
The Workman Keyboard Layout Philosophy (2010) - caustic
http://workmanlayout.org/
======
reacweb
He uses the wrong test. Testing on "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is
meaningless for developpers: tests should be performed using real usages like
"source code of linux kernel" or "mailing list of linux kernel" to have a
better balance between code and text.

~~~
jstanley
Even better, it should be performed using a recorded vim session, rather than
a full file. The keystrokes you use while editing are not the same as those
that end up in the finished file.

~~~
citation_please
But this brings up that some Vim hotkeys are more positional than mnemonic
(J-down, K-up), while others are more mnemonic than positional (I-insert,
X-exterminate(?)).

Food for thought.

~~~
tjoff
This is why I believe that qwerty is the best layout. All applications have
designed all shortcuts to be sensible on it. Any other layout is just going to
be a disaster and negate any benefits and more during actual _use_.

You can of course use whatever layout you like and then while ctrl/alt/meta is
pressed it switches to qwerty, doesn't save vim users though (or other
applications where shortcuts don't need to be prefixed).

I'm not convinced switching from qwerty is that beneficial, I believe (but
have not yet tried it) an orthogonal keyboard will do more than any layout
will. But I admit that I don't have experience to back that up.

~~~
eru
I've been using dvorak for more than a decade now. Yes, shortcuts are
sometimes a bit annoying, but qwerty is so bad, that dvorak is still worth it.

~~~
nayuki
I've been using Dvorak for ~15 years now and the keyboard shortcuts don't
bother me. For example, when Dvorak Ctrl+X/C/V is translated to QWERTY, they
are in the positions Ctrl+B/I/(period). For shortcuts like Ctrl+C in Dvorak
(Ctrl+I in QWERTY), I put my left thumb on Right Ctrl and my left pinky on the
letter key.

Two minor problems, though: In Dvorak, V is immediately beside W. Ctrl+V means
paste, but Ctrl+W means close window, so care is needed. And, any keyboard
that lack Right Ctrl (e.g. the Microsoft Surface series) is an abomination.

------
deno
Sit up straight (fix your posture) and stop gluing your wrists to the desk or
wrist “support” and the layout doesn’t matter unless you’re going for typing
records.

There is no magical layout that can eliminate the tension you’re artificially
creating by stretching your fingers into unnatural positions instead of just
moving the entire hand.

What healthy typing looks like (on a horrible keyboard no less):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs2B5XRtr6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs2B5XRtr6k)

Imagine you tried playing a piano the way you type on your keyboard:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqmH-o1cX0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqmH-o1cX0)

The pain is letting you know you’re doing something wrong.

~~~
tjoff
It is natural to statically lift your arms like that for hours upon hours?

Where one places the support is important, but I've seen conflicting
statements whether lifting your arms would be beneficial.

I have not yet seen the piano video but a piano is much bigger than a keyboard
and I see tons of reasons as to why whatever works for one doesn't necessarily
have to work for the other.

~~~
vemv
Nature doesn't require us to lean on armrests, desks or such - in fact there
are almost no flat (or cushioned) surfaces on nature.

Evolutionarily it would't make sense if the human body wasn't 'self-contained'
\- requiring no external tools to work comfortably.

Your normal posture is to have the arms relaxed, or with a moderate amount of
tension by keeping them lifted a reasonable amount of time, and variating the
posture as well.

A well-developed hunter/gatherer would definitely have arms strong enough to
type this way without getting particularly tired.

So what we modern humans ought to do is to keep the arms strong (by
exercising), and to not compensate tiredness with artificial mechanisms.

I'm aware that this argumentation is somewhat dubious (and probably I failed
to express it properly), but as a simpler experience report, I've worked this
way 4+ years without trouble. First days will suck though.

~~~
tjoff
I would need more convincing than that. Nature doesn't have keyboards.

Static postures are seen as something _very bad_ in ergonomics, muscles are
not adapted for that and wear is problematic.

I've used supports for 20+ years without trouble. First day didn't suck
either.

~~~
vemv
Lifting your arms doesn't mean keeping them in a static position. They are
lifted when you're typing; else they lean on your legs (much better than using
some kind of cushion/surface, since your legs don't compress your wrists).
Also, one can vary the arms' angle/etc during the day.

The bad part about wrist/arm rests is - very likely they compress various
layers of your body, and they force you to contort your wrists to type
(because you want to reach the keyboard while some other part of your body is
stuck 'resting').

