Reflections on two years of using Colemak — bojidar-bg.dev

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Reflections On Two Years Of Using Colemak

I finally found time to pick up a new project; looking at the calendar, it was Christmas Eve, 2021. It was on one of those occasions that I had enough time to do something, yet definitely lacked the time for anything big. Yeaaah.

So, I decided to start a new hobby—for the new year. And what better than switching to a different keyboard layout—such as the elegant Colemak-CAW layout?

A diagram of the Colemak-CAW/ANSI layout, as generated by keyboard-layout-editor.com. Note the ARST-NEIO home row arrangement

Around that time, I had read Dan Luu's article on productivity and velocity, and the part about programmers being typists first struck a chord in me. Of course—I was a programmer and a writer, and typing is what I did for most of my productive time; hence finally figuring out all the hype about custom keyboards and layouts would surely improve my productivity!

Well, today, it has been 2 years since the fateful day I decided to switch to Colemak. I suppose this is sufficient time for me to hold some opinion about it—and to have a story to share. So let's start at the very beginning, how I decided to try a different keyboard layout, how I picked the one I ended up using, what the experience of switching was like, and finally, what are some things I enjoyed and disliked about the whole process.

(Click to skip to the takeaways)

Defining the problem

I had already heard of alternative keyboard layouts. Back when I was working with Godot, a few capable French game developers introduced me to AZERTY. And, of course, everybody's heard at least something about Dvorak. Plus, I've been switching back and forth between Bulgarian and English keyboard layouts every time I've used a computer.

But rather than wanting to try out a keyboard layout just for the fun of it, I actually had a deeper issue I wanted to solve. Both of my hands were hurting after was using the computer—and I was using a computer for pretty much everything: coding, writing, talking with friends. While the best long-term solution is to reduce screentime and give myself more time to rest, I wanted to see if I can optimize the way I use a computer so it doesn't results in as much pain.

So, I went ahead and read through a bunch of articles about computer ergonomics ending with (roughly) the following list of points:

Ergonomics is not just about comfort, it is about reducing the strain on the body. Apparently, it has something to do with supporting muscles so they don't tire out and avoiding twisting them.

Proper posture is easily the most impactful change one can make to get less strain and thus better ergonomics when working with a computer.

Uncomfortable mice exist, and ergonomic mice exist too. Using the wrong one is a good way to strain one's hand.

Moving between the mouse and keyboard all the time tires the arm muscles and is thus unergonomic. Instead, and keyboard shortcut use should be maximized and mouse distance minimized.

Proper use of a keyboard, through e.g. touch typing, can improve ergonomics by giving a better rest position for the hands and reducing lateral finger movement.

Alternative keyboard layouts can achieve better ergonomics due to better home row use, Extend layers, or better left-right balance, though such claims are occasionally disputed.

I couldn't really fiddle with my posture as I was away from my main workstation for the holidays, and investigating ergonomic mice right away wasn't too exciting, so I did natural and obvious (/s) thing of trying a more ergonomic keyboard layout. Plus, if I was to be learning touch typing anyway, I could just switch the keyboard layout and be no worse off for it—right?

Picking a layout

At first, I went for Dvorak, but I disliked where it places punctuation and how it insists on keeping vowels separate, so I ruled it out after tried it for a few minutes. I then happened upon Colemak and loved its idea of pairing ergonomics with familiarity by changing only a few problematic keys and keeping the quintessential Ctrl+Z/X/C the same. I browsed some more, but ended up ruling the rest of the contestant out on the grounds that they were too niche to be widely supported, and I wanted something vaguely popular for my first alternative layout. (Though, Carplax looked rather interesting.)

The rest of that day went by in installing and configuring Colemak on my machine, and firing up a keyboard teaching tool. On recommendation from the Colemak forums, I tried Amphetype, and in my experience it was the best simple app for the job, so I stuck with it. As it didn't have a keyboard overlay showing what they layout looks like, I just pinned a image viewer on top of it; yet on the next day I decided to go the extra mile and rearrange all the keys of the cheap USB keyboard I was using to fit the layout. I thought I intended to look at the keyboard if I forget the location of a...