What’s The Best Size & Style Of Keyboard For Learning Non-Qwerty Layouts
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- 40%? Columnar? Ortholinear? 36 keys? Your laptop? If you‘re learning Colemak or another non-Qwerty layout you might be wondering if now is a good time to switch to a different kind of keyboard while you are at it.
I consider the implications of using your existing laptop keyboard and compare that with using a custom mechanical keyboard. I also explore some of the issues with mechanical keyboard keycaps that can come up when learning a new layout.
We also explore how to change layouts on your laptop keyboard as well as explore some details around Colemak in relation to different types of keyboard.
This video is part of a series on learning new keyboard layouts, in my case, Colemak DH.
You can play the first video in the series here:
Switching From Qwerty To Colemak DH (via Workman)
• Switching From Qwerty ...
Next four parts:
Why I Stopped Using The Workman Keyboard Layout
• Why I Stopped Using Th...
Should You Use a Non-QWERTY Keyboard on Your Phone?
• Should You Use a Non-Q...
Tools & Tips For Learning A New Keyboard Layout (Or How To Type Faster!)
• Tools & Tips For Learn...
How To Type Faster By Cheating (Alt-Fingering)
• How To Type Faster By ...
Subscribe to make sure you see when I release the next one!
Keyboards featured in this video:
Moonlander: • RGB delight! 3D Printe...
Planck EZ: • Planck EZ Review - The...
Corne from 3DKeeb.com: • RGB delight! 3D Printe...
GergoPlex: • GergoPlex - A Detailed...
Links from the video:
colemak.com
colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/...
/ colemakdh_vs_colemakdhm
www.randyrants.com/category/s...
www.github.com/randyrants/shar...
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Contents:
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0:00 What kind of keyboard for your new layout?
0:16 Using your laptop keyboard with a new layout
1:05 Mechanical keyboards with sculpted keycaps
1:49 Using a custom keyboard to avoid changing your OS config
2:48 The case for using fewer keys to help learn the new layout
4:08 Colemak variants!
5:11 Roundup of mechanical keyboard videos
5:41 Cinematic keyboard montage
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“I have no need for hardware with someone else’s idea of what a keyboard should be” Spot on
I got DSA profile keycaps for my mech keyboard build (soon to be assembled), each keycap is the same shape so there is no issue using another layout. I recommend it for someone who is planning on assembling a keyboard.
Yeah I didn’t really make that clear, key caps that are all the same are also fine to move around!
Hey Ben, love the channel! I’m along for the ride down the rabbit hole as well. I’ve got my EZ Planck with 36-key layout, switched to Colemak-dh (after 10 years of Dvorak!), and hopefully can pick up a Gergoplex at some point. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on transitioning from a Macbook to a Mac Mini, perhaps using MacOS on the iPad Pro as well? As an aside, for anyone wanting their N and T home row keys to have a tactile feeling, I’ve found that transparent Braille stickers work nicely. Cheers and keep up the excellent work!
Ben thanks for sharing all your work on keyboards. I am very much on this journey, started because RSI like symptoms, neck issues and very bad ergonomics at work which cannot be avoided. I have just built a corne and now learning colemak. To which will be DH from today. Very interested in the pcb design and Bluetooth options. Great work.
Out of interest, a year on how have you found it?
Thanks for the video! I'm personally running colemak dhm on my ortholinear daily driver, but I still sometimes have to use qwerty when I have to type on someone else's keyboard or laptop. So far, it's been a helpful way to separate the two layouts in my brain; othro/columnar = colemak, row-staggered = qwerty. I'm planning to get a nice-looking row-staggered keyboard sometime soon, and I'm planning to use a colemak layout on that, but I'm wondering, how difficult is it to switch between row-staggered and ortho/columnar colemak, even if both of them uses technically the same layout? As you mentioned at the end of the video, it'll likely be more difficult, and I'm considering if I should just stick to qwerty for all of my row-staggered keyboards...
Would also love to hear if you have any experience/opinion on stenography-based keyboard usage and its ergonomics in using it for daily use or even programming!
Went deeper into looking at different layouts after looking at your keyboard layouts video. Appreciate that you’re constantly progressing. Inspiring and encouraging. Have you tried engram layout it’s pretty new, I think. Read the research paper on it, really substantial documentation. Just no much reviews on that layout.
Tbh there's so much optimization done already with the colemak dh (improved colemak btw), anything further is probably nitpicking
When I learned the Colemak layout I did not change my keyboard. I used Klavaro as tool to memorize the layout. I forgot how to touch-type on QWERTY in the process, so I'm glad the keys are still QWERTY so I can type by looking at the keyboard if I need to use it.
Already dropped the "bad" AZERTY layout for a QWERTY one for a year and a half, that's already so much better than my "native" one.
