Hi s341,

This is obviously upto the individual to decide which one is better or not, but I personally like statistical proof more and practicality is important, not just typing speed. Thus, if for instance, I decide to use this layout on another computer, I'll have difficulty, since this layout isn't widely available like the other ones.

I found it very easy to learn Colemak, because of such few changes as opposed to the alternatives and I don't plan on learning a new layout once again. Colemak still has many of the benefits to those layouts that have many position keys change. I doubt there is a big difference in speed compared to Colemak. Also, Colemak is more available on other computers besides your own, it has a website, easy to download files, works with other OSs, has support/help available, and has been researched intensively to get a superb layout.

Basically, in my opinion, The incentive of switching once again to another layout that's similar to Colemak but not quite, is not really worth the switch. However, as seruxie said, he did it for his personal use and those who wish, may use it too. So if you like it better, good luck with it :).  BTW, I don't see any statistics comparing it to other layouts like Colemak does.

Second day, still improving at a nice pace. I have doubled my wpm already (from 10 to 20 ; )

I'm unfortunately not yet fast enough to say how much I like this one. I'm going for at least 150 wpm before I make another switch.

AGK,

those statistics are exactly what I'm looking to create! I want to see how well Seruxie's layout performs under statistical scrutiny.

My restriction on using a legacy keyboard is exactly so I can use it everywhere.

Your other points are moot:

- Website (anyone can make a website)
- Easy to download
     This layout is trivial to temporarily set up elsewhere as well.
     All I do is type at a virtual terminal (with hunt and peck :P)
     

wget <layout url> -O - | xmodmap -

- Other OS
     Any OS that does not let you change the layout without some
     kind of hack is broken. File a bug with the developers.

     Or make a hack.
- Support / help
     I'm actually not sure if I can refute this. I don't understand it.
- Researched intensively
     So let's make some comparisons! Do more research!

DreymaR,

yes, I did switch the V and J.

Certainly I have let my antipathy guide me, as I admitted in the opening post. I have no evidence that colemak is slower because of it.

However, I see no benefit to keeping those shortcuts. My operating system lets me map shortcuts anywhere, also by scancode, so they don't necessarily change with the layout. If I wanted, I could even create a bunch of shortcuts with my currently unused Windows key, to behave as if CTRL+<that key on QWERTY> was pressed. In order to preserve all shortcuts even for broken programs that won't let me remap them.

Furthermore, I don't even use those shortcuts. The mouse is much faster copy/pasting than the keyboard, and with both hands on the keyboard, it naturally does not matter where the shortcuts are. One could even use shift insert/delete.

Curiously, most shortcuts I frequently use are now on the homerow :P

Select all
New tab
Save
Break (kill)
New (window/document)
Open

I'll gladly knock myself out, but as you said, there's no way I'm going to replicate or refute all current research by myself.

I have no trouble doing the boring work, like calculations, myself. I made this thread to get some brainstorming going and to get some pointers on what's interesting to calculate. I'm definitely digging a little deeper into those evolution algorithms.

Thanks for the comments!
--s341

One thing I like about Seruxie's is that it puts - on the main keyboard, and - is more common than ; or '. The 4 most common punctuation are period, comma, dash, apostrophe, semicolon. (Comma is more common in literature.)

However, Seruxie's has some problems of its own. I ran it through my scoring program, and it scored 13.1, as opposed to 12.0 for Colemak and 15.2 for Dvorak. I know that my scoring system hasn't been proven to be accurate, so here are the specific results. (First 2 or 3 digits only, the actual numbers are about 10 digits long.)

Finger travel distance: 128 to Colemak's 119
Same finger: 48, to Colemak's 27
Row jumping: 48 to Colemak's 23

I also have results for same hand, row changing, inward rolls and outward rolls, but those aren't as important.

The main problems with Seruxie's:
-D is on the home row. Switching R and D greatly improves finger travel, but increases same finger a little.
-It puts J in the Colemak K position, and that position isn't all that hard to hit so it deserves something more common than J. (Actually, I think K is a bit too rare, I think the best would be something like P or B.)
-Having S and R on the same finger may stress it too much, since these are both pretty common.

I don't think it's as good as Colemak. It is pretty close, but it's still noticeably worse.