• You are not logged in.
  • Index
  • Experiences
  • Learning this instead of Dvorak...with a few tweaks of my own

    Learning this instead of Dvorak...with a few tweaks of my own

    • Started by Korivak
    • 3 Replies:
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 20-Oct-2006
    • Posts: 111

    A couple days ago I took the plunge and switch to Dvorak, but then I stumbled across a link to this site and now I'm switching again (honestly, I feel like my brain's about to explode).  Dvorak is a brilliant design, but even after just two days I noticed a few little oddities.  The "RL" problem, the awkward position of "F", the left-handed punctuation and the loss of the Edit menu cluster of "ZXCV", namely.  I also had trouble with the separation of the vowels and consonants - I kept hitting the one next to the one I wanted in confusion because they were so densely packed...they actually work better when spaced out.  Also, I must say that the Dvorak "the" made me happy, but yours fills me with glee - every other key right down the middle, and even left to right like the written word itself.

    I did make a couple of slight changes, however.  I swapped "J" and "B" because I feel that if any letter deserves to sit in the Dvorak "X" position, it certainly isn't "B".  Better the unlovable "J" instead.  Also, being a writer and not a coder, I left [ and ] in the corner and kept the Dvorak - and = alone so that I have easy access to the dash - my favourite little sentence separator and word-welder.  The final change, however, I did just for myself.  I swapped the question mark and the forward slash.  Now all the punctuation (except !) is non-shifted and all the HTML markup is.

    And yes, I typed this whole post (slowly) on Colemak, and it's certainly less painful than learning Dvorak (or perhaps I've so shocked my brain that I didn't notice...) - either way, thanks.

    Maybe I can call my little remix Kolemak.  Looks a bit clunky, but it still sounds as good.

    -K

    Last edited by Korivak (20-Oct-2006 07:25:37)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 09-May-2007
    • Posts: 79

    Hmm...  So, you're making a "remix" of an alternative, alternative layout...  Oh my gosh.  Good luck ever using a "normal" layout again. ;)

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 214
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,360

    I discourage the use of the name "Kolemak" for these remixes just as I did when some other guy wanted to use it. It looks like a misspelling of Colemak which will lead to confusion. At the least he should've called it Korimak or suchlike, even if his changes are small.

    It is entirely possible to move around the rarely used keys like that and end up with something that suits you personally better. I gave this much thought before deciding to go with the full Colemak package myself. It's not loyal towards Colemak, but such loyalty was never expected nor demanded.

    The most common such phenomenon I see is that some users don't need the ZXCVB keys to stay in place and don't mind relearning a few more keys, so they change that part around a bit. Korivak is right in that the J gets a somewhat too good placement compared to its rarity in English, so his changes are sound from his point of view as long as he doesn't care about moving rare keys and losing shortcut compatibility. Interestingly, the J is somewhat more common in other languages (like Spanish and my own Norwegian) so non-native English speakers will probably not care to make such a change. Even if Colemak was designed for English, it seems surprisingly good at many other languages too.

    Of course, whenever something cool like some new utility or graphical design happens in the Colemak community these lone wolves will be left out of it. But that shouldn't weigh heavily for them I guess.

    [edit: I found a picture Korivak posted only last month of his keyboard. Seems he has stuck with the J-B and his other swaps, but chosen not to make a new name for it or promote his changes which is what I might've chosen to do too: http://korivak.org/images/colemak2.jpg ]

    Last edited by DreymaR (11-May-2007 14:24:34)

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

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 20-Oct-2006
    • Posts: 111

    colemak-b.png

    Yup, I'm still using my slightly tweaked layout, and I call it Colemak-B, since the main changes are the '-' and the 'B'.  Having 'J' and 'K' next to each other also helps in Google Reader, since J is next article and K is previous article.  I'm not too interested in promoting my version or anything, I just figured that as long as I was changing everything around, a couple more little minor things wouldn't matter.  The J-B is a minor thing - and I might not stick with it in the long run - but the dash is good and the question mark is awesome.

    I also only use Colemak-B under Mac OS, and while running Windows (I use Boot Camp for gaming) use either QWERTY or original Colemak.  The question mark and the J-B swap make me stumble briefly the first time I use then in Windows, but after that I usually remember the switch and don't have a problem with it.  Of course, I rarely type anything longer than a save game name or a URL, so it's not much of an issue.

    Last edited by Korivak (14-May-2007 22:31:19)
    Offline
    • 0
      • Index
      • Experiences
      • Learning this instead of Dvorak...with a few tweaks of my own