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    Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    • Started by tenchi39
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    27-Jan-2018 16:33:59#1 Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    Dear Everyone,

    My name is Tamás Baka, I am developing the https://typing-speedtest.com page. A user requested and offered to help implementing Colemak lessons, so today I published the first two of them containing the home and top row. The remaining lessons will probably go live in a week or so.

    You can try my lessons here:
    https://typing-speedtest.com/lessons/layout/colemak

    I hope you will like it, all feedback is much appreciated (I don't get much).

    My hope is that you will finf it good enough to put on https://colemak.com/Learn under Typing Tutors and Typing Tests.

    I am also hoping to receive official written (email?) permission to use your https://colemak.com/Typing_lessons content as an extra chapter in my Colemak lessons. Of course the source would be credited to colemak.com.

    Thanks in advance,

    Tamás

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    27-Jan-2018 18:02:16#2 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    Nice!

    Could you mention the Curl(DH) mod? It's really the same as Colemak, except some of the index-finger keys swap places so fingering will be the same but home row definition changes. Quite excellent, I think. ;-)

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

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    27-Jan-2018 18:19:57#3 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    It looks well presented, but I wonder if it will make the same (incorrect) assumption that all online typing sites seem to make: Most notably, the "standard" finger placement is hopeless for the bottom row. See http://www.onehandkeyboard.org/standard … placement/ and http://colemakmods.github.io/ergonomic-mods/angle.html

    Perhaps you could have the first tutorial I've ever seen that advises typing the (Qwerty) C key with the index finger instead of the middle finger!?

    I'm bound to say support for Mod-DH would also be nice, although since the layout is not shown on screen during typing, I'm not sure how much difference it would make in practise.

    I also note you have a Colemak exercise for the "home row", but just to point out these are not the 10 best keys in a lot (most?) people's opinion, hence the concept of the Curl Mod.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    28-Jan-2018 18:36:33#4 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    Oh, I don't think it's in most people's opinion... just yet! Because to arrive at the Curl philosophy you usually first have to learn about ulnar deviation and see through the standard hogwash about what is the proper home position. If you mean most people at the Colemak forum, then sure. ;-)

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

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    28-Jan-2018 18:38:35#5 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com
    DreymaR said:

    Oh, I don't think it's in most people's opinion... just yet! Because to arrive at the Curl philosophy you usually first have to learn about ulnar deviation and see through the standard hogwash about what is the proper home position. If you mean most people at the Colemak forum, then sure. ;-)

    Well, I think I mean most people who have actually ever stopped to consider the issue. Which I admit, is only about 0.01% of the population. The remainder probably have no opinion either way due to never having thought about it.

    Last edited by stevep99 (28-Jan-2018 18:39:09)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    28-Jan-2018 20:13:54#6 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    I worked all weekend and finished all the lessons. You can try them here: https://typing-speedtest.com/lessons/layout/colemak

    As for the "incorrect assumption", yes I used the standard finger placement as I didn't even knew of the alternatives. I think it is not my right to decide what is the best way to type, so I followed the "standard" te service the 99.99%.

    I'm pretty tired now, but I might consider later on to incorporate the other options too. Unfortunately it is quite a lot of work, and I don't feel strong enough at the moment to put even more time into the hobby project :( Have to work tomorrow...

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    28-Jan-2018 21:29:17#7 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    No, actually, it may not have to be so much. Because the idea of "home row" used to be a straight row but in Curl(DH) philosophy it's a naturally curled row. So the home row keys are still the home row keys! Except with Curl(DH) two of them have moved a physical row downwards.

    Which again means that the lessons should be the same. The only thing needed in my opinion is an awareness of the options. And in the case of layout images – which, I gather, you don't use – of course those would need an update.

    So all we're asking ... I think ... is a little mention of the fact that Curl exists. ^_^ You might edit the text that says the lessons are for Colemak to mention something along the lines of "including Colemak-Curl(DH) variants".

    As for SteveP's suggestion of teaching an alternative fingering scheme to QWERTY users: I actually don't hold with that, myself. I would much prefer that QWERTY users are made aware of the Angle mod and use one of their choice, which will fix left-hand wrist angle without messing with fingering (or, in the case of ANSI, almost at least).

    Last edited by DreymaR (28-Jan-2018 21:48:51)

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

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    29-Jan-2018 15:56:04#8 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    I planned to create a cms page with the title keyboard layouts that will list the ones supported by the lessons on the site. I guess I can list the variants there. I will have to look into the variants first to know what I'm writing about and how to convey the information best.

    As for the lessons: I do use layout images for each exercise that shows which finger needs to press which key. I also describe this in the description for each exercise. As I wrote above, I need to look into the variants first to see if it still fits or not. If not, I might ask for help here to write variant lessons if there is a need on your part.

    Meanwhile could you please ask the wiki admin to put my site on the https://colemak.com/Learn page under Typing Tutors and Typing Tests? Would be much appreciated, thank you!

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    29-Jan-2018 15:59:48#9 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com

    Also could a Colemak pro please help with checking the lessons if there are any errors in them? Might even be fun practice for you guys :)
    https://typing-speedtest.com/lessons/layout/colemak

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    30-Jan-2018 12:37:00#10 Re: Colemak lessons on Typing-SpeedTest.com
    DreymaR said:

    No, actually, it may not have to be so much. Because the idea of "home row" used to be a straight row but in Curl(DH) philosophy it's a naturally curled row. So the home row keys are still the home row keys! Except with Curl(DH) two of them have moved a physical row downwards.

    Which again means that the lessons should be the same. The only thing needed in my opinion is an awareness of the options. And in the case of layout images – which, I gather, you don't use – of course those would need an update.

    Agreed, he does focus on the "home row" keys, ARSTDHNEIO, which are the right keys to focus on, being the 10 most common. But also I think the name "home row" implies the middle row physically, which is obviously problematic in a post Curl world :P

    DreymaR said:

    As for SteveP's suggestion of teaching an alternative fingering scheme to QWERTY users: I actually don't hold with that, myself. I would much prefer that QWERTY users are made aware of the Angle mod and use one of their choice, which will fix left-hand wrist angle without messing with fingering (or, in the case of ANSI, almost at least).

    The trouble with Qwerty though, is it's not very good even if you use the "proper" fingering. If you are using middle-finger for C, then you have EC/CE bigrams to contend with. And that is a very awkward bigram. I think I've said before, that casual observation indicates to me that in fact most people actually use their index finger for C even though all tutorials show middle finger. It seems to one of those things where the conventional wisdom doesn't stand up to scrutiny in the real world. Just like, for example,  another false idea I was once taught, that different parts of the tongue are responsible for different tastes, ref.

    For people who are unwilling to change their layout from Qwerty, I think the non-standard fingering is at least an improvement. Obviously the better solution would be for people to realize just how dreadful Qwerty is, and that the investment to learn something better is worthwhile.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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