~~~
tjoff
Maybe I overestimate how much I use the keyboard but I still see hours on
straight where I would not want to move my hands away from the keyboard. You
don't need to reach for the keyboard due to supports, you are resting on the
home row.

Yes, movement is important and one should take breaks but that is something
one should do regardless of posture. I see how lifting hands can improve that
but it has to be balanced against the negatives.

If moving a hand to use the mouse is seen as a big pain point I have a hard
time to see how one would rest unused hands on the legs? Underneath the table?

~~~
deno
When you bend your arms at 90° where are your palms? With proper
posture/keyboard height they should be _over_ the keyboard. If you’re sitting
straight it’s natural to bring your keyboard to the edge of the desk. But if
you prefer to be under the desk then just rest on the desk.

I made a really quick sketch some time ago maybe it helps:
[http://svgur.com/s/7e6](http://svgur.com/s/7e6)

That wrist angle on the green dude is very exaggerated, the point was to show
that the fingers are in their natural positions, rather than curled, which is
what happens when your wrists are glued.

EDIT: Also just look where the piano lady is resting her hands.

------
fooblat
As a full time developer who used to suffer terrible RSI pain, I solved the
problem without changing keyboard layouts. After consulting with my doctor and
an ergonomics expert, I realized my problems were cause by the setup of my
workstation and the bad posture habits I had developed.

1\. I would rest my palms as I typed. This turned out to be a major source of
pain. Retraining myself to "float" my hands over the keyboard was a massive
improvement.

2\. My desk was too high / my chair was too low. Setting up my desk so that my
keyboard is as close to my lap as possible was the next big improvement. When
in a seated position, my hands are very comfortable when resting on my thighs.
Putting my keyboard in a drawer that is just above my thighs helped a lot.

3\. I also switched to a trackpad instead of a mount and a split keyboard. I
found this allowed a more comfortable angle for my hands and less temptation
to rest my wrist while mousing.

After making these changes, I have been pain free for over 10 years.

~~~
eggie
Did you consider using an isomorphic layout like the typematrix? I find the
anachronistic skew in keyboards to be a source of discomfort.

~~~
fooblat
I have only recently learned about isomorphic keyboards and I am indeed
curious to try one.

------
lorenzhs
This looks interesting but the symbol still look very qwerty-ish. I type on
Neo-2
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Neo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Neo)),
which uses ISO keyboards and primarily targets German, even though the
majority of my typing is in English. Its entire third layer is for symbols
that are common in programming. Layer 3 is activated via either caps-lock or
the key above Right Shift, and has \/{}* ?()-:@ as the home row, …_[]^ !<>=&
above it and #$|~` +%"'; below it (there's a picture in the Wikipedia article
linked above).

Layer 4 (right alt or the key to the right of left shift) is also pretty cool,
it has lots of navigation keys and a numblock in convenient positions, but I
somehow never got around to learning that. All the layers are shown on
[https://neo-layout.org/](https://neo-layout.org/) (in German, but that
doesn't matter for the pictures).

With a Trackpoint (Thinkpad USB keyboard), this means that my hands don't have
to leave the home row at all. It's super convenient.

~~~
eigengrau
German users might also be interested in the AdNW layout
([http://www.adnw.de/](http://www.adnw.de/)). They started out with Neo’s
excellent and logical arrangement of the non-alphabetical layers, but replaced
the alphabetic layers with a layout created by running an optimization
algorithm on a text corpus of 50% English and 50% German text (whereas in Neo
the key arrangement was created manually, based on intuition). The metrics
they used were largely inspired by Dvorak’s research.

~~~
scns
Had a look at it and it is not useful for me. I use Vim or vimbindings and the
f is in a pretty bad spot, i will stay with neo.

------
floatboth
> Try typing “The” with the T capitalized on Colemak and hopefully you’ll see
> what I mean. Your right hand will move somewhat like this: you swing to the
> right to get the SHIFT key with your pinky, then you swing back to the left
> to get the letter ‘H’, and then you move to the right again to get the
> letter ‘E’.

Why would you use the right shift here?? I shift with the _left_ pinky in this
situation and it feels fine.

Colemak is just fine, and it's already included in most operating systems.

