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    Thankful for Colemak Club

    • Started by doublebandb
    • 6 Replies:
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    • Registered: 24-Dec-2023
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    24-Dec-2023 18:00:00#1 Thankful for Colemak Club

    I've been using Colemak for a few days. I'm in 50s, so I didn't regularly use a keyboard until I was in my 20s. I mis-iearned QWERTY, developing a three or four finger combination of touch typing and hunt and peck at 35 wpm. I've tried to learn proper form QWERTY touch typing, but can't type faster than 20 wpm touch typing. Touch typing with QWERTY aggravates the carpal tunnel in my left hand, so I decided to start over completely from scratch with a more balanced key configuration.

    The problem I've had with my favorite typing practice site, www.keybr.com, is it resets after less than 30 seconds at <5 wpm, which is infuriating. So I appreciate the Colemak Club site because it is designed for Colemak, and doesn't do that.

    My motivation for typing faster is I'm a software engineer and do a lot of pair programming. Being a programmer in my 50s who is a terrible typist fulfills the stereotype that "old" people don't understand computers, which is certainly not true in my case. I don't think I'll ever get to 100+ wpm, but I'd be thrilled with 60.

    Last edited by doublebandb (24-Dec-2023 18:03:38)
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    • From: New York, New York
    • Registered: 22-Nov-2008
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    27-Dec-2023 00:32:54#2 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    Incredible.

    I remember my first day of Colemak, I was so proud, because I went from 4 to 12wpm after a grueling 5 hours (not all at once) of mind-melting idiocy.

    I've hit records of over 140wpm on monkeytype, though I switched over back in 2009 and hit my peak when I took training seriously in 2020 (Covid certainly allowed for increased practice).

    I truly think you can hit and exceed 100wpm. Give it 20 months

    Colemak typist

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    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
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    28-Dec-2023 10:47:27#3 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    Great work! You'll probably find the gains in comfort outweigh the gains in speed. That's thing I missed until I finally switched - just how good it feels.

    Just goes to show, you are never too old to make positive life improvements.

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    15-Jan-2024 12:02:01#4 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    Welcome to the world of Colemak!

    I'm also in my fifties. Since I started with Colemak in 2007, I've enjoyed making, implementing and learning several new typing tricks. It's a fun and useful hobby!

    As a programmer, be sure to explore the possibilities of nav/edit layers like Extend.

    Last edited by DreymaR (15-Jan-2024 12:02:50)

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

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    • From: Chicago
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    15-Feb-2024 22:33:09#5 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    Keep going! I'm in 50s too, and I started learning Colemak and touch-typing back in 2016, I did hunt-and-peck in qwerty for good two decades before that. You probably right that 100+ wpm is not achievable, but I can do good 60 wpm in regular daily typing, and this is much better than my previous experience. Nobody can call me a terrible typist now, and I also using Dactyl Manuform keyboard with no legend on keycaps, which is not many young employers can brag about. :)

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    16-Feb-2024 10:13:31#6 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    A propos Colemak Club:

    There's a nice fork of it out now, Colemak Camp. It's pretty much the same functionality, but a fresh look which I find inspiring. Check it out if you wish!

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

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    • Registered: 26-Jun-2024
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    26-Jun-2024 09:52:57#7 Re: Thankful for Colemak Club

    I'm 45, a software dev and never really learned to touch type. I had my own strange system I did manage to do ~80 wpm with. In the past few months, I've

    - switched to a split keyboard (ErgoDox EZ)
    - mapped all special characters to a dedicated layer on the keyboard (I decided the locations for all coding related characters in my particular non-ANSI layout are stupid)
    - switched to Colemak-DH (touch typing obviously)
    - migrated from IDE's to Neovim (btw)

    ...I may have bitten off more than I can chew there. All the combined changes have turned out to be a significant additional cognitive load. After about four months with Colemak + the aforementioned changes my typing speed does not exceed 25 wpm. I've not actively practised Colemak all that much, opting to just use it in practise.

    I realise I've probably dun goofed every aspect of this little paradigm shift of mine. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm not hanging on by sheer stubbornness and sunk cost. But I have not given up and I don't intend to. Typing on a standard layout QWERTY keyboard now seems like such a step back. Even if I'm still a lot faster on such a keyboard!

    Just thought I'd share my experience for the off chance it benefits someone. Cheers!

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