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Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Started by stevep99
17 Replies:

stevep99
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Reputation: 117
From: UK
Registered: 14-Apr-2014
Posts: 975

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14-Apr-2014 15:38:25#1 Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Greetings!

I have thought about learning a better keyboard layout on and off for years, but have finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. I have looked at various layouts and read the stuff on carpalx.

I was struck by the observation that most of the awfulness of qwerty is down to a relatively small number of badly-placed keys. While one could change nearly all the keys and get a more optimal arrangement (dvorak-style), this would but at the cost of a more difficult learning curve. On the other hand changing a few of the most annoying keys would be much more tempting (for me anyway).

I get the impression that Colemak has a good user community and support, and would be nice to use something "standard" (in as much as anything non-qwerty can be called standard). On the other hand I want the learning process to be not too onerous or frustrating, and to this end, I have been looking at some of the layouts where the changes from qwerty are less than Colemak. I quite like the idea of minimak, also qwpr looks interesting. These both move fewer keys than Colemak and seem to typically have "scores" that are nearly as good.

I wondered why some keys in Colemak are moved from their qwerty positions. The most obvious one is S. Is there are good reason for it to move one to the right? I would probably prefer to leave G in place also.

Any thoughts from others who have tried Colemak but also other minimal-changes layouts?

Last edited by stevep99 (14-Apr-2014 15:40:31)

Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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DreymaR
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From: Viken, Norway
Registered: 13-Dec-2006
Posts: 5,343

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14-Apr-2014 16:34:58#2 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

It isn't just about the learning curve: Dvorak is a good layout but it probably isn't better than Colemak (well, this is obviously a point of debate but so far they seem about equal depending on your preferences etc) and it achieves that at the cost of way too many key changes!

I suggest you read up on Tarmak on this forum. See my sig topics for more info – but be warned that Tarmak is going through a change at the moment which will make the last couple of steps more balanced and logical. So I now prefer the "ETROI" flavor over the old "ETOIR" one (if you check out the Tarmak post you'll understand what's going on I hope). Ask if you're confused.

Using Tarmak steps, you can have as smooth a learning process as you feel like, and should you get stuck somewhere along the way you'll have a decent layout for your effort – just not a really good one. Recommended at the price! If you know that you can't stomach changing 17 keys eventually then maybe one of the Minimak layouts are a decent option. The advantage of Tarmak over Minimak is that you can proceed to Colemak and real goodness when you're ready for it, whereas Minimak seems to give you a lot of "bang for the buck" in terms of model benefit per moved key but doesn't lead you any further than the 12-key model which isn't as good as Colemak (although it looks promising on patorjk's analyzer – don't get too hung up on that analyzer though as it reflects a certain set of preferences).

Basically, you can make layouts that only change a few keys and gain quite a lot in terms of model efficiency (Tarmak2 is neat at the cost of only 7 keys moved). However, you won't get a really good layout as you'll have annoying bigrams in all minimalist layouts I know of. The last step from Tarmak4 to Colemak represents a minor leap in model efficiency but feels a lot better I think.

Check the image below, where you can see how the most frequently used letters move to the home row from their QWERTY positions to Colemak via Tarmak1–4. But home row isn't everything as mentioned; there are many considerations to take for a really good layout and I think Colemak is that. For instance, in the steps below you'll see that the IE/EI bigrams are on the same finger for a while which is bad as they aren't that rare. The final Colemak step fixes this.

Animation of Tarmak(ETROI) step-by-step heat maps from Patorjk's analyzer based on a largish English text sample.

Almost all newcomers ask about S. Colemak had a predecessor that didn't move the S but according to Shai it didn't perform well enough in terms of bigrams.

Last edited by DreymaR (15-Jan-2015 11:08:07)

*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
*** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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lalop
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Registered: 04-Apr-2013
Posts: 538

14-Apr-2014 22:15:08#3 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

I doubt anyone has actually tried multiple such layouts, but I'll try and give my two cents.

Colemak has a similar transitioning model, called Tarmak, that I would go for (even the old version that Dreymar's moving away from, if necessary) over Minimak. Best as I understand it, Minimak was designed for, well, minimal effort for improvements, rather than the endpoint per se.

Upon analysis, Minimak 12 ends up with a fair bit of same finger (3.36% compared to Colemak's 1.72% for standard touchtyping), the worst offenders being "lo"/"ol" (0.47%), "ei"/"ie" (0.33%), "nu"/"un" (0.29%), and "ct"/"tc" (0.26% ; this might be mitigated if you type "c" with your index finger like some of us do).

QWPR is similar, and ends up with 3.44% same-finger, the worst offenders being "lo"/"ol" (0.47%), "rt"/"tr" (0.46%), and "nu"/"un" (0.29%).

For this reason alone, I would probably go with colemak. Same-finger is pretty darn annoying.

My other beef, which may or may not apply to you, is the annoying QWERTY Y position (which remains unchanged in both layouts, and on which Colemak substitutes the very rare J). I find it intolerable, nowadays, to have anything remotely common on it.

stevep99 said:

I wondered why some keys in Colemak are moved from their qwerty positions. The most obvious one is S. Is there are good reason for it to move one to the right? I would probably prefer to leave G in place also.

I can only speculate as to Colemak's design, but g was almost certainly moved to make way for more common letters on the home row, while I suspect r and s were due to rolls and same-finger.

More detailed same-finger results:

Colemak:
digraphs  Frequency   Period
      ,e      0.15%      661
     \n;      0.11%      881
      cs      0.11%      913
      eu      0.11%      921
      kn      0.09%     1057
     \n"      0.09%     1156
      pt      0.07%     1402
      ln      0.06%     1802
      );      0.05%     1834
      .y      0.05%     1889
     \n}      0.05%     2119
     \no      0.04%     2299
     \n{      0.04%     2809
     \n)      0.03%     3002
      rw      0.03%     3352
    \n\'      0.02%     4158
      kl      0.02%     4190
      iy      0.02%     4249
      az      0.02%     4282
      lm      0.02%     4804
      mn      0.02%     4862
      dg      0.02%     5214
     \n:      0.02%     5961
      -o      0.02%     6400
     \n/      0.02%     6505
      hn      0.01%     6675
      gt      0.01%     6900
      _o      0.01%     7004
      fs      0.01%     7355
      dv      0.01%     7569
      (i      0.01%     8303
      bt      0.01%     8643
      "?      0.01%     9382
      .i      0.01%    10158
      hm      0.01%    11141
      ")      0.01%    11951
      aq      0.01%    11964
      hl      0.01%    12332
     \n?      0.01%    12385
      dp      0.01%    13822
      dt      0.01%    14359
      bd      0.01%    14775
      ,u      0.01%    15523
      0;      0.01%    15610
      pv      0.01%    16981
     \n-      0.01%    17177
     \n[      0.01%    17200
      )0      0.01%    17466
      jn      0.01%    18494
     \n]      0.01%    19038
      hk      0.01%    19749
     \'?      0.00%    20019
      (y      0.00%    21687
     \'o      0.00%    21793
     "\\      0.00%    23012
      "o      0.00%    23734
      cf      0.00%    25547
      -0      0.00%    27431
      0]      0.00%    27911
      0[      0.00%    29634
      ,8      0.00%    29802
      gp      0.00%    31197
      ";      0.00%    33808
      )]      0.00%    33846
      45      0.00%    35249
      bv      0.00%    37110
      $p      0.00%    37249
      []      0.00%    38173
      .9      0.00%    38238
      ;}      0.00%    38586
      ;]      0.00%    38854
     \n_      0.00%    40438
      /o      0.00%    40733
      tv      0.00%    41664
      $t      0.00%    42097
      )+      0.00%    42497
     \')      0.00%    43406
      "=      0.00%    45977
      /:      0.00%    46048
     "\'      0.00%    48871
      )o      0.00%    49576
      /0      0.00%    49770
      67      0.00%    50702
      $d      0.00%    50789
     \n0      0.00%    51911
      0:      0.00%    54476
      2x      0.00%    54510
      rx      0.00%    54543
     \n|      0.00%    56943
      bg      0.00%    57903
      :o      0.00%    58472
      )}      0.00%    58703
      bp      0.00%    59209
      -]      0.00%    60248
     \';      0.00%    60575
      km      0.00%    61492
      %5      0.00%    62701
      >i      0.00%    65364
      ;o      0.00%    66483
      "-      0.00%    66782
      +/      0.00%    67083
      ):      0.00%    67693
     0\\      0.00%    67899
      -/      0.00%    68735
      )?      0.00%    69430
      !a      0.00%    72532
      $v      0.00%    73427
    \n\\      0.00%    74220
      ?o      0.00%    75031
      +[      0.00%    77506
      +=      0.00%    78116
      "[      0.00%    82368
      "]      0.00%    82673
     \n=      0.00%    82673
      [_      0.00%    84472
      8e      0.00%    85197
      ;_      0.00%    86435
      )-      0.00%    87708
      )/      0.00%    92239
     \'}      0.00%    96111
      )_      0.00%   104185
     \'-      0.00%   104185
     /\\      0.00%   104185
     \'{      0.00%   104307
     \n+      0.00%   107575
      {}      0.00%   108490
      $b      0.00%   112594
      @r      0.00%   112736
      +;      0.00%   115358
      "0      0.00%   116259
      %d      0.00%   117021
      jm      0.00%   118575
    \'\\      0.00%   121314
      :[      0.00%   122311
      4t      0.00%   124702
      5t      0.00%   129589
     \':      0.00%   134266
      gv      0.00%   134874
      `a      0.00%   135283
      ){      0.00%   135901
      $5      0.00%   138644
     \'0      0.00%   143548
      -:      0.00%   144946
     \']      0.00%   144946
     \'[      0.00%   145418
      =|      0.00%   154476
      "{      0.00%   154476
      )[      0.00%   156096
      $4      0.00%   163230
      /;      0.00%   165040
      1a      0.00%   169747
      jl      0.00%   171376
      ":      0.00%   181477
      3f      0.00%   182965
     )\\      0.00%   185243
      "}      0.00%   189972
      +]      0.00%   191192
      "/      0.00%   192844
      *e      0.00%   207644
      0=      0.00%   213095
     =\\      0.00%   213095
     \'/      0.00%   215669
      *,      0.00%   216191
      (.      0.00%   218305
      2r      0.00%   221007
      [o      0.00%   222107
      "_      0.00%   226043
      8u      0.00%   226616
      -[      0.00%   241316
      %4      0.00%   241970
      +0      0.00%   243953
      3c      0.00%   245294
      -;      0.00%   270566
      _{      0.00%   272216
      :?      0.00%   275577
      &m      0.00%   280776
      0_      0.00%   284353
     \'=      0.00%   293707
      4d      0.00%   300629
      0}      0.00%   304733
      5d      0.00%   305777
      -=      0.00%   305777
      &l      0.00%   306828
      4b      0.00%   323503
      &n      0.00%   324680
      _|      0.00%   328261
      $g      0.00%   340790
      %p      0.00%   347420
      0{      0.00%   354313
     \\]      0.00%   357148
      5b      0.00%   362955
      "+      0.00%   376738
     :\\      0.00%   384857
      -?      0.00%   395075
      /]      0.00%   409573
      ]o      0.00%   423161
      4v      0.00%   429264
     \'+      0.00%   431338
      wx      0.00%   439837
     \'_      0.00%   453233
      -}      0.00%   467471
      _}      0.00%   472417
      jk      0.00%   480037
      ]}      0.00%   493298
      <e      0.00%   507312
     [\\      0.00%   525217
      3s      0.00%   551154
      &h      0.00%   565107
      5p      0.00%   568706
      :{      0.00%   599241
      ]{      0.00%   611554
      {|      0.00%   624384
     ;\\      0.00%   637764
      0|      0.00%   647006
      o{      0.00%   656521
     \\|      0.00%   686822
      :_      0.00%   686822
      (9      0.00%   692146
      *u      0.00%   708626
      -_      0.00%   763136
      .>      0.00%   790149
      )=      0.00%   790149
      $%      0.00%   826730
      #3      0.00%   858528
     \\}      0.00%   884029
      @w      0.00%   892869
     -\\      0.00%   911091
      !~      0.00%   920483
     \\{      0.00%   960074
      +-      0.00%  1003224
      /?      0.00%  1014624
      /[      0.00%  1026286
      1~      0.00%  1062939
      =]      0.00%  1075746
      /}      0.00%  1075746
     ?\\      0.00%  1088865
     +\\      0.00%  1102307
      +?      0.00%  1102307
      )|      0.00%  1144704
      [}      0.00%  1159570
      0?      0.00%  1190492
      ?]      0.00%  1206580
      2w      0.00%  1223108
      8<      0.00%  1223108
      hj      0.00%  1240096
      -{      0.00%  1275527
      1q      0.00%  1313043
      &k      0.00%  1313043
      +}      0.00%  1332640
      6n      0.00%  1395108
      o}      0.00%  1440111
      #s      0.00%  1463720
      (>      0.00%  1488115
      :}      0.00%  1513337
      o|      0.00%  1539429
      ]_      0.00%  1566437
      :]      0.00%  1566437
      qz      0.00%      inf
      q~      0.00%      inf
      a~      0.00%      inf
      z~      0.00%      inf
      `q      0.00%      inf
      `z      0.00%      inf
      `~      0.00%      inf
      1z      0.00%      inf
      1`      0.00%      inf
      !q      0.00%      inf
      !z      0.00%      inf
      !`      0.00%      inf
      !1      0.00%      inf
      2@      0.00%      inf
      @x      0.00%      inf
      #f      0.00%      inf
      #c      0.00%      inf
      4p      0.00%      inf
      4g      0.00%      inf
      5g      0.00%      inf
      5v      0.00%      inf
      %t      0.00%      inf
      %g      0.00%      inf
      %v      0.00%      inf
      %b      0.00%      inf
      6k      0.00%      inf
      6h      0.00%      inf
      6j      0.00%      inf
      6l      0.00%      inf
      6m      0.00%      inf
      6^      0.00%      inf
      7k      0.00%      inf
      7h      0.00%      inf
      7j      0.00%      inf
      7l      0.00%      inf
      7n      0.00%      inf
      7m      0.00%      inf
      7^      0.00%      inf
      ^k      0.00%      inf
      ^h      0.00%      inf
      ^j      0.00%      inf
      ^l      0.00%      inf
      ^n      0.00%      inf
      ^m      0.00%      inf
      &j      0.00%      inf
      &6      0.00%      inf
      &7      0.00%      inf
      &^      0.00%      inf
      *8      0.00%      inf
      *<      0.00%      inf
      ,<      0.00%      inf
      <u      0.00%      inf
      9y      0.00%      inf
      9i      0.00%      inf
      9>      0.00%      inf
      >y      0.00%      inf
      0o      0.00%      inf
      -|      0.00%      inf
      =o      0.00%      inf
      =_      0.00%      inf
      =[      0.00%      inf
      ={      0.00%      inf
      =}      0.00%      inf
      =?      0.00%      inf
      +o      0.00%      inf
      +_      0.00%      inf
      +{      0.00%      inf
      +|      0.00%      inf
      +:      0.00%      inf
      [{      0.00%      inf
      [|      0.00%      inf
      ]|      0.00%      inf
     \\o      0.00%      inf
     \\_      0.00%      inf
      |}      0.00%      inf
      ;=      0.00%      inf
      ;[      0.00%      inf
      ;{      0.00%      inf
      ;|      0.00%      inf
      ;?      0.00%      inf
      :=      0.00%      inf
      :|      0.00%      inf
      :;      0.00%      inf
     \'|      0.00%      inf
      "|      0.00%      inf
      /_      0.00%      inf
      /=      0.00%      inf
      /{      0.00%      inf
      /|      0.00%      inf
      ?_      0.00%      inf
      ?[      0.00%      inf
      ?{      0.00%      inf
      ?}      0.00%      inf
      ?|      0.00%      inf
                            