~~~
cammil
I think there is a theory that one "should" use the _other_ hand for any
modifiers. Presumably and primarily so that the letter key is always pressed
using the same finger and position of the hand.

~~~
floatboth
I never cared about using the "correct" shift key.

~~~
hfdgiutdryg
I think it matters most for those with smaller hands. That said, if you were
transcribing stuff all day long (i.e. typing way more than a programmer), you
might notice less fatigue if you shifted "properly".

------
Loic
If you are looking at alternative keyboards, I have been using the TypeMatrix
2030[0] with a transparent cover for about 10 years.

I am using the Dvorak layout, but I think that the main reason it is so
comfortable to use is the ortho-linear layout of the keys and that it is
totally flat.

I would recommend anybody with RSI to test first ortho-linear physical layout
of the keys with your standard Qwerty or Azerty or whatever you use right now
before moving to something else.

[0]: [http://www.typematrix.com/](http://www.typematrix.com/)

------
diimdeep
Kudos for effort. But changing layout is not enough.

Current mainstream keyboards design is fundamentally flawed [1] and IMO
obsolete because of [4].

Hopefully there is science [2] and much alternatives to choose from [3]

[1]
[http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_problems.html](http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_problems.html)

[2]
[http://xahlee.info/kbd/ergonomic_keyboard_science.html](http://xahlee.info/kbd/ergonomic_keyboard_science.html)

[3] [https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-
keyboards](https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence)

~~~
bitofhope
The first link references the myth of QWERTY being meant for slowing typists
down. It merely spreads most common letters out so them being pressed together
doesn't jam the typewriter.

~~~
diimdeep
Yeah agree, except that error, didn't find better article to link to.

------
jimmy1
> I didn’t like the way Dvorak was laid out especially for the weak fingers of
> the right hand.

I am not sure if I only know this from playing piano and guitar, but it is
surprisingly easy to strengthen those fingers. The exercise is very simple and
all it takes is a couple minutes a day, it can be done anywhere (even better
if you have a piano or guitar!):

1\. Lay your fingers on a table, and curl them like you were at a keyboard or
holding a small ball in your hand.

2\. Keeping all of your other fingers on the table, lift your weaker finger,
typically the ring as high as you possibly can without causing the other
fingers to rise.

3\. Bring it down as hard as you comfortably can.

4\. Repeat 1-3 until you can lift higher and bring it down harder without
affecting the other fingers.

~~~
bena
Thanks for that. I've started playing guitar a few years ago and my ring
fingers are pretty weak and dependent. I can't do the Vulcan salute for
instance, my ring finger is kind of "tied" to my pinky.

~~~
sixstringtheory
I’ve done a similar one that might help you. Same starting position with all
fingertips on the table, fingers curled in piano position. Do the lift with
pinky and middle finger at the same time, then down, then lift ring and index
finger, then down and repeat. My goal for this is speed instead of strength,
but you’ll definitely feel yourself working on that tie between your ring and
pinky finger.

------
zafiro17
I don't have any RSI issues but I love the idea of alternative/improved
keyboards and layouts and have accidentally become kind of an
aficionado/collector. I have on permanent rotation and have written reviews of
a Kinesis Ergo [0], Truly Ergonomic (TEK) [1], TypeMatrix [2], and Happy
Hacker [3] and I'm looking seriously at buying an Ergodox one of these days. I
happen to like and dislike each of those keyboards: each has advantages and
disadvantages. Same goes for Dvorak (which I use regularly) and Colemak, etc.
I'm hard pressed to say which is my favorite, but I like each for different
reasons and conclude it would be impossible to combine them into any
"perfect," ultimate keyboard.

One thing that almost never comes up in these discussions is the need to
change or rotate keyboards. I love the Kinesis but eventually get tired of it,
and am happy to move to the TEK, which then starts to bother me until I move
to the TypeMatrix, etc. Every keyboard and layout improves some part of typing
while exacerbating another. Switching keeps you nimble. I suspect it's like
bicycles, of which there are infinite variations. If one bike hurts your
wrists and another hurts your legs and another bothers your neck, switch every
few rides.

