learning to type

I remapped my keyboard, physically moving keys around, to Dvorak then Colemak, for the thrill of it.

I learned to touch type a long time ago, thanks to the tutelage of one Mavis Beacon. Once the skill had been relatively mastered I never looked back, didn't have any particular desire to get better than proficient. I can type with my eyes closed and that's good enough.

better ways

I've long known that the way 99.99% of keyboards are setup, the QWERTY standard so named because of the first five letters on the top left row isn't perfect. In fact it was developed to reduce the arms of typewriters from jamming, by placing highly used letters (in English) further from each other to slow people down a bit.

As far back as the 1930s, August Dvorak designed a layout that was optimised for efficiency, placing the most used letters closer together. Due to the dominance of QWERTY layout, this never caught on. Hard to relearn something that becomes as rote as walking or riding a bike.

In 2020 Colemak and variations of it were developed to be a little more approachable, keeping many of the keys in the same position as QWERTY.

friction

All of these alternatives suffer from the same fate, physical devices are rarely sold in their format and even in software, not all applications support them. Worse, years of muscle memory and shared ideas have formed around the position of the QWERTY layout. Many applications assume certain keys will be next to each other and used for specific operations. Changing the layout, breaks all such assumptions.

rewiring the brain, temporarily

Yet for some reason I wanted to spend some time in another layout, without any particular lead up. Mid day yesterday, I looked up the layouts and started pulling keys off my keyboard. Once I had all the keys in their new homes, and opened up an editor to try and write some code I experienced a mild senes of panic. My brain decided on the next word and my eyes and fingers were in utter confusion, as if I was under some form of chemical influence. It felt akin to trying to do something in a mirror, you know what you want to do but what you see happening isn't what you expected.

The mild panic was tinged with delight. My brain faced with an entirely novel reality.

The first complete sentence took a minute at least, over the next few hours I became more and more proficient. Yet it was never close to proper touch typing. Certain letter combinations, in particular computer commands cd and ls felt extremely strange as I am so accustomed to typing them with close to zero attention paid to the act, oblivious to the way the finger's dance around the keyboard.

It was a thrill but I had started the experiment with a planed end date, it wasn't something I wanted long term. I wasn't trying to improve my typing speed, which isn't something I even think about.

living off the land

I prefer to use things as they come, to do as little customization as possible. Becoming adept at using the tools or features of the basic version. I also relish simple devices, fewer parts, fewer options, less stuff in general. So a "custom" keyboard layout isn't something I would naturally gravitate to. Here I am 24 hours later, typing up this note on the experience. Touch typing away, using the QWERTY layout on a keyboard physically setup in Colemak. But it doesn't mater as I don't look at the keys anyway.

results

My brain really appreciated the challenge and the experience, give it a try.