I used to type in QWERTY, but then I took an arrow to the knee

[floatboth]

I’ve been touch-typing for, like, 3 years. Maybe even more. I don’t know exacty because I never learned it. I just wasn’t looking at the keyboard and used many fingers to type. I only realized it about 2 years ago… when suddenly the lights went off and I was still typing on my laptop.

A year later, I somehow learned that touch-typing was also about using the correct fingers for letters. Downloaded TIPP10, started training a little. Damn, it wasn’t that easy.

It tured out QWERTY wasn’t intended to be easy. I knew it was created by marketers who wanted to show off how fast you can type the word “typewriter” using only the top row (why not home row?!) in collaboration with engineers who wanted to avoid sticking typebars. I also knew there was this weird Dvorak layout. I didn’t know about a better one.

stevelosh once tweeted a link to Colemak. I was really impressed. 35x more words I can type using only the home row! 16x less row jumping! Many keys are the same, most importantly, zxcv (for shortcuts). Wow.

I’m going to learn this.

Comments

[eileanach]

The Dvorak keyboard is meant to be a million times better for you if you use a keyboard a lot it doesn't cause "stress" on the muscles and is less likely to give you RSI. It looks complicated to learn on though and the keyboards are expensive.

[floatboth]

Colemak has the same purpose, but it's much easier to learn. Also, you don't need to get a new keyboard. Not even for Dvorak.

[eileanach]

Really? I take it, you just take the keys off and put them somewhere else?

[eileanach]

Also can you show me what Colemak is like?

[floatboth]

You don't need to touch the keys at all. Just change the layout in settings. You shouldn't look at the keyboard anyway.

There's a link to http://colemak.com in the original post.