[0] [http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/167-Typing-in-
Sty...](http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/167-Typing-in-Style-with-
the-Kinesis.html) [1] [http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/290-The-
Truly-Erg...](http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/290-The-Truly-
Ergonomic-Keyboard-TEK-Review.html) [2]
[http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/295-The-
TypeMatri...](http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/295-The-
TypeMatrix-2030-Ergonomic-Keyboard.html) [3]
[http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/304-Review-of-
the...](http://therandymon.com/index.php?/archives/304-Review-of-the-Happy-
Hacker-2-Keyboard.html)

------
QasimK
A keyboard layout for programmers, which allowed the use of special characters
on the home row, perhaps by using a mixed corpus of source code rather than
just novels, would be interesting to see.

Recently, I ordered the Ultimate Hacker’s Keyboard because I think typing is
quite important for a programmer, especially if you consider health as the
author of this article does. I’m a little bit weary of _not_ using QWERTY
because of the high cost of switching, so if I did switch, I’d want to select
a layout that was basically perfect for me long-term (which sounds very tough
to do).

~~~
jerf
"which allowed the use of special characters on the home row"

Unless you're programming in something very symbol-heavy, even by programming
language standards, I suspect you'll find that it's hard for any symbol (other
than space) to break into the top-10 non-space symbols; not impossible, but
hard. I just did a 200KB perl file here, and the top 12 symbols are space, e,
a, r, s, i, t, o, n, newline, l, and d. The first symbol, underscore, shows up
in position 13, then it's u, then finally, $. Underscore is less than half as
popular as the e. As you may guess, the naming convention of this code is
mostly underscore_based. If this code was camelcase instead, you'd have to go
down to position 14 with $.

The other problem is that languages will significant differ, so you can't
really create "a programming layout". If you did nothing but type Perl, that
list of symbols may suggest that perhaps $ should be on the u or i key or
something valuable like that, but if you run the same process over your C#
you're not going to see $ popping up nearly as high and now you've got a
_huge_ wasted key. Parentheses are in the 22nd and 23rd slot on this count,
the only thing that I would be comfortable saying is really generic. (And then
there's still Haskell, where they are used, but much, much less often.)

~~~
kalleboo
There's also the difference between what's in the code and what you type. My
code is full of colons and commas between named arguments, but those are all
inserted by autocomplete in my IDE.

------
vemv
I left Colemak for Qwerty some 5 years ago. Keyboard layout matters much less
than your typing technique.

Same thing for ergonomic keyboards - they can be a dangerous sign that you're
focusing on the wrong thing, on micro-optimizations rather than on the root
cause.

I have no guide to share unfortunately but I'd recommend observing one's
movements, and try to figure out what's the most natural way of doing a given
thing.

Also, regardless of what you do, typing many hours will tire you / be painful.
Act accordingly.

~~~
hfdgiutdryg
_Same thing for ergonomic keyboards - they can be a dangerous sign that you
're focusing on the wrong thing, on micro-optimizations rather than on the
root cause._

I disagree. It depends on the keyboard, of course. For example, the Microsoft
Natural I had in the 90s was a complete POS that exacerbated my tendinitis. It
was a cheap sliding-post keyboard. If your finger hit anywhere but dead-on,
the resistance was tremendous.

A good mechanical keyboard will provide perfectly consistent resistance, which
will be a huge improvement over a poorly designed, cheaper keyboard.

A more advanced option like the Kinesis or Ergodox completely eliminates many
of the fundamental problems with traditional keyboards that create pain in the
first place.

------
ubercow13
I have been using this for ~4 years. So far I like it, it is extremely
comfortable to type on and instantly felt better than eg. colemak to me,
though I never learned to touch type as quickly on any other layout. However,
I wish I had just stuck to qwerty in the end, as I use vim keybindings
wherever possible and the extra steps needed to customise the keybinds in each
application is a hassle, and sometimes not even possible.

------
StreakyCobra
Anything other than [AQ]WERT[YZ] layout-based keyboard is already a big
improvement for your fingers. The differences between Workman / Colemak /
Dvorak and so on is mostly a matter of taste. One thing to note is that widely
used layouts have more chances to be supported by software and by keyboard
manufacturers (e.g. [http://www.typematrix.com/](http://www.typematrix.com/)).
So it may be wiser to choose mainstream layouts that creating your own or
using niche ones.

There is probably not a definitive answer for which one is better ("better"
would have to be defined for this), so go ahead, read a bit about them and do
your choice. Be aware though that once you have choose one, you will be stuck
with it for a looong time, because switching layout is _hard_. You have to
remap all your brain an muscle memory before being able to reach your previous
efficiency. Spoiler alert: it takes months to years for this.

PS: For french speaking people, you may want to have a look at
[https://bepo.fr](https://bepo.fr)

~~~
lorenzhs
Agreed. I use neo2, which is the German equivalent of bépo. It's shipped with
pretty much every Linux distro, which means that all I need to do is
"setxkbmap de neo".

