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    In-depth chart to find the best keyboard layout. Any objections?

    • Started by AcidicBeverage
    • 6 Replies:
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    • Registered: 01-May-2021
    • Posts: 6

    Hi all, I made a (hopefully easy to read) chart as a clear way to know which keyboard layout is best for a typist's personal needs, without having to do any research. It's a little packed, but I wanted to be thorough. Feedback would be appreciated.


    Flowchart here

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    • Registered: 18-Nov-2017
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    :-)
    Ob. vid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl1pjCsDDmA

    Found the BEAKL / Arensito opposition a bit curious. And the infinite loop at top right :-)

    [FWIW, there are various articles on the web about how QWERTY is still the best (for some definition of "Best").]

    Everyone in the "Other options available" might feel a bit rejected :-)

    As we know, there are a lot of layouts, some get more airtime than others, and I'm not sure why ... I could, for example, argue that HIEAMSTRN should be on there somewhere rather than, say, Norman or Capewell. But Sasha doesn't have a website promoting his layouts.

    I suppose it depends on whether you want to include "well-known" or "better" (by some metric. Whole different topic.).

    Still, clearly a lot of work and thought went into your chart. Interesting approach. Good job :-)

    Cheers, Ian

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    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
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    Interesting attempt, I can broadly see what it's getting at, but I can see some issues with it.

    Following right from Dvorak: keep ZXCV? But then: willing to sacrifice pre-installed on Windows? If so, user could pick literally anything, Capewell Dvorak isn't the obvious choice there.

    Sacrifice ergonomic for easier learning curve - depends on the degree. For example, Minimak4 -> Minimak8 -> Qwpr -> Asset -> Norman (and plenty of other more recent ones) all make this trade-off to a greater or lesser extent.

    Considering an ortholinear board - I don't think "no" implies Workman and "yes" implies Arensito, Norman or Colemak-DH.  The Workman creator originally intended his layout for ortho boards I think, but in any case, lot of layouts can work well on both types, especially those that are angle-mod friendly, such as Colemak-DH.

    I kind of have the feeling that a flowchart isn't the most informative in situations like this, as they are limited to "yes" and "no" questions, whereas the reality is all about evaluating tradeoffs.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    I feel that there aren't that many top choices, and this chart seems to imply that those are all more or less on equal footing which has to be wrong. If I say that I don't have to have ZXCV in place, I end up with Arensito which just has to be wrong. It is my staunch and firm belief that Colemak is a much better researched and designed layout than a lot of those including ARENSITO, ASSET, BEAKL, Norman and Workman. Pretty much regardless of personal preference, maybe beyond ease of learning for Norman (but you covered that bit with Minimak – skipping Tarmak though).

    Saying that you "have to" use RSHTD(?) if you have thumb clusters also looks silly. There's a lot you can do with thumb clusters on most layouts, and back to Colemak it allows you to select pretty freely what to do with such clusters since it's mainly concerned with optimizing the letter block.

    Last edited by DreymaR (03-May-2021 05:15:13)

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

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    A layout called Hands Down Gold tries to show that it's the God of all layouts.
    https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

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    Jhoravi said:

    A layout called Hands Down Gold tries to show that it's the God of all layouts.
    https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

    Not really, if like me you don't subscribe to the idea of having letters keys on thumbs, then it's a non-starter. The "reference layout" looks way better to me.

    Last edited by stevep99 (27-Jul-2021 17:34:19)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    Have I seen a lot of layout creators making the same claim? Hmmm... I guess that's a yes...?  ¯\(º_o)/¯

    The Boo layout is the goddess layout, that much at least is fairly uncertain. Lol.

    Last edited by DreymaR (29-Jul-2021 17:12:03)

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

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