   Total      1.72%       58

QWPR:
digraphs  Frequency   Period
      lo      0.47%      213
      rt      0.46%      219
      nu      0.29%      341
      gr      0.17%      592
      mu      0.15%      682
      fr      0.14%      711
      ik      0.13%      774
     \n;      0.11%      881
     \ne      0.10%     1015
     \n"      0.09%     1156
      my      0.08%     1298
      br      0.08%     1318
      ny      0.07%     1402
      ft      0.07%     1529
      );      0.05%     1834
      hu      0.05%     1964
      sw      0.05%     2101
     \n}      0.05%     2119
      _e      0.04%     2470
      ju      0.04%     2480
      rv      0.04%     2805
     \n{      0.04%     2809
     \n)      0.03%     3002
      -e      0.03%     3297
      hy      0.03%     3316
      .l      0.03%     3478
    \n\'      0.02%     4158
      az      0.02%     4282
      mn      0.02%     4862
     \'e      0.02%     4862
      )e      0.02%     4997
      ;e      0.02%     5235
      ,k      0.02%     5650
     \n:      0.02%     5961
     \n/      0.02%     6505
      hn      0.01%     6675
      .o      0.01%     6717
      gt      0.01%     6900
      :e      0.01%     8328
      bt      0.01%     8643
      "?      0.01%     9382
      cp      0.01%    11052
      hm      0.01%    11141
      ?e      0.01%    11214
      ")      0.01%    11951
      aq      0.01%    11964
     \n?      0.01%    12385
      "e      0.01%    13134
      (l      0.01%    13390
      dp      0.01%    13822
      (o      0.01%    14613
      uy      0.01%    15544
      0;      0.01%    15610
      ,i      0.01%    15711
     \n-      0.01%    17177
     \n[      0.01%    17200
      )0      0.01%    17466
      jn      0.01%    18494
     \n]      0.01%    19038
     \'?      0.00%    20019
      fg      0.00%    20483
      cd      0.00%    20793
     "\\      0.00%    23012
      -0      0.00%    27431
      0]      0.00%    27911
      0[      0.00%    29634
      ,8      0.00%    29802
      ";      0.00%    33808
      )]      0.00%    33846
      45      0.00%    35249
      bv      0.00%    37110
      []      0.00%    38173
      .9      0.00%    38238
      ;}      0.00%    38586
      ;]      0.00%    38854
     \n_      0.00%    40438
      tv      0.00%    41664
      $t      0.00%    42097
      )+      0.00%    42497
     \')      0.00%    43406
      "=      0.00%    45977
      /:      0.00%    46048
      $f      0.00%    48817
     "\'      0.00%    48871
      /0      0.00%    49770
      [e      0.00%    50105
      67      0.00%    50702
     \n0      0.00%    51911
      3d      0.00%    52615
      =e      0.00%    54377
      0:      0.00%    54476
      2x      0.00%    54510
     \n|      0.00%    56943
      /e      0.00%    57828
      bg      0.00%    57903
      )}      0.00%    58703
      -]      0.00%    60248
     \';      0.00%    60575
      $r      0.00%    61239
      sx      0.00%    62221
      %5      0.00%    62701
      "-      0.00%    66782
      +/      0.00%    67083
      ):      0.00%    67693
     0\\      0.00%    67899
      -/      0.00%    68735
      )?      0.00%    69430
      !a      0.00%    72532
      bf      0.00%    72532
      $v      0.00%    73427
    \n\\      0.00%    74220
      >l      0.00%    75284
      ]e      0.00%    76054
      +[      0.00%    77506
      +=      0.00%    78116
      "[      0.00%    82368
      "]      0.00%    82673
     \n=      0.00%    82673
      [_      0.00%    84472
      ;_      0.00%    86435
      )-      0.00%    87708
      #d      0.00%    90189
      )/      0.00%    92239
     \'}      0.00%    96111
      e}      0.00%    99985
      @s      0.00%   103822
      )_      0.00%   104185
     \'-      0.00%   104185
     /\\      0.00%   104185
     \'{      0.00%   104307
     \\e      0.00%   105916
     \n+      0.00%   107575
      {}      0.00%   108490
      $b      0.00%   112594
      +;      0.00%   115358
      "0      0.00%   116259
      jm      0.00%   118575
    \'\\      0.00%   121314
      :[      0.00%   122311
      4t      0.00%   124702
      5t      0.00%   129589
     \':      0.00%   134266
      gv      0.00%   134874
      `a      0.00%   135283
      ){      0.00%   135901
      $5      0.00%   138644
     \'0      0.00%   143548
      *i      0.00%   143779
      -:      0.00%   144946
     \']      0.00%   144946
     \'[      0.00%   145418
      >o      0.00%   150062
      =|      0.00%   154476
      "{      0.00%   154476
      )[      0.00%   156096
      2s      0.00%   162045
      $4      0.00%   163230
      /;      0.00%   165040
      1a      0.00%   169747
      ":      0.00%   181477
     )\\      0.00%   185243
      "}      0.00%   189972
      +]      0.00%   191192
      "/      0.00%   192844
      0e      0.00%   200195
      0=      0.00%   213095
     =\\      0.00%   213095
     \'/      0.00%   215669
      *,      0.00%   216191
      (.      0.00%   218305
      "_      0.00%   226043
      -[      0.00%   241316
      %4      0.00%   241970
      fv      0.00%   243953
      +0      0.00%   243953
      3c      0.00%   245294
      -;      0.00%   270566
      _{      0.00%   272216
      5f      0.00%   274729
      :?      0.00%   275577
      &m      0.00%   280776
      0_      0.00%   284353
      4f      0.00%   288954
     \'=      0.00%   293707
      0}      0.00%   304733
      -=      0.00%   305777
      e{      0.00%   316620
      4b      0.00%   323503
      &n      0.00%   324680
      _|      0.00%   328261
      $g      0.00%   340790
      0{      0.00%   354313
     \\]      0.00%   357148
      5b      0.00%   362955
      "+      0.00%   376738
     :\\      0.00%   384857
      e|      0.00%   395075
      -?      0.00%   395075
      /]      0.00%   409573
      6u      0.00%   419187
      4v      0.00%   429264
     \'+      0.00%   431338
      wx      0.00%   439837
     \'_      0.00%   453233
      -}      0.00%   467471
      _}      0.00%   472417
      ]}      0.00%   493298
     [\\      0.00%   525217
      3p      0.00%   531470
      *k      0.00%   558043
      <i      0.00%   561553
      &h      0.00%   565107
      :{      0.00%   599241
      ]{      0.00%   611554
      {|      0.00%   624384
     ;\\      0.00%   637764
      jy      0.00%   642352
      0|      0.00%   647006
     \\|      0.00%   686822
      :_      0.00%   686822
      (9      0.00%   692146
      4r      0.00%   720056
      -_      0.00%   763136
      +e      0.00%   763136
      .>      0.00%   790149
      )=      0.00%   790149
      &u      0.00%   819146
      $%      0.00%   826730
      #3      0.00%   858528
     \\}      0.00%   884029
      @w      0.00%   892869
     -\\      0.00%   911091
      !~      0.00%   920483
     \\{      0.00%   960074
      +-      0.00%  1003224
      /?      0.00%  1014624
      /[      0.00%  1026286
      1~      0.00%  1062939
      =]      0.00%  1075746
      /}      0.00%  1075746
     ?\\      0.00%  1088865
     +\\      0.00%  1102307
      +?      0.00%  1102307
      )|      0.00%  1144704
      [}      0.00%  1159570
      0?      0.00%  1190492
      ?]      0.00%  1206580
      2w      0.00%  1223108
      8<      0.00%  1223108
      hj      0.00%  1240096
      -{      0.00%  1275527
      1q      0.00%  1313043
      +}      0.00%  1332640
      6n      0.00%  1395108
      %f      0.00%  1488115
      (>      0.00%  1488115
      :}      0.00%  1513337
      %r      0.00%  1539429
      ]_      0.00%  1566437
      :]      0.00%  1566437
      qz      0.00%      inf
      q~      0.00%      inf
      a~      0.00%      inf
      z~      0.00%      inf
      `q      0.00%      inf
      `z      0.00%      inf
      `~      0.00%      inf
      1z      0.00%      inf
      1`      0.00%      inf
      !q      0.00%      inf
      !z      0.00%      inf
      !`      0.00%      inf
      !1      0.00%      inf
      2@      0.00%      inf
      @x      0.00%      inf
      #p      0.00%      inf
      #c      0.00%      inf
      4g      0.00%      inf
      5r      0.00%      inf
      5v      0.00%      inf
      5g      0.00%      inf
      %t      0.00%      inf
      %v      0.00%      inf
      %g      0.00%      inf
      %b      0.00%      inf
      6y      0.00%      inf
      6h      0.00%      inf
      6j      0.00%      inf
      6m      0.00%      inf
      6^      0.00%      inf
      7y      0.00%      inf
      7h      0.00%      inf
      7j      0.00%      inf
      7u      0.00%      inf
      7n      0.00%      inf
      7m      0.00%      inf
      7^      0.00%      inf
      ^y      0.00%      inf
      ^h      0.00%      inf
      ^j      0.00%      inf
      ^u      0.00%      inf
      ^n      0.00%      inf
      ^m      0.00%      inf
      &y      0.00%      inf
      &j      0.00%      inf
      &6      0.00%      inf
      &7      0.00%      inf
      &^      0.00%      inf
      8i      0.00%      inf
      8k      0.00%      inf
      *8      0.00%      inf
      *<      0.00%      inf
      ,<      0.00%      inf
      <k      0.00%      inf
      9l      0.00%      inf
      9o      0.00%      inf
      9>      0.00%      inf
      -|      0.00%      inf
      =_      0.00%      inf
      =[      0.00%      inf
      ={      0.00%      inf
      =}      0.00%      inf
      =?      0.00%      inf
      +_      0.00%      inf
      +{      0.00%      inf
      +|      0.00%      inf
      +:      0.00%      inf
      [{      0.00%      inf
      [|      0.00%      inf
      ]|      0.00%      inf
     \\_      0.00%      inf
      |}      0.00%      inf
      ;=      0.00%      inf
      ;[      0.00%      inf
      ;{      0.00%      inf
      ;|      0.00%      inf
      ;?      0.00%      inf
      :=      0.00%      inf
      :|      0.00%      inf
      :;      0.00%      inf
     \'|      0.00%      inf
      "|      0.00%      inf
      /_      0.00%      inf
      /=      0.00%      inf
      /{      0.00%      inf
      /|      0.00%      inf
      ?_      0.00%      inf
      ?[      0.00%      inf
      ?{      0.00%      inf
      ?}      0.00%      inf
      ?|      0.00%      inf
                            
