batting 100 and ETNA : the ultra QWERTY

Colemak inspired me. A typist at typera.tk mentioned the layout. I  came, I saw, I redesigned.

Colemak impressed me with computer optimization, an excellent home row, low travel distance and low same finger rate (frequency with which the same finger is used to hit two different keys consecutively). But the balance on the right index finger seemed uncomfortably high to me. So I designed THEO (which I'm using now), with a lower travel distance and comparable same-finger rate (I use Jon A. Maxwell's comparison applet as modified by Michael Capewell for scoring my designs).

Instead of using a computer program to find the best combination of keys, used the combinations that I saw an other evolved layouts (Colemak, XFU, Capewell, ARENSITO, Klausler and others). XFU gave me the combination UEW for the core of my left middle finger cluster. And allowed me to place all my vowels on the home row and keep a good weight on the index fingers ( Klausler and Dvorak placed IU instead of EU on the index finger resulting in a light weight for index finger...of course i left my left middle finger a bit wanting with only KO and less-than-comma ). The result, THEO has a remarkably low travel distance (lower than Colemak and even Klausler for standard English though Colemak rocks for Italian). And THEO has served me well the past two months being as comfortable as I hoped. Even if the 'Y' is in a bad spot.

theo:
b p d l v   ; w k q j **
s n t h r   u e o a i y
c f g m z   - ' , . x

**: THEO uses comma as a dead key for '?', '¿', '!', '¡' and alt-gr for parenthesis, brackets and slashes so that the half dozen keys north east of the left pinky can be avoided (an innovation I owe to Andrei Stanescu, the designer of DDvorak @ http://www.siteuri.ro/dvorak/ddvorak.php )

But with the aid of Aditya Bhargava's KIWI (a customizable GUI keyboard evolver for windows, based on Capewells algorithms @ http://stoptheqtip.ca/kiwi.php ), I decided I could do better. And I thing I have. I crossed the 100 mark for the average number of consecutive keys pressed before using the same finger to type to different letters consecutively (there's not much to be done about hitting the same key twice short of moving j and z off the main board and replacing them with an extra t and e). For reference Colemak has a same finger rate of 1.8 to 2.0 or an average of 55 to 50 keys typed between a same finger jump. QWERTY averages about 20 at best.

The KIWI EO board bats as high as 118 keys between same-finger-ing with a rate of 8.42 for Bhargava's 10MB English text sample (9.25 an my own 6MB sample which includes some Chaucer, Shakespheare and modern present tense prose).

KIWI EO:
v l d p b    j , o u m
s r t n f    ; a e i c -
x w k h z    q . ' y g

But the next board I intend to test goes in the opposite direction of my initial path (hey, it only took a month to learn Theo at 40 wpm, from qwerty at 60...that's with thirty-one keys remaped...but I left the comma and period in place ☺.)

And keeping the vowels together helped. I'm not a proponent of hand alternation (for or against) but I do very much like having an orderly map, with all the vowels and punctuation together. I also like to keep x and v near by (a point I neglected with Theo).

The new THEA heavily weights both index fingers. And I'm amused to seek a maniacal exaggeration of the very same quality that turned me away from Colemak.

To boot, the same finger rate isn't that great either (slightly higher than Colemak but well below QWERTY while holding well with German and Italian).

...

Chuck the new THEA. Enter ETNA with 9 of the 11 most frequently written English letters on the index and middle fingers (s and i were pushed off to the ring fingers). The name of the Italian mountain suits it because it's same finger rate for Dante's Inferno (small sample yes, but enough to give a gist of how it should handle the language)is almost as good as it's rate for English (1.8 vs 1.5/1.6). Colemak is about 2.9 for Inferno. And even that's good for English optimized layout.

For German, ETNA is about 3.5. That's about even with Colmak and much better than QWERTY (I'll have to run it against QWERTZ).

I call ETNA the ultra-QWERTY because it shares the finger balance. I don't know if that's good. But I aim to find out.

That's why I'm writing this now. I think it will take me at least a week or two before I know ETNA well enough to type again.

ETNA for a type-bar-corrected key board:
- b u f g   j h o y w
, s e t d   r n a i c ; ***
. z ' p k   m l q x v

and for regular (type-bar-defective) keyboard (with row shift)
-   b   u   f   g   j   h   o   y   w
 ,   s   e   t   d   r   n   a   i   c   ;
   z   '   p   k   .   m   l   q   x   v

*** The comma and the semicolon are in good positions to be used as dead keys (they're both suited for use as dead keys because in English a space always follows a comma or semicolon before another letter).

Much thanks to Shai Coleman whose layout inspired my quest.

Off to re-wire ruthlessly confuse) my motor-reflexes, I'll write again when I can.