
Halmak, the AI designed keyboard layout (2016) [video] - dsego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ40gmfDFfQ
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nikivi
I was toying with the idea of using a different layout than QWERTY because I
already remap almost all my keys with Karabiner.

However I think it's not worth it in the end because on iOS for example I
wouldn't be able to use Halmak or Colmak so it's not worth the context switch.

My Karabiner layout:
[https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/macOS/apps/karabiner/Karabin...](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/macOS/apps/karabiner/Karabiner.html)

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gpetukhov
Have been using Dvorak for 6 years now. But only on my laptop/desktop. On the
iPhone I continue using the standard Qwerty layout. I don't notice the context
switch. Probably because switching to a mobile screen keyboard is an even
bigger context switch, and we are already used to that. I tried using some 3rd
party Dvorak keyboards on iOS but my typing was slower than with Qwerty.

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mherrmann
I'm very happy with QFMLWY [1] because it greatly reduced my wrist pain.

[1]:
[http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?full_optimization](http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?full_optimization)

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knight17
How long did it take you to learn the new layout? Why this one instead of
Dvorak or Colemak?

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mherrmann
About one month (going cold turkey). Supposedly it's more efficient than the
two. It certainly feels less strenuous than QWERTY.

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knight17
I am fearful of switching because of all the keyboard shortcuts I'd have to
relearn. Sometimes an established layout like Dvorak and Colemak has
scripts/modifications readily available from the community that can help you
to get things working quickly, for e.g. Emacs and Vim rebindings.

How are you finding the keyboard shortcuts after your transition?

Is there any community around QFMLWY (forums/mailing list)?

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mherrmann
The keyboard shortcuts remain the same, except of course that they then use
the new keys. For instance, my "Ctrl+C" is QWERTY's Ctrl+V. You get used to
it. It don't think it's an issue. I also don't know of a community behind
QFMLWY, but I'm not sure you really need one.

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folago
Very interesting, but as a vim user I will have to retrain my muscle memory.
And say goodbye to :inoremap jk <esc>.

Edit: typo.

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geoah
Love the idea of keeping the cmd+ based commands on a different layer.

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paulus_magnus2
not a programmers keyboard. semicolon at the hardest to reach position

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dsego
There are plenty of programming languages that don't use semicolons. And it's
not even the hardest position to reach.

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peersist
I have been waiting for a better layout for long, and I had already assumed
the ideal layout would be determined by software. I like that there's effort
being put into it.

But I don't like that one of my major complaints about qwerty while
programming is not being solved: Of the times I use the top row, almost always
I'm using it with shift in order to insert a symbol. That's why I have a
custom qwerty layout that reverts the situation: shift+key is number, key by
itself is symbol. Same with other usually-shifted keys.

I also dislike that the graphs shown are only for English. The graphs should
be shown for the most popular Latin script languages: Spanish, English,
Portuguese, German and French (+programming, related to my previous
complaint). People that write in at least two Latin-script languages far
outnumber the people that only write English.

But props for the setup, looks cool and I expect great things from it!

