 There are literally dozens of different keyboard layouts that exist. Some of them are for different languages some of them offer different advantages for you if you type in English and Want to try something other than the default QWERTY layout? Recently I decided I was going to try something different and and there are a few reasons why Part of it is that I just like trying new things Another reason is that I type a lot for my main job I end up writing between five and six thousand words a day and as you might suspect that can cause some Problems with my hands and fingers and wrists and all that kind of stuff So I decided I was going to try something new and I did my research and found that Colmack is one of the easiest Keyboard layouts for a QWERTY user to transition to simply because it doesn't change a ton of stuff on the Keyboard in terms of layout Where as some of the other keyboard layouts are radically different and really do have a very steep learning curve Colmack is very much close to QWERTY. It just moves a few keys around So I did it. I think it was last Tuesday ish that I switched and the initial Thoughts I had was that it was really really hard. I mean Obviously the only keyboard layout that I've ever typed with is QWERTY so moving to something that looks like this was a serious challenge and I I'll admit that I was at about five words per minute when I started that first night that I was Just getting started with this. I was seriously struggling and seriously Rethinking my plan of sticking with it for 30 days That was my original goal was to stick with it for 30 days and I switched on in this computer I switched it on the laptop behind me I switched it on my phone and I was going all in and I have some thoughts so Just for a minute. Let's take a look at this if you notice like I said There are a few things that stay the same from QWERTY Q&W stay in the same place a ZX C&V all stay in the same place same with B same with M and Same with the punctuation for the most part The colon and the semi-colon move up a level. That's the only Punctuation mark that actually changes So actually getting used to it after a day In terms of actually learning where things were wasn't too bad The one letter that actually gave me the most problems was the letter E because the letter E moves all the way from over here To over here and it means it's on a completely different hand and I had some serious problems getting Started and learning that the E was being typed with my right hand instead of my left hand. I that did eventually Kind of figured out, but I was still making mistakes by the time I stopped and even though I was Doing typing tests for for 40 minutes to an hour a day I was still very slow by the time I decided I was switching back to QWERTY spoiler alert I was at about 25 words per minute and I was actually quite happy with that. I know that if I'd stuck with it For the three days that I thought I was going to be able to do so. I probably would have been able to get my typing speed up to 60 or 70 words per minute and that's not bad It's not as fast as I am with QWERTY, which I can do between 100 and 120 60 to 70 words per minute would have still been very respectable and I wouldn't have felt so slow. It would have been fine So you're probably asking Matt Why did you only give it five days if you were thought you could actually make the transition and eventually type fast Why'd you stop and the answer to that question is key bindings. So everybody who knows me knows I'm a huge Tiling window manager fan That's what I use as my daily driver Most of the time I spend my time in DWM, but I also switch back and forth between all the other ones I enjoyed doing that. I made a video recently about that very topic and with tiling window managers your Primary means of navigation is with your keyboard now. You can use a mouse if you wanted to if you're a evil person, I guess but You're meant to be using your keyboard and that means you have key bindings for pretty much everything and I have my key binding set to The exact way I want them to be set I have them in the exact positions and I don't really think about the letters that I'm touching when I Open up Rofi or I open up a browser or whatever. I have Kind of like the met the muscle memory of where that key binding is and I just press it I don't really think that super w is to open up Firefox. I just press that key button The problem is That when I switched to Colmec all those key bindings went all over the place and I had to start thinking that Super D is Rofi But D is not no longer in the same place the s or the s is in that spot now and The D moved two places over so I was constantly pressing super s in order to get to Rofi And it was messing with my brain So the the tiling window manager key binding was a serious impediment to me actually doing this Even though I went through and I spent time in DWM's config and Changed a whole bunch of stuff in order to try to make it a little bit better It still was not a great experience and again I probably could have gotten used to it eventually It would have messed with my brain every time I had to go use it a computer that still used QWERTY and had my old configs on it and I do that often Not just that computer behind me, but I have another laptop that I take you know elsewhere And that would end up staying QWERTY and Would have my old configs on it and the key bindings would still be the same as they used to be and it would mess everything up But I probably could have gotten used to it the real problem was VIM and VIM is always going to be a problem child for me because I constantly feel like I don't know enough about VIM So I'm always learning new stuff But the problem is with VIM is not that you can't remap stuff but if you do remap stuff it becomes such a pain in the ass to use elsewhere and more than that you With VIM you're very much trained to use it in a certain way and You're very much trained to use certain key bindings to function inside of them. So for example using I to Get into insert mode That's how you get into insert mode now I understand those VIM people out there going to be tell me that there are other ways to get into insert mode And they're right you can use a you can use several other letters and actually to get into Insert mode in certain positions on a line. It's possible, but for the most part if you're gonna get into insert mode You're gonna press I Now let's go back to the Colmack layout Notice something different there. Did you 8 jkl? Not in the same place anymore. Okay, and they're replaced with and H and E and I and when I actually went through and remap things. I just used an E. I know which is technically Jkl and semicolon which are the places where your forefinger is supposed to rest on your keyboard The point is I is now there and I remapped it so that it could be part of the navigation cluster So trying to get into insert mode was a pain in the tuchus and I understand I could have remapped it But I will insert mode wasn't the only thing that changed, right? Every other keybinding that I would normally use like navigating between splits Navigating between nerd tree and out of nerd tree all that stuff is associated with the keybinding and they would all had it been changed and Frankly, I just wasn't it wasn't worth it Despite the fact that I think I eventually I could have maybe even eventually got up to a you know a respectable word Comperment, you know typing and even if it did help with you know RSI injuries and all that stuff Changing and Vim just wasn't worth it especially considering the fact that again, I would have to eventually use Vim in its normal form or using my old config files that are meant for Basically standard Vim usage on other machines and that would just mess with my mind if I had to keep going back and forth It just was not going to be something that I was going to enjoy. So After five days, I switched back to QWERTY now Just as quick note you think that after five days my switch back to QWERTY would be a problem because I'd still be thinking you know in the Colnex state of mind and The the first test I took back in QWERTY on monkey type comm Was a mess. I mean I got like five words per minute. It was maybe 10 for per word. It was it was really bad I was like, oh my god. No, I was freaking. I was like, oh my god I ruined my typing speed and my productivity on QWERTY just by going away from it for five days But it was okay after three tests. I was back up to 70 words per minute and after a day I was back right up to 100 words per minute. So It wasn't a huge deal. So if you do end up ever deciding to switch Just know that your QWERTY Ability is not gonna go away Thank goodness you but you will need to you know test it a little bit and get back to you know the Speed of things that you were before you switched So in the comments below, let me know if you've ever switched to a different keyboard layout I would really like to hear from those of you have successfully done this and How it really affects you in terms of key bindings and stuff like that because that's really where this has failed For me because it's just not something That would be all that easy for me to do in terms of getting a hang of it again, especially in them You can follow me on Twitter at the next cast You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash on this cast and you do follow me on Twitter Just know that I do tweet about my Adventures in trying new things a lot. So you definitely should give me a follow over there before I go I'd like to take a moment to thank my current patrons Devon Chris Marcus Magland Donnie Sven East Coast web kelloff devils Mitchell. Mr. Fox Arch Center YouTube Merrick camp. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time