   Total      3.44%       29

Minimak 12:
digraphs  Frequency   Period
      lo      0.47%      213
      ei      0.33%      304
      nu      0.29%      341
      ct      0.26%      389
      gr      0.17%      592
      ,e      0.15%      661
      mu      0.15%      682
      fr      0.14%      711
     \n;      0.11%      881
     \n"      0.09%     1156
      my      0.08%     1298
      br      0.08%     1318
      ny      0.07%     1402
      );      0.05%     1834
      kr      0.05%     1900
      hu      0.05%     1964
      sw      0.05%     2101
     \n}      0.05%     2119
     \np      0.04%     2477
      ju      0.04%     2480
      rv      0.04%     2805
     \n{      0.04%     2809
     \n)      0.03%     3002
      hy      0.03%     3316
      .l      0.03%     3478
    \n\'      0.02%     4158
      _p      0.02%     4199
      az      0.02%     4282
      mn      0.02%     4862
     \n:      0.02%     5961
     \n/      0.02%     6505
      hn      0.01%     6675
      .o      0.01%     6717
      -p      0.01%     9212
      "?      0.01%     9382
      hm      0.01%    11141
      ")      0.01%    11951
      aq      0.01%    11964
     \n?      0.01%    12385
      (l      0.01%    13390
      dt      0.01%    14359
      (o      0.01%    14613
      uy      0.01%    15544
      0;      0.01%    15610
      ,i      0.01%    15711
     \n-      0.01%    17177
     \n[      0.01%    17200
      )0      0.01%    17466
      jn      0.01%    18494
     \n]      0.01%    19038
     \'?      0.00%    20019
      fg      0.00%    20483
      cd      0.00%    20793
     "\\      0.00%    23012
      bk      0.00%    24197
      :p      0.00%    24429
      )p      0.00%    24982
      "p      0.00%    25768
      -0      0.00%    27431
      0]      0.00%    27911
      0[      0.00%    29634
      ,8      0.00%    29802
      ";      0.00%    33808
      )]      0.00%    33846
      45      0.00%    35249
      bv      0.00%    37110
      []      0.00%    38173
      .9      0.00%    38238
      ;}      0.00%    38586
      ;]      0.00%    38854
     \n_      0.00%    40438
      )+      0.00%    42497
     \')      0.00%    43406
     \'p      0.00%    44092
      "=      0.00%    45977
      /:      0.00%    46048
      fk      0.00%    46095
      ;p      0.00%    47192
      $f      0.00%    48817
     "\'      0.00%    48871
      /0      0.00%    49770
      67      0.00%    50702
     \n0      0.00%    51911
      3d      0.00%    52615
      0:      0.00%    54476
      2x      0.00%    54510
      gk      0.00%    56582
     \n|      0.00%    56943
      bg      0.00%    57903
      )}      0.00%    58703
      -]      0.00%    60248
     \';      0.00%    60575
      $r      0.00%    61239
      [p      0.00%    61323
      sx      0.00%    62221
      %5      0.00%    62701
      "-      0.00%    66782
      +/      0.00%    67083
      ):      0.00%    67693
     0\\      0.00%    67899
      -/      0.00%    68735
      )?      0.00%    69430
      !a      0.00%    72532
      bf      0.00%    72532
      $v      0.00%    73427
    \n\\      0.00%    74220
      >l      0.00%    75284
      +[      0.00%    77506
      +=      0.00%    78116
      "[      0.00%    82368
      "]      0.00%    82673
     \n=      0.00%    82673
      [_      0.00%    84472
      8e      0.00%    85197
      /p      0.00%    85442
      ;_      0.00%    86435
      )-      0.00%    87708
      #d      0.00%    90189
      )/      0.00%    92239
     \'}      0.00%    96111
      @s      0.00%   103822
      )_      0.00%   104185
     \'-      0.00%   104185
     /\\      0.00%   104185
     \'{      0.00%   104307
     \n+      0.00%   107575
      {}      0.00%   108490
      $b      0.00%   112594
      +;      0.00%   115358
      "0      0.00%   116259
      jm      0.00%   118575
    \'\\      0.00%   121314
      :[      0.00%   122311
      3t      0.00%   124182
     \':      0.00%   134266
      gv      0.00%   134874
      `a      0.00%   135283
      ){      0.00%   135901
      $5      0.00%   138644
     \'0      0.00%   143548
      *i      0.00%   143779
      -:      0.00%   144946
     \']      0.00%   144946
     \'[      0.00%   145418
      >o      0.00%   150062
      =|      0.00%   154476
      "{      0.00%   154476
      $k      0.00%   155552
      )[      0.00%   156096
      ?p      0.00%   161752
      2s      0.00%   162045
      $4      0.00%   163230
      /;      0.00%   165040
      1a      0.00%   169747
      ":      0.00%   181477
      p{      0.00%   182591
     )\\      0.00%   185243
      "}      0.00%   189972
      +]      0.00%   191192
      "/      0.00%   192844
      *e      0.00%   207644
      0=      0.00%   213095
     =\\      0.00%   213095
     \'/      0.00%   215669
      *,      0.00%   216191
      (.      0.00%   218305
      "_      0.00%   226043
      -[      0.00%   241316
      %4      0.00%   241970
      fv      0.00%   243953
      +0      0.00%   243953
      3c      0.00%   245294
      -;      0.00%   270566
      _{      0.00%   272216
      5f      0.00%   274729
