Looks too wild for me 
How did you ever transition from qwerty to colemak-dh? How does colemak compare to dvorak? I’ve never heard of people use it in the wild, though (alternative layouts, I mean).
keybr, monkeytype are good to practice, one need just to type(21h for me to get around 60wpm - consecutive 21 days training, I already knew how to touch type on qwerty).
In link there are comparisons in layouts. I just picked colemak-dh because is more modern than dvorak(1936 vs 2006) and has more community recommendation over classic colemak and is potentially more widespread than other(even tho this doesn’t matter since portable custom keyboard fixes this problem).
Since other keyboards are staggered and corne is almost “ortholinear”, I can maintain muscle memory for both qwerty and colemak.
My WPM on both layouts is around 80. But must say I kinda forgot where special characters are, since having layers on keyboard and using your thumbs to move those to homerow is so good. Train n-grams if you wanna be faster.
In terms of software I don’t recommend remapping keys (e.g. if you access remote machine where you can’t put your config). I’m heavy neovim user and learned vim-motions before colemak this was kinda pain to overcome, tho I remap hjkl to mnei, probably should unlearn this too. Primeagen uses dvorak.
As cyrilk stated :
Addendum:
I owned planck like keyboard which started my journey to efficiency+comfort. But I can’t recommend it to anyone… hands need to be so close to each other, which probably caused pain in my case.
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I’ve been using some ergodox EZ variant or another for the last few years. I don’t want to go back to normal keyboards, as this solved some shoulder and neck pain I’d been experiencing.
Here’s my current setup at home:
It’s an ergodox EZ, using some Matt3o keycaps in SA profile.
I have a very similar keyboard at work, but different switches and colors (black keyboard, black caps, silent switches).
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I’m slower when I go back to a normal keyboard, feels slightly different after using the split for a while. It’s not a big deal. The more you switch the less odd it feels, if you regularly use regular keyboards too you will be able to switch back and forth without issue.
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I’ve been using the Kinesis Freestyles (yes plural) for a very long time. I’ve actually got 2.
First was the Freestyle2 (since before there was a “2”) Loved it. Bought the numeric keypad too. Transition was stupid fast. Less than a week as I recall.
Then I wanted another one for my office (I ordered directly from Kinesis). The person I was talking with there told me about the “gaming” line…
- Backlit, no rgb
- Programmable - so the fixed macro keys on the Freestyle were now programmable as was the entire keyboard. Not only did I buy it, But once I got the programming down (stupid simple – it’s a TEXT file - skip the software) I flat out told them it was awesome for office and development work than for gaming. Used on windows and linux.
The Freestyle Pro is basically the same without the backlight. and with fixed macro keys.
If I needed a new keyboard I’d buy it again. And it would be the RGB gaming version (just because I like backlighting better). And yes, it’s expensive. For me worth it
I’ve lobbied them for years that they need to make a version of their numeric keypad as a blank programmable macropad.
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I’ve made several attempts, but I was never able to learn to type on a conventional board, due to severe wrist pain. After building a split board, I had no trouble at all learning. I can easily go back and forth and type on a conventional board and/or laptop now, but for only fifteen to twenty minutes at a time, or my wrist pain flairs up.
I type in Workman and my current favorite split board is the Kyria, but I’m keen to build a Dilemma from bastardkb.com. I really prefer the extra column stagger that these boards offer. Strangely, I don’t prefer a split board for gaming. I typically use a home built 60% for gaming, but once in a while I will use a TKL, or an 1800.
I prefer building my own programmable boards, so that I can load them with the Workman key map and then carry a board with me if I expect to do any typing.
I use a ZSA Voyager with the 3d printed tenting kit and I love it. It took me about 2 months to get up to my old typing speed and by month 3 I was typing 50% faster than I was before. I think there are a few things to consider:
- If you decided to chooses something that has any type of non-standard layout, like ortho-linear and custom key binding you will have a learning curve. I don’t think that learning curve changes all that much when you get a keyboard with less keys, within reason. So get the keyboard you want, you are going to have to go through the learning process no matter what.
- I would choose a ortho-linear style board they are so much more ergonomic and intuitive.
- I think a programmable board is a must and getting the keys that you reach the farthest for closer to your home row will have huge impact on your code writing speed. Example might be the underscore, which depending on language you may use all the time but would typically type with your pinky and have to reach all the way to the corner of the keyboard for.
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Iris keyboard x2, 2 cornes, a model m and a Corsair non hot swappable. The splits are using Miryoku primary reason for split was wrist pain. I changed key layout because brain fog with COVID in '21. I thought forcing myself to do new, complicated memory retraining may help. I was wrong, and now I type slower, but it’s more enjoyable. And pain free. Every key is one finger away, but I had to learn a million new layers. 36 key layout. Now the student workers don’t dock at my station, due to key layout. That’s a plus.
I have an adafruit macropad for mostly media control and a lock button. The cream color key are the only one on the board now. This picture is old. The top and left/right were removed.
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