Does anybody have experiences with non-standard keyboard layouts like dvorak? I'm writing a blogpost about keyboard layouts and would love to hear about your experiences

I once used a QWERTY keyboard with a split space bar and the keys aligned into columns. It was allegedly “ergonomic”, but it was not worth it. My typing was perhaps 10% better, but it was suddenly hard for me to jump between different devices. Given that typing speed is completely irrelevant to productivity for everyone except perhaps professional writers, I’ve never tried any weird keyboards since. There are 100 things a person can optimize to receive better returns than a new keyboard layout. For example: a note-taking methodology, diet and exercise, or social media rationing.

I tried one of these, but found the mental effort to learn it too much; and it was very slow compared to touch typing on my favourite MS Sculpt keyboard: https://twiddler.tekgear.com/ I also recently tried an ergodox EZ, but the layout of keys was again quite a high effort to learn (and I found it awkward that many of the symbol keys I expected to find on the right, or beside the Z were not there). Lots of folks make up their own keyboard layouts for it (but I imagine this is easier if you aren't a touch typist to start with): https://ergodox-ez.com/ I have a Mattias half keyboard too: http://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/ This is a weird one; your brain really does fill in the gap and let you type with one hand, 'mirroring' the other half. I've found it occasionally useful for use during CAD tools, but its more of a novelty than something I would seriously use all day (unless I didn't have the use of one hand). Finally, I tried a Kinesis FreeStyle Edge: https://gaming.kinesis-ergo.com/product/freestyle-edge/ This was OK, but eventually I had to admit to myself that my typing speed was significantly slower using Cherry/Mechanical keys; it just takes so much more effort to press them than the short travel of the MS Sculpt. I was also finding my hands were far more tired by the end of the day. I haven't measured my output, but I type a lot during a given day. One of the reasons I'm really interested in input devices! My dream keyboard is the MS Sculpt, separated into 2 halves that I can spread apart on the desk.... I believe I am on my 6th Sculpt. I probably kill one in less than a year. https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-gb/products/keyboards/sculpt-ergonomic-desktop/l5v-00006

I recently bought a Microsoft Sculpt too, to ward off RSI that might be looming in my future. (Trying to "listen to my body", you know?) Since the layout is different enough, I've decided that this keyboard is going to be my home-row Dvorak instrument, and my regular Apple keyboards are going to be my bad-habit two-finger QWERTY instrument. (I use "instrument" here because, to me, the idea of having different layouts for differently shaped devices feels just like switching between, say, clarinet and guitar. Totally normal.) I've been learning Dvoark using Typing Club, and I'm up to about 20 WPM after 2 weeks, practicing about 15 minutes a day. Learning all the keys was pretty quick for me, and now I'm enjoying just building up my speed. Unlike what Nick said above, I do feel like my productivity — and my enjoyment — while using the computer is restricted by my typing speed. This is my medium for thought. I'm writing right now to express my thinking. I can think of these words far faster than I can type them (and I currently type something like 70 WPM). So I think it's totally worth it for me to attend to my discipline.

Totally agree on the speed; for me optimal typing makes me a better/more productive programmer. It's one of the reasons I use Vim, and regularly research keystrokes/combinations to improve. @Ivan Reese Did you get a Dvorak Sculpt (if such a thing exists) or are you using a regular one with keystrokes remapped?

Standard US-layout Sculpt. I'm on Mac, so I remapped alt -> command and win -> option. I just use the Dvorak layout included with Mac OS, and switch layouts with control-space. I never look at my keyboard, so the stuff printed on the keys doesn't matter to me :)

In my experience there's a correlation between typing faster and RSI. I used to use hjkl for arrow keys, but I stopped when my body started telling me to use the arrow keys.

Fascinating, thank you everybody, keep it coming! @Ivan Reese - I think the most interesting innovation will be in the field of RSI prevention since that's what everybody's worried about. Although my post is focused on speed, speed is very minor concern for many people compared to RSI. Both on the HW front with more comfortable keyboards, and on the sw front with different ways of letting users stay on their home row more

Regarding RSI, I've always favoured low-travel, non-clicky keys. After 26+ years of programming full time, I've never had RSI problems or pains in my hands - except when I've tried to use a cherry keyboard. Now back-pain, that's another story 😉

Bought an ergodox recently to improve my posture. Getting used to ortholinear QWERTY wasn't too bad (except for learning to strike

B

with my left hand). The rearrangement of modified keys has made writing code pretty slow; brackets/braces have been muscle memory for me for so long (and I have a habit of typing the opening bracket, then the closing bracket, and then the back arrow to fill the contents), but both brackets/braces and the arrow keys are displaced. tl;dr: I prefer the split keyboard for typing text, even though I'm somewhat slower, because the improved posture is good. I do not prefer it for writing code.

I'm a Workman user for ~4 years now. Have tried Dvorak before but couldn't switch and I like Workman better now. A couple of differences are: (1) taxing the middle column (and better priorities overall), so hands rarely move sideways, less pinky load, (2) less emphasis on hand alternation and more "rolling" combos (e.g., t/h, s/t, d/r are next to each other, so it feels nice and easy typing them). I also use Vim-like keybindings and they work surprisingly well. The only one remapping I do is swap j and k (because j is on the top row but means "down," and k is on bottom row but means "up"—couldn't make my mind adjust to that). Other than that, Vim bindings on Workman work great. As a bonus, you learn to use hjkl less and rely on better movement commands more. As a downside, when I have to type on other people's keyboards, that's awful. I have to look at the keys or I type trash otherwise.

@Chris Maughan I've never seen that half keyboard before. That's wild!

Advising a friend on a Sci-Fi story, I imagined what a keyboard a few decades hence might be. I recommended the character point in the direction where she wants the text to appear in the world, wiggle her finger as though swiping on a phone (yes, QWERTY style), and mumble what it is that she means to write (for the audience). We could imagine subvocalizations as well. Moral being that the noisy signals (subvocalizations and finger wiggles) get fused by the dictation software. Just a thought.

@Alexey Shmalko I thought you were going to say you remapped 'jk' to escape; which is what I do; it's a real typing saver in vim; never reaching for escape again; easy to learn, with only the minor inconvenience that you have to remap every vim editor you use to :noremap jk <Esc>

@Chris Maughan this trick doesn't actually work with Workman. Because of the rolling combos, most of the keys that are close, also occur often in the text. I mapped ESC on Caps Lock place though

Stenography! Now we’re talking!

I've been using colemak for a good few years now. I recently made some of the more common mods ("Angle", "Wide", "Curl-DH" https://colemakmods.github.io/ergonomic-mods/) because I started to notice RSI symptoms in my right pinky and realized how much of the keyboard it normally controls. I've also remapped tapping caps lock to be escape and holding it to be ctrl, both very useful for vim. (Another change I made recently was to entirely remap vim, e.g. making the equivalent of IJKL act as arrow keys instead of HJKL). I'm on a normal keyboard atm (Microsoft Sidewinder X4), but I've been planning to make my own split ergo keyboard for a while, maybe the Dactyl (pictured)... Happy to answer any questions.

I'm curious if you have measured your speed? On QWERTY or otherwise.

@Andrew Reece how did you remap caps lock to tap vs hold?

@Tyler Adams with AutoHotKey on Windows, XCAPE on Linux (and you could use Karabiner with Mac) https://gist.github.com/tanyuan/55bca522bf50363ae4573d4bdcf06e2e https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Map_caps_lock_to_escape_in_Windows https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/remap-caps-lock-to-escape-and-control/

I have been using use one of the Carpalx layouts for 10 years. http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/

Has it helped with RSI?

I didn't have RSI.