      :?      0.00%   275577
      &m      0.00%   280776
      0_      0.00%   284353
      4f      0.00%   288954
     \'=      0.00%   293707
      0}      0.00%   304733
      -=      0.00%   305777
      4b      0.00%   323503
      &n      0.00%   324680
      _|      0.00%   328261
      $g      0.00%   340790
      0{      0.00%   354313
     \\]      0.00%   357148
      0p      0.00%   361485
      kv      0.00%   362955
      5b      0.00%   362955
      p|      0.00%   376738
      "+      0.00%   376738
     :\\      0.00%   384857
      -?      0.00%   395075
      /]      0.00%   409573
      6u      0.00%   419187
      4v      0.00%   429264
     \'+      0.00%   431338
      wx      0.00%   439837
     \'_      0.00%   453233
      ]p      0.00%   462626
      -}      0.00%   467471
      _}      0.00%   472417
      ]}      0.00%   493298
      <e      0.00%   507312
     [\\      0.00%   525217
      <i      0.00%   561553
      &h      0.00%   565107
      :{      0.00%   599241
      ]{      0.00%   611554
      {|      0.00%   624384
      p}      0.00%   628781
     ;\\      0.00%   637764
      jy      0.00%   642352
      0|      0.00%   647006
      +p      0.00%   681579
     \\|      0.00%   686822
      :_      0.00%   686822
      (9      0.00%   692146
      4r      0.00%   720056
      -_      0.00%   763136
      .>      0.00%   790149
      )=      0.00%   790149
      &u      0.00%   819146
      $%      0.00%   826730
      #3      0.00%   858528
     \\}      0.00%   884029
      @w      0.00%   892869
     -\\      0.00%   911091
      !~      0.00%   920483
     \\{      0.00%   960074
      +-      0.00%  1003224
      /?      0.00%  1014624
      /[      0.00%  1026286
      1~      0.00%  1062939
      =]      0.00%  1075746
      /}      0.00%  1075746
     ?\\      0.00%  1088865
     +\\      0.00%  1102307
      +?      0.00%  1102307
      )|      0.00%  1144704
      [}      0.00%  1159570
      =p      0.00%  1174828
      0?      0.00%  1190492
      ?]      0.00%  1206580
      2w      0.00%  1223108
      8<      0.00%  1223108
      hj      0.00%  1240096
      -{      0.00%  1275527
      1q      0.00%  1313043
     \\p      0.00%  1313043
      +}      0.00%  1332640
      6n      0.00%  1395108
      %f      0.00%  1488115
      (>      0.00%  1488115
      :}      0.00%  1513337
      %r      0.00%  1539429
      ]_      0.00%  1566437
      :]      0.00%  1566437
      qz      0.00%      inf
      q~      0.00%      inf
      a~      0.00%      inf
      z~      0.00%      inf
      `q      0.00%      inf
      `z      0.00%      inf
      `~      0.00%      inf
      1z      0.00%      inf
      1`      0.00%      inf
      !q      0.00%      inf
      !z      0.00%      inf
      !`      0.00%      inf
      !1      0.00%      inf
      2@      0.00%      inf
      @x      0.00%      inf
      #t      0.00%      inf
      #c      0.00%      inf
      4k      0.00%      inf
      4g      0.00%      inf
      5r      0.00%      inf
      5v      0.00%      inf
      5k      0.00%      inf
      5g      0.00%      inf
      %v      0.00%      inf
      %k      0.00%      inf
      %g      0.00%      inf
      %b      0.00%      inf
      6y      0.00%      inf
      6h      0.00%      inf
      6j      0.00%      inf
      6m      0.00%      inf
      6^      0.00%      inf
      7y      0.00%      inf
      7h      0.00%      inf
      7j      0.00%      inf
      7u      0.00%      inf
      7n      0.00%      inf
      7m      0.00%      inf
      7^      0.00%      inf
      ^y      0.00%      inf
      ^h      0.00%      inf
      ^j      0.00%      inf
      ^u      0.00%      inf
      ^n      0.00%      inf
      ^m      0.00%      inf
      &y      0.00%      inf
      &j      0.00%      inf
      &6      0.00%      inf
      &7      0.00%      inf
      &^      0.00%      inf
      8i      0.00%      inf
      *8      0.00%      inf
      *<      0.00%      inf
      ,<      0.00%      inf
      9l      0.00%      inf
      9o      0.00%      inf
      9>      0.00%      inf
      -|      0.00%      inf
      =_      0.00%      inf
      =[      0.00%      inf
      ={      0.00%      inf
      =}      0.00%      inf
      =?      0.00%      inf
      +_      0.00%      inf
      +{      0.00%      inf
      +|      0.00%      inf
      +:      0.00%      inf
      [{      0.00%      inf
      [|      0.00%      inf
      ]|      0.00%      inf
     \\_      0.00%      inf
      |}      0.00%      inf
      ;=      0.00%      inf
      ;[      0.00%      inf
      ;{      0.00%      inf
      ;|      0.00%      inf
      ;?      0.00%      inf
      :=      0.00%      inf
      :|      0.00%      inf
      :;      0.00%      inf
     \'|      0.00%      inf
      "|      0.00%      inf
      /_      0.00%      inf
      /=      0.00%      inf
      /{      0.00%      inf
      /|      0.00%      inf
      ?_      0.00%      inf
      ?[      0.00%      inf
      ?{      0.00%      inf
      ?}      0.00%      inf
      ?|      0.00%      inf
                            