It definitely takes several months to achieve a decent speed on a new layout,
but I wouldn't say years. I did a full switch after deciding I wanted to learn
neo. That means that from that day on, I didn't use qwertz _at all_ , and
forced myself to type everything in neo. Also, _don 't use stickers_. They
teach you to look at the keyboard. Put a printout of the layout next to your
keyboard and look at that. Otherwise you'll just form bad habits. It took me
around a month to get to a point where my neo typing speed was reasonable, and
maybe another month until I had managed to get to the point where it wasn't
annoying any more. Of course I was in university back then, and not paid to
develop software.

~~~
StreakyCobra
Year _s_ is a little bit too much yes. I also did a full switch after 1 month
of "klavaro" [1] training, but I think it took me nearly one year to be
"fully" adapted. By "fully" I mean not thinking anymore about QWERTZ: not for
french, nor for english, nor for coding and for beating my previous QWERTZ
capabilities.

[1]
[http://klavaro.sourceforge.net/en/index.html](http://klavaro.sourceforge.net/en/index.html)

~~~
lorenzhs
Interesting. I don't really remember how long that took me, it's been some
eight years now since I switched. I used ktouch to practise, which has lessons
for neo2 and, apparently, BÉPO.

------
eggie
The author doesn't even learn dvorak before deciding that it doesn't work for
them. They mention don't like how it behaves on the consonant-heavy, qwerty-
optimized commands used in unix. (I have to say this is a fair evaluation, but
in practice the layout somehow doesn't encourage RSI despite the apparent
awkwardness of typing unix commands on it.)

In result they don't seem to understand that the dvorak layout is optimized
for alternation between hands (they do mention this) _and_ inward rolling
motion (they don't seem to understand this). You can really feel this when
typing, and it makes typing downright enjoyable.

I wouldn't be surprised if much of the added distance relative to colemak and
workman is probably reaching for the "i" with the left pointer finger. These
are the easiest movements to make repeatedly, and in my experience the home
row horizontal movement that they try to optimize out of workman isn't really
important.

People should be free and encouraged to make their own layouts to beat RSI.
But, scientific measurement of what is better seems basically impossible...

~~~
cityroasted
In the author's defense, I came to the same conclusion using Dvorak when I was
a teenager learning unix and programming. I switched back to QWERTY for a
while, but around 8 years ago I learned about Colemak and switched and have
been very happy with it since.

One thing I like about Colemak is that it is close enough to QWERTY that I can
still type on QWERTY by looking at the keys and not look like a complete fool.
Dvorak is so different that it completely rewires the brain and it's very
difficult to switch between it and QWERTY. That's been my experience at least.

~~~
eggie
After switching back and forth between Dvorak and QWERTY for multi-hour work
sessions maybe three times I found that I could do so instantly. I learned
touch typing on QWERTY very young so maybe this is why it was easy for me. I
often use a keyboard without any labels on the keys so it's always touch
typing no matter the layout I pick. Also, I don't really get anxious about
things that slow down my text entry, so I tolerated my own interface
experiments without worry. I've coded and done data analysis using my thumbs
on a cell phone. Switching keyboard layouts really isn't so bad by comparison.
To each their own.

I find it surprising that much of the current effort in keyboard layouts is in
finding things that are better than QWERTY but similar enough to it to not be
scary. I am completely unmotivated by this. If someone could convince me that
their layout was a kind of super-Dvorak, and scientifically enhanced the same
features that I enjoy about it then I would try it out in a heartbeat.

