10 ms·

If anyone is interested in comparing Colemak, Dvorak, and Qwerty for themselves, here's a small executable I wrote: https://github.com/bak/keyboard_battle https

by jcoder 13y ago

If anyone is interested in comparing Colemak, Dvorak, and Qwerty for themselves, here's a small executable I wrote: https://github.com/bak/keyboard_battle https://github.com/bak/keyboard_battle. `gem install keyboard_battle`, then `keyboard_battle anytext.txt` or `keyboard_battle --bundled`. I believe it will work with Ruby 1.8, definitely on 1.9. It compares both alternation (more is better) and reach (less is better). The main flaw is that it only counts ASCII characters, so may not help much for non-English texts.

jliechti1 13y ago
Do you have any summarized results to share from using this yourself? Also, I might be interested in helping you get this to analyze non-ASCII texts.
- jcoder 13y ago
  Sure, here's an example of the output from `keyboard_battle --bundled`: texts/alice_underground.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 32118 reach_effort: 51842 raw_score: 83960 dvorak: alternation_effort: 24476 reach_effort: 30312 raw_score: 54788 colemak: alternation_effort: 29962 reach_effort: 29403 raw_score: 59365 texts/declaration_of_independence.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 3049 reach_effort: 5129 raw_score: 8178 dvorak: alternation_effort: 2237 reach_effort: 2693 raw_score: 4930 colemak: alternation_effort: 2725 reach_effort: 2469 raw_score: 5194 texts/gullivers.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 110812 reach_effort: 181778 raw_score: 292590 dvorak: alternation_effort: 81836 reach_effort: 103371 raw_score: 185207 colemak: alternation_effort: 100074 reach_effort: 97327 raw_score: 197401 The raw score is simply the sum of alternation and reach. Without research into whether alternation or reach matters more in the long run, I don't feel like I can provide an aggregate ranking. Regardless, we can draw some rough conclusions like Dvorak is best on alternation, Colemak is best on reach, and they both blow Qwerty out of the water. EDIT: Even though more alternation is better, the numbers above represent effort, meaning subsequent keypresses with the same hand, so lower numbers are always better. As far as contributing goes, if it's possible to reliably support non-ASCII characters without special knowledge of the user's OS config, please take a crack at it (or at least open an issue). Thanks!
  - Alterlife 13y ago
    I wouldn't say alternation is always better -- in many cases, having successive keys close together is just as good if not better - "There" the first three letters "The" are typed with alternate hands, then the next three - "ere" are also easy to type fast because they're to each other. I haven't used a dvorak keyboard, but the next to each other keys are really a part of my flow. I really don't know how "<esc>:wq", "<ctrl>a" and so on which are part of programming work would translate to dvorak.
    - jcoder 13y ago
      I think you have a good point in that working in "command mode", or "chording", or whatever you want to call it, is different than writing prose. FWIW, I am a Vim user and I think it works great in Dvorak (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323873). `<ctrl>a` is the same as qwerty, `:wq` is typed on both hands, but as I say in that link, I prefer split hands for `hjkl`, and `wq` is pretty easy too. To your point I would accept that in command mode, key position, mnemonics, etc. may be more important. In insert mode however I think it is, at the very least, a sound hypothesis that more alternation creates more comfort.

by jcoder 13y ago

jliechti1 13y ago

Do you have any summarized results to share from using this yourself? Also, I might be interested in helping you get this to analyze non-ASCII texts.

jcoder 13y ago
Sure, here's an example of the output from `keyboard_battle --bundled`: texts/alice_underground.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 32118 reach_effort: 51842 raw_score: 83960 dvorak: alternation_effort: 24476 reach_effort: 30312 raw_score: 54788 colemak: alternation_effort: 29962 reach_effort: 29403 raw_score: 59365 texts/declaration_of_independence.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 3049 reach_effort: 5129 raw_score: 8178 dvorak: alternation_effort: 2237 reach_effort: 2693 raw_score: 4930 colemak: alternation_effort: 2725 reach_effort: 2469 raw_score: 5194 texts/gullivers.txt: qwerty: alternation_effort: 110812 reach_effort: 181778 raw_score: 292590 dvorak: alternation_effort: 81836 reach_effort: 103371 raw_score: 185207 colemak: alternation_effort: 100074 reach_effort: 97327 raw_score: 197401 The raw score is simply the sum of alternation and reach. Without research into whether alternation or reach matters more in the long run, I don't feel like I can provide an aggregate ranking. Regardless, we can draw some rough conclusions like Dvorak is best on alternation, Colemak is best on reach, and they both blow Qwerty out of the water. EDIT: Even though more alternation is better, the numbers above represent effort, meaning subsequent keypresses with the same hand, so lower numbers are always better. As far as contributing goes, if it's possible to reliably support non-ASCII characters without special knowledge of the user's OS config, please take a crack at it (or at least open an issue). Thanks!
- Alterlife 13y ago
  I wouldn't say alternation is always better -- in many cases, having successive keys close together is just as good if not better - "There" the first three letters "The" are typed with alternate hands, then the next three - "ere" are also easy to type fast because they're to each other. I haven't used a dvorak keyboard, but the next to each other keys are really a part of my flow. I really don't know how "<esc>:wq", "<ctrl>a" and so on which are part of programming work would translate to dvorak.
  - jcoder 13y ago
    I think you have a good point in that working in "command mode", or "chording", or whatever you want to call it, is different than writing prose. FWIW, I am a Vim user and I think it works great in Dvorak (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323873). `<ctrl>a` is the same as qwerty, `:wq` is typed on both hands, but as I say in that link, I prefer split hands for `hjkl`, and `wq` is pretty easy too. To your point I would accept that in command mode, key position, mnemonics, etc. may be more important. In insert mode however I think it is, at the very least, a sound hypothesis that more alternation creates more comfort.