem to be conclusive and/or sufficiently convincing compared to the others (or to Dvorak/Colemak). This, among other things, has convinced Shai (and many others) that once a layout gets above a certain level of optimization there's so little more to be gained that it's time to look for other advantages instead. So most of us don't seem to be all that interested in pursuing your thought of ignoring all the extra conditions that make Colemak so nice for us. Without them, it'd just be YASO (Yet Another Stupid Optimization - "stupid" in this case meaning "uninformed" or "unrestrained" as it were)! And if you want that, don't you already have a slew of them out there? You could join the latest attempt for instance, further down this very forum:
https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=397
Last edited by DreymaR (22-Apr-2008 08:30:02)
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I've made one alteration to Colemak on my computers: placed polish accented characters (ąęćśżźńó) under respective unaccented character keys combined with right Alt, as in default polish QWERTY layout. I'm not sure whether it's actually much of help, but that's what I'm used to...
Also, I consider some rearrangements of keys, to make the layout oriented more towards left haded use. I'm using mouse a lot when working source code and terminal emulator, and want to be able to type as much as possible using only left hand, with right still on the mouse. But that's a future project...
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Dexen: The accents are already part of the Polish Colemak layout. So that's pretty much what everyone's used to by now. :)
If you're really hardcore about using your left hand with your mouse, look into the half-Colemak script! It's surprisingly easy to type with one hand using that technique, and it'll earn you nearly infinite geek points.
*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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dexen deVries said:
I've made one alteration to Colemak on my computers: placed polish accented characters (ąęćśżźńó) under respective unaccented character keys combined with right Alt, as in default polish QWERTY layout. I'm not sure whether it's actually much of help, but that's what I'm used to...
Also, I consider some rearrangements of keys, to make the layout oriented more towards left haded use. I'm using mouse a lot when working source code and terminal emulator, and want to be able to type as much as possible using only left hand, with right still on the mouse. But that's a future project...
I use the mouse with my left hand now, that is one solution. It also has the advantage of keeping the mouse closer, because your fingers do not have to cross the num pad (if you have one) if not, then they don't have to cross the arrow keys.
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