I might check to move to another one now! Thanks for your videos
AZERTY is so bad it's a joke. I don't miss it.
::Ben:: Love the video, my friend. I see that you're putting your collection to good use for this style of video. I saw that you had put the backspace key in the place where the semicolon usually goes on the ColmakDH layout. Do you find that to be a more beneficial adjustment to the layout, rather than moving the backspace key down to the thumb cluster? I have had a really hard time to adjust to putting it down there myself. I am still using QWERTY because I am in the position where I have to be able to type at speed, but I am keenly interested in learning ColmakDH myself because I would like to reduce the finger fatigue that I sometimes feel when I am typing for a long time.
Imo if you don't like backspace on the thumb cluster, putting it in the caps lock place is a strong alternative! I tried that for a while before throwing enter there instead.
@@williamw8590 As much as that probably sounds like a good alternative for some, that would be disastrous for me. I already have my tab key there, (only have three rows and all of that), but also I find that trying to mentally map that function to the opposite hand is where I end up having the issue--or so I think. I've gotten used to doing some odd things on my Reviung 41 that would probably carry over into using a Corne style board, but I can't think of doing something like moving the backspace key. I have a Reviung 34 that I have been trying to get used to, but every time I try I just end up getting more frustrated than anything else because I literally feel as though I need just one more key on the right side for my thumbs to do a lot of the work that I am used to doing on my Rev41. For instance, I have two /? keys on my board, one in the typical location for QWERTY, and on directly under the coma key. It honestly just feels more natural than bending my pinky in a weird way to fire that key. Also, my habit before switching to a Ortho and Columnar layout involved me picking up my whole right hand, looking for shift and the question mark key in order to use it. I don't know why I always had to look, I know where they were and how to find them blind, but it was just a habit that slowed me down. And having the backspace key anywhere but where I expect it, especially on a different hand, really messes with my rhythm.
Thanks for the video Ben. What about Vim mappings? I wanted to switch to a workman layout myself but, thought that remapping everything in vim would to be much of a chore. How did you manage to solve that problem? Assuming you're still using vim. Cheers!
Yep Vim isn’t as much of an issue as it first seems. I remaped hjkl but then kept the knock on effect to a minimum by learning the new places for the newly displaced keys.
Hi Ben - as I was partly inspired to go down this rabbit hole in the first place from one of your early videos - thought I should reply: I now have 2 Planck EZs (so the solution to the - fow to deal with other computers question is to have a keyboard ready to travel and one for the main desk) and I have mainly stuck with the root of Workman - the main ethos of Workman - than your fingers are all different shapes - so you have 7 primary keys - I find that compelling - and I've experimented with the non-primary keys using Oryx until I have something that works well for me. I only have 4 keys on the top row and Z and Q on the outside pinkie positions, for something entirely personal. But - I am absolutely lovIng the feel of typing, and I just think it's amazing to be able to create something so personal on something which is usually so ubiquitous and non-personal by nature.
That’s really awesome, thanks for commenting. Yeah I do actually wonder if I should have just kept going with Workman and experimented with a few changes etc, great that you’ve done that. Planck is still a very underrated keyboard I think!
I find a huge problem with those art-house ultra-tiny keyboards: they are mostly meant for writers, not programmers. It would be hugely impractical to invest into a keyboard like that for someone who write C++, R, or Python code. Can you address the issue of all those punctuation symbols that are_neces$ary t* wr!te "#computer co%e, @part f^om or&inary English w()rds? It would be a great topic, especially if combines something optimal both for code and comments. Thank you in advance!
I switched to HALMAK in 2020... which was admittedly kind of silly, but I enjoy it. I really need to learn what you did to get keyboard layouts to work on iPad... my experimentation with that hasn't worked and as a result my iPad Pro gets unused...
Take a look at this one
ruclips.net/video/RbhmVFd1iNE/видео.html
I used to use Colemak-dh and changed back to qwerty due to vim. Could you make a video about how you use vim with Colemak or your recent layout? Always appreciate your informative videos!
Yeah will be doing a vim video soon cheers!
I learnt Dvorak on staggered and I have no issues switching between staggered and ortho boards at all actually. I think the reason is that Dvorak barely uses the bottom row which means the different of the stagger is much less. The top row stagger is not enough to be really noticable.
I switched to Dvorak something like 25 years ago, and haven't looked back. I am looking forward, though. I've definitely been pondering some of the small split layouts like you've been showing, and may either get something extant, or build my own. In the mean time, I have a 12-key macropad (from adafruit) that I'm part of the way through coding up as something that'll use a combination of layers and chords to be a full multi-function thing (full keyboard, key-based mouse, MIDI input, and macropad)... But yeah, something less rectangular would be nice.
Cool!
