'co-operate'; hmmm... I don't feel it's a lot of trouble. (Besides, shouldn't it be 'coöperate' instead, hehe?) Maybe it's because my 'neutral' position is at the top of the home row keys and my wrists are straight so the stretch isn't that long? I also use a Wide layout so the hyphen key sits one position to the right from its traditional position but that shouldn't matter all that much.

I experimented with a few such optimisations when I started out with Colemak, but I fell back on all of them. Switching the colon and semicolon seemed like a great idea but it turns out to create more confusion than it was worth. Same thing with parentheses. One issue is the transition to QWERTY keyboards which almost everyone have to use temporarily at times. Making that transition more confusing than necessary means sacrificing one of Colemak's benefits at least partially. (Says the guy who uses ergonomic key remappings that confuse the hell out of him when using unmapped boards... *sigh*)

I think the question mark is okay because it follows suit with its' sibling the exclamation mark. It does seem slightly more logical to have it unshifted but with use the Shift key isn't so daunting after all. Mind you, typists need to be good at using both Shift keys effortlessly, as they use capital letters a lot more than question marks anyway!

So in summary: Some optimisations may seem like a good idea but in my experience they aren't worth the effort and confusion.

One thing that always annoys the hell out of me is how the plus sign is on a shifted key. In the Scandinavian layouts it's the equals sign that's shifted (and they aren't on the same key anymore). Both are important and common though, it's not easy to choose. At any rate, the Scandinavian layouts are inconvenient for many reasons so I don't use their punctuation anymore.

You got me, hehe. :)

Actually, I consider it fundamentally simpler to advocate one set of punctuation for all nationalities than supporting a slew of national layouts with almost completely unmotivated differences in punctuation placement! Of course there needs to be different national layouts because we have all these fun characters like æøå, but the differences should be kept to what's necessary and sensible so it's a lot easier to swap between national layouts too!

Once I learnt the US punctuation placements, I stuck with those. This also helps whenever I meet a US keyboard (which happens now and then) - especially fun when a US layout is set on a board marked with the Scandinavian punctuation placements which confuses the hell out of my colleagues but I'm able to type the symbols because I know their places! :D

I'm in the exact opposite situation now working with a bunch of Scandinavian colleagues and they essentially tease me when I get lost with some of the punctuation. I'm feeling a little bit envious. It sounds like there are a few of these application companies that have really started a trend with the new typing systems. Have you guys heard of mutual mobile, the application development place?

I too would have to agree with Dreymar here. The method suggested by you, although might help you get the result you are intending to obtain, sounds more or less complicated to me. Hence it would be better if you can skip this method and follow what Dreymar has suggested here.

Dreymar, if Scandinavian punctuation sucks, got to play...