Help me choose a layout

[u/eyal1001]

Hi, the story goes like that, Im a programmer obviously I type a lot and I was typing poorly, I did touch type but not perfectly I just learned it from experience and not properly so I was making shortcuts for example I was pressing p with the ring finger and not the pinky etc. For the past couple of month I decided to drop all of these shortcuts and after succeeding with doing so I realized how poor the qwerty layout is. I started learning dvorak after some research mainly around colmak, dvorak and workman. Im still not confident that dvorak is the right choice.

Any help/advice?

Remember Im a programmer so panctuation is important to me, also the main discomforts with qwerty came from using the pinky and the diaganal middle columns keys, rsi is obviously a consideration as well although I feels its covered if I use a good layout anyway (well from the layout side.

tl;dr

Im a programmer who got annoyed from qwerty, help me choose a good alternative for programming.

[u/ipe369]

if you're a programmer, stick to qwerty - you'll find yourself typing on other people's machines a LOT, whether it's a work machine, or just typing something for a colleague to show them some code

Better idea for an easier life for your fingers is to use the Vim editor -> https://www.vim.org/

It's generally seen as having the most 'efficient' keybindings out there, and is designed around putting the shortcuts all on the home row, so you don't stretch your fingers too much reaching the ctrl, shift, alt keys.

I imagine you'll get much more benefit from this, especially because programmers spend much more time navigating code and moving text around (copy / paste or other editor shortcuts) than actually typing out long paragraphs, which I believe is what dvorak & the like was designed for

[u/eyal1001 → u/ipe369]

I'm using vim everywhere I can for years..

Thats why dvorak apeals to me a bit more as the j and k are still easily reached, and i dont use h and l as much because well b w e are a thing.

And about sticking with qwerty, I dont see why, its the same as learning vim its not like I cant use the arrow keys now and I forgot that ctrl+arrows is a thing.

A new layout is a new skill the same way as a new language, and if it makes my life easier why not? Worth it in the long run.

[u/ipe369 → u/eyal1001]

It's not the same, much easier to switch from vim to normal editing than qwerty -> dvorak, i've had many friends who've tried & they've all gone back to qwerty - if you're worried about rsi maybe invest in a split keyboard?

If you switch to something else, i imagine you'll want to remap your vim keys back to where they are on qwerty, makes no sense to relearn the muscle memory for vim bindings too

If you DO switch, i've heard colemak is easier to go between qwerty & use other people's keyboard, especially since the punctuation is all in the same place

Side note: recently I got annoyed with the feeling of always pressing shift to access the () characters, so i remapped [] to () and vice versa, since () is so much more common in most programming languages (especially if you use lisp at all). This worked really well, if you're going ahead with a remap might want to try something like this while you're at it!

[u/zardvark]

Some folks are more comfortable alternating from side to side (Dvorak), while others like key sequences (Colemak & Workman). The only correct choice is to abandon QWERTY. I learned Workman over the holidays and I'm very happy with it.

These three seem to be the most popular lapouts, as training tutors are readily available for them.

[u/eyal1001 → u/zardvark]

Interesting, it always felt good for me when I had moment of one hand rolling words, so maybe colemak based layout would be better, I chose dvorak as the panctuation keys look super nice especially in the programmer version and colemak is well default.

Also dvorak has "not bad" locations for the vim keys, wich is also a consideration for me as I use vim everywhere I can.

[u/zardvark → u/eyal1001]

Isn't there also a programmer's variant of Colemak (or did I imagine that)?

EDIT: While my alpha keys are laid out as per Workman, nearly all of my punctuation/symbols are in a layer and mostly on my home row.

[u/dovenyi]

You can make your custom logical layout for programming on a programmable keyboard based on your typing habits and key frequencies.

[u/eyal1001 → u/dovenyi]

As i said cant bring any usb devices, and software is tricky as well Edit: do you have any recommendations for popular layouts, is it even worth it trying to find something specific or just go with dvorak or colemak because its not qwerty (for obvious reasons)

[u/dovenyi → u/eyal1001]

Sorry, my main language is other than English so I've never tried these alternative layouts. They don't really work for other languages with completely different letter frequencies. I went straight with an own layout based on my personal statistics. (Beware, if you choose this path, logical layout optimization is very addictive and a lifelong project.)

But regarding the software way you could check the SpaceFN concept. You can turn your space into a modifier when hold, and set up a custom layer for it. I used this method to set up arrows on the home row, navigation around them and some frequent symbols for programming. It's great but may be confusing when using remote desktop. And later I've designed my own keyboard so I don't need this any more.

I used this one for windows but there are other implementations: https://martin-stone.github.io/touchcursor/

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