Fortysomething trans woman (she/her) living in the middle of nowhere with husband, cats and puppy. Interested in esports, film photography, music, cooking, nature, and witchy things. Not on social media.

  • 8 Posts
  • 41 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I think once you accept that standard keyboards are laid out as they are just by convention and nothing else, and that moving to a new layout will take a bit of time, the prospect of having a keyboard where everything is exactly where you want it to be becomes quite thrilling. This is actually my first bit of real typing using Colemak DH. It is excruciatingly slow to touch type but I didn’t know it at all two weeks ago. In two more weeks time I’ll have my first split keyboard in my hands. So it’s definately doable…



  • I almost feel like my piano training has kicked in with my QWERTY technique. I almost move my left hand above my right sometimes to hit certain keys. It’s definitely a lost cause and you are totally right: we know so much more about ergonomics now that if you are going to learn to touch type at this point, you might as well learn an alternative layout.


  • I’m really enjoying learning it so far. Semimak sounds really interesting. I think what I take away from reading about alt layouts is, beyond a certain point, you need to start to understand the dexterity and capability of your own fingers because metrics won’t tell you much more than the very basics of what a layout can do.



  • Ech what a nightmare. I figure I have one shot at an alt layout before my brain plasticity finally gives out so Colemak DH it is.

    I hear you re: row stagger. I actually just realised in terms of touch typing the keys on the bottom row are shifted one column/one finger compared to a column staggered keyboard. Just as well I caught that before CDVK got too engrained.



  • What’s really annoying me right now is that I’m learning on a row staggered keyboard and I know fine well that the V and K should not be there, but, for the purposes of the exercise they are and I have to kind of bear with it and hope that my new muscle memory will correct when my little Ferris Sweep arrives.