colemak_org
The Colemak Community Web Pages
Web pages for www.colemak.org
This repo holds a GitHub web page for the user-controlled colemak.org domain.
The official Colemak site run by Colemak's creator Shai Coleman is at colemak.com.
For now, the colemak.org pages will mostly be a short intro to the Colemak keyboard layout and a link page to various Colemak-related online resources.
For more info on mods, typing enhancements and learning, please see the DreymaR's Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks pages.
This repo is maintained by @DreymaR and @abrickinthehallway, with the permission and cooperation of Shai Coleman.
DISCLAIMER ABOUT THIS README
- This README.md file isn't really meant for the public.
- The colemak_org repository exists for the purpose of hosting the colemak.org web page, so that's what you should look at.
- Most of the below is WIP notes used for the web page.
- You may find something that hasn't made it to the page yet, if you search.
- Mostly, just go view the Colemak Community page at www.colemak.org. Now shoo!
FAQ: LAYOUT LEARNING
☑ "Should I learn Colemak? Is it worth it?"
☑ "What about Vim, or other programs that use shortcuts?"
☑ "Which Colemak is better, Classical/Vanilla or Curl/DH?"
☑ "Is Colemak-DH the same as...?"
☑ "Why is Z in the middle of the board on Angle-ANSI? Would DH work without that pesky confusing Angle mod?"
FAQ: LAYOUT DESIGN
☑ "Isn't Workman/Norman/Whatever better than Colemak? Its documentation says so!"
☑ "Which layouts are better than Colemak?"
☑ "I want to tweak Colemak a little to suit my needs!"
☑ "Wouldn't it be better to swap R and S on Colemak? It's so hard to learn!"
☑ "Is mapping the CapsLock key to Backspace a part of the Colemak layout?"
FAQ: PRACTICAL LAYOUT QUESTIONS [WIP]
☑ "My right pinky gets tired! And typing you is uncomfortable! What's wrong?"
☑ "How can I train my fingers to get better at typing for instance you, then?"
- At the [Big Bag Training page][bigtrn] there are tips for training hard n-grams. Try a list of words containing 'ou uo yo oy uy yu'!
- If you have a programmable keyboard you could make a chord for hard n-grams. E.g., press 'yu' at the same time for 'you'.
☐ Where can I learn to type better and faster with a layout?
- There are many options and people are different.
- The best advice is to enjoy the experience!
- See the Big Bag Training page for answers.
☐ "How can I get a layout up and running? I downloaded this installer..."
- On Windows there are four main ways: [MSKLC][bigklc], [AHK][ahkdotcom], [EPKL][epklgi] and [Registry/SharpKeys][sharpkeys]. All have their strengths and weaknesses.</li>
- On Linux and MacOS, [XKB][xkbcmk] and [KMonad][kmonadgit] (as well as the mostly deprecated [XModMap][xmodmapwi]). Differences.</li>
- Hardware implementation. Programmable boards and the [QUICKIE](https://dreymar.colemak.org/typing-tricks.html#usb2usb) QWERTY-In-Colemak-Out USB device.</li>
FAQ: LAYOUT DESIGN ANALYSIS [WIP]
☑ "I want to tweak Colemak a little to suit my needs!"
- Same-finger bigrams is a crucial factor in layout design! You may not notice them at first though.
- Some say that a SFB% of, say, 0.2% for one bigram – 1 in is so little that you won't notice it.
- Beyond simple SFBs you have roll direction and redirects, skip-grams and whatnot. Here be dragons!
- "In the world of layout design there is no beginner's luck, only beginner's mistakes" ~ DreymaR, 2021
☐ English bigram frequencies from Norvig/Mayzner:
##: Bigram ##: Reverse Sum Ratio | - Comment
=======================================================================================================
- Common bigrams in English:
--------------------------------
TH: 3.556% HT: 0.130% 3.69% 27 | - TH and HE are the two most common bigrams
HE: 3.075% EH: 0.026% 3.10% 118 | - HE is also relevant to Colemak-DH
ER: 2.048% RE: 1.854% 3.90% 1.1 | - ER/RE is the most common bidirectional bigram
OU: 0.870% UO: 0.011% 0.88% 79 | - OU is also relevant to Colemak YOU
- Relevant to a Colemak R-S swap:
--------------------------------
ST: 1.053% TS: 0.337% 1.39% 3.1 | - ST/TS is in the top 20 English bigrams
RS: 0.397% SR: 0.006% 0.40% 66 | - RS is nicer to roll inwards
TR: 0.426% RT: 0.362% 0.79% 1.2 | - TR/RT vs RS/SR isn't so important here?
SC: 0.155% CS: 0.023% 0.18% 6.7 | - Colemak has SC/CS, WR/RW, SF/FS relevant SFBs
WR: 0.031% RW: 0.013% 0.04% 2.4 | - In sum, 0.24% relevant SFBs
SF: 0.017% FS: 0.006% 0.02% 2.8 | - Cmk total is 1.67% on the Colemakmods analyzer
CR: 0.149% RC: 0.121% 0.27% 1.2 | - R-S swapped Cmk has CR/RC, FR/RF, WS/SW SFBs
FR: 0.213% RF: 0.032% 0.25% 6.6 | - In sum, 0.58% relevant SFBs
WS: 0.035% SW: 0.024% 0.06% 1.5 | - That's a factor 2.4 over Cmk's
- The most frequent Colemak SFBs:
--------------------------------
SC: 0.155% CS: 0.023% 0.18% 6.7 | - E, KN UE SC Y. are the most common SFBs on Colemak
UE: 0.147% EU: 0.031% 0.18% 4.7 | - UE feels easier as an upper-to-middle-row SFB
NK: 0.052% KN: 0.051% 0.10% 1.0 | - NK/KN is easily alt-fingered with index-middle fingers
☐ SteveP's SFB analysis using the colemakmods analyzer:
- SFB frequencies on the Colemakmods analyzer:
Colemak 1.669%
Colemak (angle-cheat) 1.789%
Colemak-RS 2.034%
Colemak-RS (angle-cheat) 2.044%
- So the difference is bigger than 0.24% in this analysis
- is that due to the difference between Norvig/Mayzner and the carpalx (which I use) datasets?
- I've always thought that if people are determined to swap RS, then they should do a FL swap as well:
Colemak-RSFL 1.872%
Colemak-RSFL (angle-cheat) 1.763% (Improves hand balance too!)