   Total      3.36%       30

Last edited by lalop (30-May-2014 10:28:01)

Tarmak Transitional Layouts (QWERTY -> Colemak)
Amphetype (lalop edition)

Offline

Tony_VN
Member

Reputation: 4
Registered: 08-Dec-2010
Posts: 656

15-Apr-2014 03:06:57#4 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

There is no one who "try" Colemak and also other minimal-changes layouts

Keyboard layout is not a car or a shoe. It's impossible to "try" a layout since switching process is quite tough, and it takes at least 6 months to type fluently in any layout. I think "try" is not the right word, "commit" or "work" would be more suitable ones. You have to go all the way with a layout, work hard at increasing accuracy, type it full time, do typing exercises daily.

With so much investment of time and effort, once converted to Colemak, most people will stick with Colemak for life and ignore the rest.

My fastest typing records http://hi-games.net/profile/4314
My switching experience https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970

Offline

pinkyache
Member

Reputation: 7
Registered: 21-Apr-2010
Posts: 818

15-Apr-2014 08:41:31#5 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

I like the idea of swapping just a few keys for some great gains. I used to swap between Qwerty and Dvorak as a hunt and pecker as I had a keyboard with broken keys. It didn't take that long to get used to. In my case I was trying to get access to only a few keys. There are small variations with ISO Dvorak and UK Dvorak (punctuation). A few punctuation changes is doable, but it can also be annoying. It's a little like swapping between an Apple layout and a PC one. You can do it, but there is a little friction. You might only experience that for the first few minutes of the day. Navigating between the two is possible though. So swapping too and forth between Qwerty and Minimak 4 should be doable. But perhaps that's more difficult because of ingrained digraph fingering.