How do people handle shared computers? I switched to Colemak-DH during the lockdown and now that we're going back to the office I need to come up with a plan for computers in conference rooms and training rooms. Carry a portable USB keyboard? Switch back to Qwerty when using a staggered row?
I haven't seen any good solution to this problem yet.
There is the HASU USB-to-USB adapter, which might work as a middle ground, but I have no experience with it.
geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72052.0
Also, increasingly you will encounter Bluetooth keyboards and because of that the USB connection might not be very accessible. Even if you can connect your wired custom keyboard, you might be inconveniently located in a conference room.
What we usually do is to just screen share either via AirPlay or we are probably in some video conference anyway and screen share there. That way it's up to your computer what kind of keyboard or keyboard layout to use.
@Markus what is "alt n"?
Do you have your keyboard layout / bindings listed anywhere? Thanks!
okay I choose colmak dh, but which variant ??? the one with the b letter on the top or the bottom?? the x or the z on the pinky? i like my control z , x, c, v.... these are still possible. but its not a good feeling messing with stuff I've been using for years
I have a full size mechanical board and all keys are blanks.
I am on Workman...
And currently on about 40 wpm but I'm also doing this for about 11 months and I'm slowly switching back to qwerty...
And on my phone I'm still using qwerty because I use swipe typing a whole lot...
Using a moonlander, with a qwerty layout. I am an emacs evil mode user so like the vim keys.
with your mini keyboard there are not 26 keys are there? so you press and hold for secondary characters? seems like switching levels in the middle of working and then back again all the time would be SLOW
A secondary benefit of learning a new layout of a completely different kind of keyboard is that it won't mess with your old muscle memory as much as just changing to a new layout wound. Switching both is so different that you'll be able to switch back to a standard keyboard fairly easily unless you completely stop using them after you start learning the new stuff. I still recommend typing on a standard keyboard every now and then to keep yourself somewhat familiar even if you might drop in speed compared to what you used to be able to do.
Yeah I'd have liked to have figured this out sooner - as it happens I can't type on a normal keyboard at all now!
I have a little less than two months before I start a rigorous coding camp that will last 3 months. Do you recommend I wait until after to practice without QWERTY? I too am bothered by overreaching and pinky stretching and was hoping for solutions before I started the camp.
I would wait - changing layouts will slow you down. If you’re in the flow with coding you’ll want all your typing to be pure muscle memory.
This keyboard has a goof ergonomic for steno. Do it support antighosting for all 36 keys?
Is there an ortholinear keyboard or PCB that has 2u left shift? I want to try it out but don't want my pinkie to be collapsed on my hand to press shift. I have a pinkie end joint injury so it's taped up currently and really in a bad spot for being in that position.
I would just start using a thumb shift and forget those outer columns. ruclips.net/video/WA_GUYS8UJg/видео.html
My keyboard has sculpted keycaps with normal legends because I don't see the keyboard, and I don't mind its aesthetic. Also, some other people who are not touch typists might use my keyboard, so I have to keep it with qwerty to use it.
I learned colemak dh and, to my sadness forgot dvorak. I am faster at colemak after a year now, avg 145 wpm on an ergodox, but I can't help but feel that my fingers enjoyed the left-right alternation of dvorak rather than the rolling of colemak. Why can't my left hand roll R > A comfortably!!! I know pinkies are weak. All vowels being on the left hand of dvorak was one of my favorite things. I must say that the carpal tunnel pain is way way less on colemak. The ortherlinear and ergodox must be playing a role in that too.
Yeah that’s interesting- I think left hand alternation might well be preferable to same hand rolling.
I use colemak, vanilla colemak, using mod dh in has some barriers in my case, like different finger movement on the left side of the bottom row and the fact that I don't know how to program a piece of software like epkl in all my computers (in my work computer I don't even have the permissions to use epkl) so it's better than qwerty to use vanilla colemak with my pok3r that has colemak hardwired.
Interesting thanks!
@@BenVallack oh yes, I only use staggered keyboards for now with the legends in qwerty, one day I wake up ready to order blanks, but I like the shine on the abs keycaps of my pok3r, so I still have all my keyboards in a physical qwerty layout and colemak in software.
im waiting for the gergoplex to comeback in stock so i can buy it :)
well, the problem with those layouts that are programmed into the keyboard itself is that if you use more that one language, it becomes really confusing
I bet! Although presumably you could just keep adding layers so you could actually do it all from the board.
Quick thing, There's no reason to change keycaps when learning a new layout, besides aestetics of course, as you shouldn't be looking at your keyboard while typing anyways.
I'm currently learning Colemak but I still use my qwerty layout for my keycaps.
curious......are you familiar with Bengali alphabet or was that just an accident?
I use Colemak via Gboard on my Android devices.