Keyboard Layouts

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dessalines@lemmy.ml

Do you use an alternate layout besides QWERTY? If so, what's your history? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by dessalines@lemmy.ml to c/keyboardlayouts@lemmy.ml

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Like everyone I started with qwerty for ~ 10 years, then in college a friend introduced me to dvorak. I didn't pick it up at first, but after I started working and realized all my time was spent at the keyboard, I learned it in earnest and got back up to my original speed.

Around 2017 I learned about halmak, which was the first AI designed (genetic algorithm, not gen AI) layout, designed to minimize hand movement, and I learned it quickly and loved it for several years.

About a year ago I decided to try out a new one, since halmak has so many same finger bigrams. So I bounced around between a few, but now settled on graphite, as a lot of ppl on the reddit keyboardlayouts community recommended it. I've been on it for ~3 months now, and like it a lot.

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[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

It does take a while, I usually do a few hours of practice on keybr.com to get up to about 20 wpm before I even start programming.

Then I do the helixtutor (kinda like vimtutor) a few times, then force myself to keep going. It takes about a week until you can program and type comfortably, and maybe a month or two until you're fully back up to speed.

I can't deny it is an annoying process, but it's generally worth it if you type a lot, and its something you're going to use for years anyway.

I'd recommend starting to learn either at the beginning of a long weekend, or a break, so that you're not under pressure.