Workman VS mtgap-layout

Just to add a bit of data to the ergonomics claims (of which I find many people are skeptical):

https://workmanlayout.org/#tests-using-popular-books

Now, this is a site extolling the virtues of yet another layout, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt, but the methodology seems sound to me. (Though I used Workman in the past, I've since moved to Colemak due to a combination of it being built-in to Apple OSs and my dislike of the "ly" digram being on the same finger in Workman, plus some other factors.)

Even though Dvorak is the "least efficient" of the three QWERTY alternatives measured, it's still over a 40% reduction in finger travel distance compared to QWERTY. "Distance traveled" is obviously not the sole factor in ergonomics, but it's equally obviously a big one.

Workman [0] was designed to be used on an ortho keyboard, though it is also usable on a normal keyboard. I suppose it's tricky to design for many modern features as they are not yet standardised between keyboards.

[0] https://workmanlayout.org/

Just take a look at the test results that the author of workman keyboard layout made: https://workmanlayout.org/

You might also find https://web.archive.org/web/20130512065149/http://www.andong... interesting. The theory is that since you only ever have a space after a comma, you can use it as a dead key, and just have ", " output ", ". That then frees all the other letter combos to be whatever key you want.

There are other keyboard layouts out there with the same concept too: https://github.com/workman-layout/Workman/tree/master/mac#wo...

The layout used is Workman US (programmer variant).

In my experience it does become harder to type on staggered keyboards unless you're continuing to do it regularly. You may need to relearn to do that. Same deal with continuing QWERTY usage.

VIA is proprietary and not really an official QMK thing (QMK is free software). There is also Vial[0] which is free software if you want a GUI, and the QMK configurator[1] web app (but this lacks some features like enabling mouse keys or NKRO).

Lastly I want to add that Workman[2] may be preferable to Colemak Mod-DH. Rather than an attempt to fix major issues in Colemak like Mod-DH, it's a whole new layout that avoided the issues from the start. I have also heard from some that it had ortholinear and columnar stagger boards in mind with its design.

I type on a Pinky4[3] keyboard that I assembled from a kit. More keys than your keyboard, but a similar idea. I was coming from a 60% and wanted a similar amount of keys. I've been quite happy with it.

[0] https://get.vial.today/

[1] https://config.qmk.fm/#/

[2] https://workmanlayout.org/

[3] https://github.com/tamanishi/Pinky4

read these thoughts behind the invention of workman layout

I was checking miryoku to use it when I get the Defy, or at least try it. But I don't quite get the part of "workman as alphas". I saw workman, but which ones are the alphas? The numbers?

For the most popular alternative keyboard layouts, Dvorak and Colemak, it seems like the keys on the home row — including the keys in the middle columns — are viewed as the best positions. Some people argue that the lateral movement to reach the middle column requires more effort than moving some fingers up and down, and that the middle columns thus should be de-emphasized. This approach has been taken for many newer layouts, such as the Workman layout and the Colemak Mod-DH layout. Some computer-optimized layouts such as the MTGAP layout and the very recent Engram layout even avoid putting letters at all in the middle columns, and use some or all of those keys for punctuation marks.

MTGAP is usually considered the best. You can visit r/keyboardlayouts for talk.

I recommend either Semimak, Mtgap or ISRT.