------
amelius
Given that micro-movements can lead to RSI, shouldn't the goal be to make the
hands move as _much_ as possible instead?

~~~
ObscureScience
That's an interesting question. Then, dvorak or similar (alternating hand)
layout would probably be a good starting point.

------
waldfee
check out QMK keyboard firmware at
[https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware)

do whatever you want with layouts, macros and layers without any need for
software or driver on the host machine

------
bnewton149
My biggest issue with traditional keyboards is using non-alpha keys like the
arrow keys, modifier keys, punctuation, numbers, escape, and function keys. I
(sorta) solved this issue by getting an Ergodox and designing a qwerty
layout[1] that made the modifier keys thumb accessible and other non-alpha
keys close to the home row through layers:

\- navigation layer: arrow keys and tab navigation on the home row.

\- number and symbol layer: numbers on the home row, function keys one row
above and punctuation one row below.

Its still a work in progress but I think it has helped me.

[1] [https://configure.ergodox-
ez.com/keyboard_layouts/zjdlgd/edi...](https://configure.ergodox-
ez.com/keyboard_layouts/zjdlgd/edit)

------
mherrmann
I feel Carpalx has a less arbitrary, more rigorous solution to this [1]. I've
been using its QFMLWY for years. It is hugely better than QWERTY. Though as a
programmer, I'm still not fully happy with the Ctrl and Shift keys being in
their standard location, and thus at the weakest (pinky) finger.

If anyone would like to give QFMLWY a go, let me know. I have scripts to
install it on Win, Mac and Ubuntu.

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

~~~
ken
> the weakest (pinky) finger

A lot of keyboard layout enthusiasts (including the linked article) make this
claim, but is there any evidence for it? As someone who as trained in various
arts that use the hand, I've always been told by all of my teachers that the
pinky is the _strongest_ finger.

This article rates the first two fingers "very strong" and "strong", while
ring and pinky are both "weak", yet a ring/pinky pull-up doesn't seem any more
difficult than an index/middle pull-up. Strong enough to lift my body weight,
but too weak to press keys on a modern keyboard? I'm skeptical.

The most believable answer I've found so far, as to the relative strength of
the fingers, is [1], which is a multi-faceted "it depends". There's no
standard way to measure strength, and there are many different kinds of
strength a finger can exert. How exactly are we defining "finger strength" for
typing, and how are we measuring it?

[1]
[https://100hourboard.org/questions/52873/](https://100hourboard.org/questions/52873/)

The Dvorak layout has many advantages (I've been using it for over 25 years
myself) but the idea that it's better because it uses your "stronger" fingers
is just a canard.

~~~
mherrmann
The pinky being the weakest perfectly matches my subjective experience. My
wrist pain is at the outside of my wrist. The more I use my pinky, the worse
it gets.

~~~
ken
That doesn't sound like strength at all to me. Just because it hurts to use a
body part doesn't automatically mean the muscles attached to it are weak.

------
roenxi
It is interesting, given that the corpuses are available, that keyboard design
isn't framed as some sort of linear or nonlinear optimising problem.

Choose a set of tasks -> plug into an optimiser -> get a keyboard mapping
tuned to the task you are doing. There'd be people who find that useful. The
maths isn't at all hard, the data is there.

 _EDIT_ Maybe it would be a fun project to take something like top 100 C
libraries from github and build up an optimised keyboard layout for C coding.
It is an interesting idea.

~~~
toyg
The problem is generalizing the corpus enough to make it viable for more tasks
than "writing C libraries", so that it can achieve mainstream support. The
parameters to consider are also contentious - are we optimising for travel,
finger stretching, speed, etc ...? It's not just about data.

------
AprilArcus
The Colemak Mod-DH family of layouts incorporates the major insight of Workman
(that QWERTY v and n are lower-effort positions than QWERTY g and h) without
abandoning the better elements of Colemak (common left hand shortcut keys
QWAZXC remain unmoved, good hand alternation, emphasis on inward rolls).

[http://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/](http://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/)

~~~
gedy
While I don't use the DH change, the angle mod mentioned where zxcv are
shifted left one key has been amazingly helpful for me. It makes standard
staggered keyboards a lot more comfortable to use correct fingers for left
bottom row

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edpichler
My thoughts:

\- if the author of the article is moving his fingers laterally, probably he
is doing something wrong (must use other fingers instead of moving, this is
typewriting). Independent of the layout, this cannot happen.

\- I believe that there is no silver bullet for keyboard layout if you write
code and text, more than one language, statistics of your typing are unique
for the languages you currently use.

