An AI designed keyboard layout (2021)
Alternative keyboard layouts are fascinating, but always raise a couple of questions for me and I wonder if anyone here can come up with actual experiences regarding the following topics:- I have been using standard german QWERTZ for about 42 years now, in average certainly not less than 3 hours every day. I was originally educated in proper 10 finger blind typing in a dedicated typing school as part of my typesetter apprenticeship. I am typing really fast. Today I am even using "daskeyboard ultimate" - a completely unlabeled keyboard. Is it really possible to improve 42 years typing practice with a new layout?- Is it possible to be proficient in two keyboard layouts at the same time? I have a partial answer myself. For one, I managed to learn standard Emacs shortcuts (a lot of them!) some of which contradict common OS shortcuts (like copy/paste etc) and I have both sets in muscle memory and I can seamlessly switch between both sets as I switch applications (most of the time that is). And I use three computers with three OSs (Linux, Win, Mac) with one keyboard per Synergy software. Same layout for the standard characters, but different OS specific layouts for special characters like "@", "€" etc. I can seamlessly switch between them as well and that is the reason for the unlabeled keyboard. A labeled keyboard would show only one layout and puzzle me if I had to enter special characters for another. So, while I know I can handle some number of characters in alternate layouts in muscle memory - will this be possible for the entire character set as well?- If you get accustomed to a non-standard keyboard layout, isn't it a problem if you have to use some other computer (where you cannot change the layout) for whatever reason, for example in an Internet cafe?