8 ms·

My layout of choice is colemak. I used to have quite a bit of pain in my wrist and between my left ring and middle finger when using QWERTY. I gave up and switc

My layout of choice is colemak. I used to have quite a bit of pain in my wrist and between my left ring and middle finger when using QWERTY. I gave up and switched cold-turkey to colemak ~7 years ago and haven't looked back since. Also, it is available almost on every system I use - PKL for windows, `setxkbmap us -variant colemak` on GNU/Linux. It is an excellent layout and if you have a slow month or two (like I did in my final year of college), try an alt layout. It is definitely worth it - speed is the last thing a programmer needs to worry about while typing if one can go > 50wpm.

Nadya 11y ago
Another Colemak user! I had switched from QWERTY to Dvorak but it never felt quite "right" and my WPM had decreased from 130wpm~ to 110wpm~. After about 6 months of being comfortable with Dvorak I made the switch to Colemak - much better. After becoming accustomed, I type at 150wpm~ comfortably and also keep that speed on QWERTY layouts which I still use at work. The largest benefit of re-learning how to type on a new keyboard is it can make you aware of bad habits you had before and you can unlearn them. Increasing WPM wasn't necessarily my goal - as I was focused more on the comfort of typing. I don't necessarily attribute the comfort to Colemak, I think it is closer to "learning how to type properly leads to comfort". I highly recommend learning Colemak or even Dvorak - then switching back to QWERTY before making a final judgement. I don't think Dvorak is in any way superior to QWERTY, in fact, I think it is worse. Few people know how to type properly [0] and I think they find Dvorak to be better only because learning a new keyboard allows them to relearn how to type, break existing bad habits, and focus more on their ability to type leading to improvements in their typing. They then attribute their improvements to Dvorak rather than them learning how to type. Dvorak "for programmers" being an exception as it was designed around programming and makes sense for such purposes. [0] I consider "typing properly" to be 120+wpm with errors being uncommon. The average being 40-60wpm tells me that most people simply never learned how to type. (Should go without saying, but my "120+wpm is proper" doesn't include those with disabilities that affect their ability to type.)
WorldMaker 11y ago
I, too, switched to colemak in my final year of graduate school, because I had bad form in Qwerty and a worrying amount of pain in my wrist. I've been very glad that I switched.

Nadya 11y ago

Another Colemak user! I had switched from QWERTY to Dvorak but it never felt quite "right" and my WPM had decreased from 130wpm~ to 110wpm~. After about 6 months of being comfortable with Dvorak I made the switch to Colemak - much better. After becoming accustomed, I type at 150wpm~ comfortably and also keep that speed on QWERTY layouts which I still use at work. The largest benefit of re-learning how to type on a new keyboard is it can make you aware of bad habits you had before and you can unlearn them. Increasing WPM wasn't necessarily my goal - as I was focused more on the comfort of typing. I don't necessarily attribute the comfort to Colemak, I think it is closer to "learning how to type properly leads to comfort". I highly recommend learning Colemak or even Dvorak - then switching back to QWERTY before making a final judgement. I don't think Dvorak is in any way superior to QWERTY, in fact, I think it is worse. Few people know how to type properly [0] and I think they find Dvorak to be better only because learning a new keyboard allows them to relearn how to type, break existing bad habits, and focus more on their ability to type leading to improvements in their typing. They then attribute their improvements to Dvorak rather than them learning how to type. Dvorak "for programmers" being an exception as it was designed around programming and makes sense for such purposes. [0] I consider "typing properly" to be 120+wpm with errors being uncommon. The average being 40-60wpm tells me that most people simply never learned how to type. (Should go without saying, but my "120+wpm is proper" doesn't include those with disabilities that affect their ability to type.)

WorldMaker 11y ago

I, too, switched to colemak in my final year of graduate school, because I had bad form in Qwerty and a worrying amount of pain in my wrist. I've been very glad that I switched.