Specifically this is the layer layout I’m referring to: Arrow keys function layer layout Instead I focused on optimizing editing performance via layer keys, since editing is a much larger part of my day-to-day job than just typing a lot of text.Įnter the function layer, and “arrow keys on the home row” which is certainly not a creation unique to me but wow does it make editing text & navigating documents a breeze. I didn’t bother to learn one of these popular layouts, because that would be too sensible right? Instead I had to build a custom keyboard of my own, with my own layout! Actually, the keyboard(s) I built didn’t deviate drastically from the standard QWERTY layout, because I didn’t want to completely destroy the muscle memory I had built so painstakingly over the year. Some of these layouts include DVORAK, or COLEMAK, to name some of the more popular ones. Over the years folks have come up with various alternative layouts in attempts to overcome various shortcomings of the QWERTY layout, whether they relate to ergonomics or typing efficiency etc. It evolved over decades from typewriters, seeing some keys added or removed over time but the core layout remains recognizable even going back to the turn of the previous century (1900, to be clear). The “standard” (or rather, most common) keyboard layout in the US is the ANSI QWERTY layout. “But Brandon” I hear you say, “you only learned to type once, what about the two or three other times”? Well I’m glad you asked because there’s a deep dark rabbit hole of alternative keyboard layouts that I’m about to tell you about. ![]() ![]() Yeah, that’s waxing poetic maybe but I’m definitely less frustrated by this anachronistic brain-computer interface than I used to be. Now the keyboard is an extension of my body, and the words can flow effortlessly from my fingertips. I no longer look at the keyboard at all when I’m typing, and the keyboard no longer feels like a something that’s in my way and slowing me down. What’s the takeaway here? Well I think that learning to touch-type is a completely worthwhile effort, at any age. To put this in perspective, that’s faster than 90% of the users on. Eventually I surpassed my old speed, averaging over 80 WPM by the time I stopped practicing on and regularly able to hit 100+ WPM on easy passages. It didn’t take me very long to improve and meet my old speed after consistent practice. I could previously type around 70 with my “imperfect” technique, going at less than half my previous speed was dissapointing for a while. Initially my speed was quite low, around 30 words per minute. I payed careful attention to typing “correctly” after all “perfect practice makes perfect”. So I started practicing every day, sometimes playing tens of races in a day to improve my accuracy and speed. I used this handy chart to help me remember which fingers to use where: Touch Typing Chart, by Jmarchn: You don’t ever have to think, it just becomes muscle memory since you type the same words exactly the same way every time. This consistency helps the typist to avoid making mistakes, and makes the system easy to remember. Certain fingers are used to press certain keys on the keyboard, and never anything else. If you’re not familiar with touch-typing, the concept is pretty simple. I’m also a software engineer and typing fast means I can get more done, right? More likely I just wanted to get a high score on because I’m competitive. Maybe I decided to learn touch-typing to kill time in my senior year classes at Temple, or maybe I felt bad for typing “wrong” all these years. ![]() ![]() Prior to that I typed using no particular formal technique, some combination of looking at the keys and muscle memory built up by using a computer all my life. In the Spring of 2018 I decided I would learn how to properly touch-type.
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