@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems2025-09-23 18:47:17
After reading #keyboard layout for fun.
Of course, not so I could "type faster". And that's for two reasons:
1. To type faster, you have to learn the right hand and finger positions, etc. I know my habits ain't perfect, and I don't see a point in learning otherwise — see point two.
2. At least in my case of creative writing, blunt typing speed isn't the bottleneck; figuring out what to write is. And most of my corrections aren't typos, but changes of thought.
In this case, I've figured out that there's really no point in learning touch typing with a new layout. So the most obvious choice for trying one is to use it on a touchscreen, where I could change the visible layout with no effort.
But then, I've started wondering: I mostly use gesture typing, and I've noticed that it's much easier when the letters constituting the word in question are spread across keyboard, rather than close to one another. In the latter case, the keyboard often has trouble in recognizing the correct word. If the ergonomic layouts focus on putting frequent letters close to one another, wouldn't gesture typing be harder?
And indeed, Colemak's FAQ clearly states that it's not recommended for smartphones. It's kinda curious that after so many years of #QWERTY being criticized, a new technology turns out to benefit from precisely this layout.
https://colemak.com/FAQ#Is_Colemak_suitable_for_smartphones.3F
