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zlatiah @lemmy.world

People who use non-QWERTY keyboards: what do you use?

I did not realize this was a thing until I just switched to AZERTY which... despite being marketed as being "similar" to QWERTY, is still tripping me up

Edit: since this came up twice: I'm switching since I'm relocating to the French-speaking part of the world & I just happened to want to learn the language/culture, so yeah

103 comments

  • I use Dvorak on a 36 key Corne.

    I started developing Ulnar Tunnel due to having really bad typing form from never learning the correct way to type. I was never going to unlearn the horrible (but fast) typing form that I had been using for years, so I decided to completely relearn how to type from the ground up using a different key layout on a completely different keyboard layout. It was a long and arduous process, but now my wrist pain is completely gone, and my typing speed has recovered.

  • Standard US Dvorak, but with the modification of using Caps Lock as Compose key so that I can type øæåØÆÅ when I need to.

    I made the switch in 2011, but I never bought into the typing-speed claim. Typing speed be damned, it's just so much more comfortable this way.

    Background:
    I grew up with scandinavian keyboard layout in the 90s, but then two things happened almost at the same time:

    • I fucked up my msdos config, resulting in me having to use the default US layout
    • I became interested in coding.
      It didn't take long to notice how much better US layout is once you need access to {, }, and @, so I became familiar with it. For a long time I swapped bac and forth depending on what I was doing. Then one day around the time when Walter White blew up Gustavo Fring it dawned on me out of the blue that qwerty was somewhat cumbersome, and I would most likely be using a keyboard recreationally and professionally for the rest of my life, so I might as well try to see if I could get used to something more comfortable.

    Downside: Took me a while to get used to it. 6 months or so. A little more than that and my typing speed was up to what it used to be.
    Upsides: More comfortable, Nobody wants to borrow my computer, and shoulder surfers have NFI what my password is based on what I'm typing.

  • Programmer dvorak

    I also taught myself Colemak and Workman, but I prefer Dvorak

    • How difficult was it to learn and switch?

      When I considered I ultimately didn't commit to practice - because it's so different and seemed like not worth the effort.

      How do see the impact it has? It is considerably more comfortable or efficient?

  • Not quite the same thing, but I really don't like the ISO (International, what a lot of European use) QWERTY layout compared to the US one. It's not unusable or anything, but...

    I wish that ISO would make some new layout that starts from the layout from US ANSI and then stuffs the European-specific symbols somewhere on the keyboard.

    And while I'm dreaming, I'd like that layout to physically swap left control and Caps Lock, so that I don't have to go swapping it in software everywhere.

    And to get rid of Menu and Right Windows and replace it with Compose which is, I think, by far the most-preferable way to get access to a substantial additional number of characters. AltGr or Option permits for a small number of additional characters and is harder to remember for occasional use. The Windows Alt-numpad scheme is also much harder to remember, as is the GTK Control-shift-u

    <Unicode hex codepoint>

    convention.

    I also don't use right Control, but I can believe that somewhere out there, someone gets actual use out of it and needs it somewhere comfortable, so I won't complain about that.

    Actually, what I really want, which would solve the above in an even better fashion, is for laptops to use modular, standardized, replaceable keyboards so that I can just buy whatever keyboard I want and slap it on the thing. With external keyboards, as on desktops, the selection is much better.

    EDIT: I'd also add that I've seen numerous European users saying that they also prefer the US ANSI layout over the ISO layout, so it's not just me being US-centric, and OP has a comment even saying so themselves in this thread. But if you just use stock US ANSI, then you don't directly get access to the extended Latin set, which you want in Europe. Though Compose can do that, and OP is, like me, also wanting Compose on his keyboard...

  • I use "US International with AltGr dead keys". I'm most used to the US layout, and I need to type in other languages, so this layout works perfectly. I've gotten used to it enough that I just use this layout on every keyboard regardless of what the keyboards say on their keys. The hardest was probably using this layout on on an AZERTY keyboard, I'd often forget where keys were, but it worked well enough.

  • Since I'm German I used to exclusively use qwertz, but now I use both qwertz and qwerty with qwerty being my main when docked.

103 comments