In an ideal world operating systems would make switching a few keys very easy. So you could implement your own version of say Minimak. But it's probably not so simple. Having a layout that is not widely supported by OSs is another degree of friction. Dvorak appealed to me because all the main OSs at least support it (on Windows, I have to use the layout switcher to get the £ glyph so it still can be annoying). I only wish rolling your own layout and taking it with you was that much easier.

In other words a layout can be as fantastic as you like, but if it's cumbersome to actually use, then that's an added headache. If you are the kind of person that is wedded to one machine that you have complete control over, then you can go all out.

Using a layout that doesn't diverge too far from Qwerty might let you fall back more easily if needed. But it sounds as if that's a little awkward, even for Colemak devotees. You naturally want to use what you are practiced in. I'd still like to be able to touch type in Qwerty for those odd times that I have to use it, but I'm shying away from doing so, because frankly I can't be bothered.

--
Physicians deafen our ears with the Honorificabilitudinitatibus of their heavenly Panacaea, their sovereign Guiacum.

Offline

DreymaR
Member

Reputation: 210
From: Viken, Norway
Registered: 13-Dec-2006
Posts: 5,343

Website

15-Apr-2014 08:49:18#6 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

What Lalop said! ;)

You'd be surprised at how many people do try to "try" out several layouts for a few months or even weeks each before making a decision. I do not hold with that. My own learning experience was massively influenced by my learning history from QWERTY to dvorak for a year or so then to Colemak. I was much more confused learning Colemak after having worked so hard with dvorak while still typing some QWERTY (as most do have to). It all settled down eventually, of course.

I believe that the Minimak 12-key layout may be a better layout per se than the corresponding Tarmak steps (step 3 moves 9 keys and step 4 moves 14, as seen in the figure below; after step 4 only the letters LUI remain so by then most should be ready for Colemak after a short while – one could also move LUI after step 3 for a layout moving 12 keys). But the possibility of moving on to Colemak is the main point of Tarmak so that's what I'd suggest for you.

Fig.: The 5-step Tarmak(ETROI) transitional Colemak layouts, spectrally color-coded from red (Tarmak#1) to violet (Colemak).
Not shown in this figure is how the J key is forced into temporary positions (QWERTY E, G and R).

Last edited by DreymaR (15-Jan-2015 11:10:12)

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stevep99
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15-Apr-2014 09:40:00#7 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Thanks for the replies!

I had looked briefly at the Tarmak transitional layouts, but found something to my dislike: at each step, keys end up in "temporary" places, which will move again in later steps. I don't like the idea of getting used to a new key position just for it to change again in the next step.

Perhaps what I need for my transitional step is "Colemak-lite"! Something that gets most of the benefits in one step, and would still a logical transition to full Colemak, but would avoid having to learn temporary key positions.

To this end I tried to think about an arrangement that is between Colemak and QWERTY, with all keys either in Colemak or QWERTY positions. I didn't succeed, but came up with this which is fairly close:

Q W F R J Y L U P
A S D T G H N E I O
Z X C V B K M

I'd be interested to see what the current Tarmak changes produce, but otherwise I'd be more likely to either go cold turkey full colemak or some intermediate of my own design.

Last edited by stevep99 (15-Apr-2014 09:40:52)

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DreymaR
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15-Apr-2014 09:54:33#8 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

With the new Tarmak progression, only the J ends up in the Colemak-wrong places. It's actually an extremely rare letter in English, around as common as Z, so you shouldn't worry too much about it! The first Tarmak step puts the J in a good position so I wouldn't linger there for long, but after step 2 the J sits in the old QWERTY G position which isn't so great so you could very well consolidate in that position until you feel ready to move on – the benefit of Tarmak step 2 is also very good at the cost of only 7 keys moved.

Nothing stops you from skipping one or more Tarmak steps! If I were to learn Colemak from QWERTY today I'd start with Tarmak step 2 and then after a while decide whether to do step 3 or 4; after that I'd probably move on to full Colemak. That's two intermediate steps of the 4 possible. Each Tarmak step consitutes your desired "Colemak-lite" in varying degrees of effort and benefit. They're sorted so that the first steps give the greatest model benefit, but the final step to Colemak has a lot of benefit that not all models pick up on as mentioned.

The only transitional Colemak layout that doesn't move any letters to the wrong positions is Tarmak step 4 (14 keys moved)! This is because the LUI loop is self-contained and the rest is in one big loop (as explained in the Tarmak topic), so apart from that you have to misplace one key. If you feel better about misplacing the semicolon key even though it's more common than J even in literature (70% more in a large Jane Austen excerpt), there's the old Tarmak3(ETO) and Tarmak4(ETOI) steps that do this while keeping all letter keys in either their Colemak or QWERTY places.

The current Tarmak changes are what you see in the figures I've posted in this thread:
Tarmak1(E): ENK in place
Tarmak2(ET): GTF
Tarmak3(ETS): RSD
Tarmak4(ETSO): YOP;J
Colemak: LUI

Last edited by DreymaR (15-Apr-2014 10:02:00)

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15-Apr-2014 16:58:58#9 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

stevep99 said:

I had looked briefly at the Tarmak transitional layouts, but found something to my dislike: at each step, keys end up in "temporary" places, which will move again in later steps.

Only the very rare J (0.13%) and, in the depreciated version, ;: (0.29%).

Tarmak Transitional Layouts (QWERTY -> Colemak)
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16-Apr-2014 10:35:48#10 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Lalop: I kinda wonder how the Tarmak3_ETS step plus the LUI loop (Tarmak4_ETSI, in other words) fares in comparison with the Minimak 12-key layout? It has a problem with the EI/IE bigram for sure, but it'd still be a bit interesting to know how it performs in the analysis since it too moves 13 keys (including the J). Then again, the standard Tarmak4_ETSO step only moves 14 keys and the old Tarmak4_ETOI 13 but it'd be nice to see them all compared I think.

Did you publish the old Tarmak steps at patorjk's? If so, could you rename them with their "ETOI" labels in lack of something better, so we can see the "ETSO" and maybe also "ETSI" steps in comparison? I'm not sure how those uploads work.

