87 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: Colemak Layout - First Week
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date: 2020-08-22
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series: colemak
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---
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A week ago I posted the last post in this series where I announced I was going
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all colemak all the time. I have not been measuring words per minute (to avoid
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psyching myself out), but so far my typing speed has gone from intolerably slow
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to manageably slow. I have been only dipping back into qwerty for two main
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things:
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1. Passwords, specifically the ones I have in muscle memory
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2. Coding at work that needs to be done fast
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Other than that, everything else has been in colemak. I have written DnD-style
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game notes, hacked at my own "Linux distro", started a few QMK keymaps and more
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all via colemak.
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Here are some of the lessons I've learned:
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## Let Your Coworkers Know You Are Going to Be Slow
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This kind of thing is a long tirm investment. In the short term, your
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productivity is going to crash through the floor. This will feel frustrating. It
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took me an entire workday to implement and test a HTTP handler/client for it in
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Go. You will be making weird typos. Let your coworkers know so they don't jump
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to the wrong conclusions too quickly.
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Also, this goes without saying, but don't do this kind of change during crunch
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time. That's a bit of a dick move.
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## Print Out the Layout
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I have the layout printed and taped to my monitor and iPad stand. This helps a
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lot. Instead of looking at the keyboard, I look at the layout image and let my
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fingers drift into position.
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I also have a blank keyboard at my desk, this helps because I can't look at the
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keycaps and become confused (however this has backfired with typing numbers,
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lol). This keyboard has cherry MX blues though, which means it can be loud when
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I get to typing up a storm.
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## Have Friends Ask You What Layout You Are Using
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Something that works for me is to have friends ask me what keyboard layout I am
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using, so I can be mindful of the change. I have a few people asking me that on
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the regular, so I can be accountable to them and myself.
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## macOS and iPadOS have Colemak Out of the Box
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The settings app lets you configure colemak input without having to jailbreak or
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install a custom keyboard layout. Take advantage of this.
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Someone has also created a colemak windows package for windows that includes an
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IA-64 (Itanium) binary. It was last updated in 2004, and still works without
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hassle on windows 10. It was the irst time I've ever seen an IA-64 windows
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binary in the wild!
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## Relearn How To Type Your Passwords
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I type passwords from muscle memory. I have had to rediscover what they actually
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are so I can relearn how to type them.
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---
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The colemak experiment continues. I also have a [ZSA
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Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) and the kit for a
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[GergoPlex](https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex) coming in the mail. Both
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of these run [QMK](https://qmk.fm), which allows me to fully program them with a
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rich macro engine. Here are a few of the macros I plan to use:
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```c
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// Programming
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SUBS(ifErr, "if err != nil {\n\t\n}", KC_E, KC_I)
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SUBS(goTest, "go test ./...\n", KC_G, KC_T)
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SUBS(cargoTest, "cargo test\n", KC_C, KC_T)
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```
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This will autotype a few common things when I press the keys "ei", "gt", or "ct"
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at the same time. I plan to add a few more as things turn up so I can more
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quickly type common idioms or commands to save me time. The `if err != nil`
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combination started as a joke, but I bet it will end up being incredibly
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valuable.
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Be well, take care of your hands.
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