------
petepete
I'm glad that alternative keyboard layouts seem to be gaining traction but I
just can't go cold turkey and move away from QWERTY.

The biggest annoyances for me with regular keyboards are that caps lock is a
wasted key in a prime position and the F keys are too far out of the way.

These were solved by the HHKB and that's what I'll be using for the
foreseeable future.

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tezza
A large portion of coding is moving the cursor left, right, up, down, page up,
page down, home, end

The arrow keys are not even shown on the layout.

And the selection of prose corpus (es?) is again not related to programming
[Tom Sawyer].

We need underscores, braces, semicolon, context menu.

Perhaps a better metric would be the hoc compiler source from The Unix
Programming Environment.

~~~
EduardoBautista
> A large portion of coding is moving the cursor left, right, up, down, page
> up, page down, home, end

> The arrow keys are not even shown on the layout

Nothing that learning Vim keybindings can't solve.

~~~
leg100
What about using a browser, terminal usage outside of vim, and insert-mode in
vim? Do you use vimium in chrome and vim-mode in bash?

~~~
QasimK
I suspect the answers would be: use non-arrow keybindings for browsers (e.g.
vim-like plug-ins, or alternative keyboard shortcuts), remap your terminals
keys (maybe, use a different terminal entirely?), use insert mode for only
inserting text.

I use a “vimium” plug-in for Firefox and I quite like being able to go up/down
with j/k. Though I still use the arrow keys for my terminal.

~~~
leg100
Yup I've just installed vimium on chrome, and it seems to do the job.

I've tried out vim-mode bash in the past, but much prefer the default emacs-
mode on the command line, despite being a vim user.

Either way I'm suspecting a ton of exceptions which necessitate resorting
often to the cursor keys, however (like another commenter has mentioned w.r.t
various GUI apps).

------
edpichler
I moved to Dvorak year ago. Very very happy with this.

The pain of my hands, especially on the weakest fingers, just ended. The sad
is that there are no available keyboards to buy in my country, so I always
need to manually change and 'fix' my new laptops, risking to break it, and I
always do it very worried and careful.

~~~
edpichler
I use Windows and Mac OS, so years ago I create a layout and software to use
your Apple Keyboard with Dvorak under Windows.

[https://github.com/edpichler/Apple-Dvorak-on-
Windows](https://github.com/edpichler/Apple-Dvorak-on-Windows)

I wish some movement of better layouts start, so people would engage, and the
market would start to produce laptops coming ready for our use.

------
rezeroed
We need keyboards with digital keys, not printed, so we can change the layouts
at the click of a button.

~~~
joemccall86
I recalled
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard)
from years ago. It looks like the successor uses an LCD screen:
[http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/popularis/](http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/popularis/).

~~~
rezeroed
Bingo.

------
carapace
One neat trick (for programmers) is to switch your number row to use the
symbols normally and shift to get the digits.

As a programmer you type those symbols way more often than digits. It's easy
to get used to and it can make a difference if you have RSI issues.

------
sscarduzio
This is an excellent solution to a problem no programmer has. After 10 years
of programming I can safely tell that, if you type the majority of your time
until you make your wrists sick, you are writing shit code and you should
spend more time thinking.

~~~
adrianm
Do you not write emails, search the web, or do writing on a computer of any
kind? I wouldn’t be so quick to judge here. You don’t know what they are
really doing on their keyboard all day. Maybe typing is all we have due to a
physical disability that limits mobility and communication in other ways.
There are a lot of possibilities beyond “writing shit code”.

~~~
sscarduzio
yeah, yeah, I guess there's multiple edge cases.

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rhlala
I always type faster with one hand,

It is common for me to type thnak you for exemple Should I be using an layout
with low hand switching? Dvorak? Thanks

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rhlala
I always type faster with one hand,

It is common for me to type thnak you for exemple...

I guess i should look at a layout with little hand alternance, Dvorak?

Thanks

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INTPnerd
What a stubborn Emacs user, all they had to do was switch to Vim..

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lbj
I love how inclusive this comment is "a difference of 696 meters. It doesn’t
sound like much, however if we convert it to centimeters, that’s equal to
69,600 cm" :D

------
alpeshrathod
> Workman Keyboard Layout