Last edited by DreymaR (16-Apr-2014 10:44:13)

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16-Apr-2014 12:28:04#11 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Currently, the only means of changing old layouts is by emailing patorjk, so I would wait until everything is finalized (new tarmak to upload, new urls?) to do it in one go. That is, assuming we even want more than one Tarmak version up there.

Tarmak ETSI:

digraphs  Frequency   Period
     q,z      0.00%  3088227
     a,q      0.00%    41722
     a,z      0.04%     2719
     w,x      0.00%   437621
     r,w      0.04%     2298
     r,x      0.00%    83181
     f,s      0.02%     4410
     c,f      0.00%    50388
     c,s      0.18%      563
     j,t      0.00%   463188
     j,v      0.00%  1153663
     t,v      0.00%    72322
     g,j      0.00%  1325074
     g,t      0.02%     5756
     g,v      0.00%   679006
     d,j      0.00%    20514
     d,t      0.00%    23857
     d,v      0.02%     5168
     d,g      0.03%     2927
     b,j      0.02%     4292
     b,t      0.02%     5089
     b,v      0.00%    25430
     b,g      0.00%   133329
     b,d      0.01%    19058
     h,y      0.05%     1976
     h,k      0.00%    29247
     h,l      0.01%     7037
     h,n      0.04%     2729
     h,m      0.01%     7532
     k,y      0.01%    15925
     k,l      0.03%     3302
     k,n      0.10%      970
     k,m      0.00%    51826
     l,y      0.44%      227
     l,n      0.07%     1436
     l,m      0.03%     3620
     n,y      0.11%      900
     m,y      0.09%     1165
     m,n      0.04%     2737
     e,u      0.18%      560
     i,o      0.92%      108
                            
   Total      2.55%       39

The total's similar to ETSO but with two distinct disadvantages:

Less evenly distributed: the right ring gets a whopping 0.92% of the same-finger, thanks to "io"/"oi".
There is a lot of same finger between the annoying QWERTY Y and U positions (not to mention that a common letter remains at QWERTY Y at all).

I would just go with ETSO.

Last edited by lalop (16-Apr-2014 13:01:01)

Tarmak Transitional Layouts (QWERTY -> Colemak)
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16-Apr-2014 13:16:01#12 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Thanks for the analysis! That's about as expected. ETSI won't be a hit for sure. :)

We probably shouldn't have more than the main line of Tarmak layouts at patorjk, true. But they need to be marked with the ETSOI scheme I think, so it's clear what's going on now that we have alternatives in the backdrop.

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16-Apr-2014 16:41:10#13 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Are there autohotkey scripts and printable layouts available anywhere for the intermediate tarmak steps?

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16-Apr-2014 17:29:33#14 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

stevep99 said:

Are there autohotkey scripts and printable layouts available anywhere for the intermediate tarmak steps?

To answer my own question: actually it's pretty trivial to create them:

tarmak1:

j::n
n::k
k::e
e::j

tarmak2:

j::n
n::k
k::e
e::f
f::t
t::g
g::j

BUT... one thing I noticed is that using Autohotkey to remap keys seems to interfere with Keepass auto-typing of passwords :(
Don't suppose anyone knows of a solution for that...

Last edited by stevep99 (16-Apr-2014 17:30:06)

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17-Apr-2014 14:07:48#15 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

i started with minimak and then switched to colemak

i think i ended up prefering the idea of going the whole-hog as it were and completely ditching qwerty

i can see a strong argument for just going 4-key minimak, why not start with that and see how it suits?

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18-Apr-2014 15:04:47#16 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

If you download my PKL files from the sig topic, the Tarmak steps are all there. The download contains the new ETSOI progression as the default, while the old ETOIS progression can be found in the 'variants' folder. PKL is just a better AHK script than any I'll ever be able to write. If you don't know how to work it, you'll have to edit the pkl.ini file to activate the layout(s) you want to use. It's pretty easy to read I think.

If you need to run several AHK scripts or anything using a similar low-level keyboard hook, the hooks can end up competing. The workaround would be to include one script in the other and recompile. The PKL source is available, but not for the latest version and I can't get hold of Farkas Máté for the life of me.

If I were to try a minimal layout, I'd try Tarmak2 (7 keys). But to each their own.

Last edited by DreymaR (18-Apr-2014 15:08:44)

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21-Apr-2014 15:57:58#17 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

Wkll, I now have taken my first steps to Colemak! Despite my initial skepticism about Tarmak, I decided to give it a try, and am typing this with tarmak level 1. Even though only 4 keys have changed, it's suprisingly difficult!

Background: Although I have been typing for about 30 years, I have never learned to touch-type properly, I tend to hit keys with whatever finger feels convenient. I am hoping that once used to colemak, my typing technique will improve as the layout more naturally lends itself to touch-typing. My speed on qwerty wasn't that good anyway, about 55 wpm.

One downside, whether using PKL or AutoHotKey directly, I find that there is a conflict with KeePass. The only workaround is to disable the scripts temporarily in order to use KeePass. Once my transition to Colemak is complete though, that should no longer be a problem.

My plan is to go about a week on each tarmak level. However, as I am working at the moment (I'm an developer, mostly for the Android platform), I'll need to progress at a rate that doesn't adversely affect my typing ability.

I am have also been thinking that it might be an interesting excercise to develop my own keyboard app for Android - I have some ideas which I'll be playing around with... :)

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22-Apr-2014 09:38:12#18 Re: Undecided Colemak or other minimalist

It'll be awkward as hell even with 1–2 keys changed, but the upside is that this passes quickly and you can still type pretty fast while it lasts – at least, that's what several users have reported. Then you're almost fully functional while the change is settling in.

You saw my explanation of the keyboard hook problem I hope?

If you need to get around the hook problem, there's two ways I know of. One is using MS Keyboard Layout Creator to make proper layout installs so you don't need PKL/AHK. These can be set by user I think. The other way is to edit the system registry mapping, which is the lowest level available and as such very robust; it can also be done by user and I have the scripts to do it but not set for Tarmak and they're tricky to write as you have to work with scan codes in hex.

If you do either of these, you may want to choose a layout invariant password.

Another way is to just disable PKL whenever you need to. I can suspend it with Ctrl+Shift+` or you could set it to what suits you in your pkl.ini file. I think that suspending should be enough to resolve the hook issue but if it isn't you'd have to kill the script and have a way of restarting it. I use the PortableApps menu a lot and with it you can set hotkeys for the various apps.

Last edited by DreymaR (22-Apr-2014 09:41:54)

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