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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: oneproduct on Mon, 19 September 2011, 20:18:38

Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Mon, 19 September 2011, 20:18:38
http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?full_optimization

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26941[/ATTACH]

So does anyone actually use this? I'm trying to switch to it now from Colemak as I am curious about it and sort of figure it deserves a trial. At the least then maybe I can bring it to layout discussions in the future if anyone else ever wants an opinion. Did Dvorak before Colemak and QWERTY before that, so I've got some bases covered. Averaged about 85 WPM in those.

Discussion about the layout would be welcome.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Tue, 20 September 2011, 01:45:04
Isn't it at most like 2% better than Colemak?

Overall, however, it looks interesting. Please tell us your thoughts: I'm considering switching from my Dvorak. (I've now typed in Dvorak longer than QWERTY)
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Tue, 20 September 2011, 04:15:18
With 1-2% better or worse, all modern layout are pretty the same in efficiency, but switching from one to another (Dvorak to Colemak, Arensito to QGMLWB) takes a lot of time, so I do not recommend switching the layout often.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Tue, 20 September 2011, 11:20:25
I was more interested in the "feel" of the layout. While Dvorak and Colemak may both be similar in efficiency, they have a very different approach to reaching that efficiency and having tried both, I have to say that I much prefer Colemak and am glad I tried it even after learning Dvorak. I'm hoping the jump from Colemak to QGMLWB (shall we just call this QG for short?) will be equally exciting in that sense. From what I've tried of QG, it seems to be a little between the two with a healthy dose of alternation and rolling, but I'm far too slow with it for now to tell and not entirely sure I'll be able to fully pick it up because of school.

One quick thing to mention is that the inclusion of H on the hand with the vowels makes for far more rolling motions. You get "tHE", "tHAt", "tHOugh" and other similar common goodies. It seems that the letter H is pretty much always followed by a vowel. Off hand the only ones where I know it isn't is when it is at the end of a word (tenth) and weight, though I'm sure I'm just missing some.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Tue, 20 September 2011, 12:19:52
It sorta looks like opposite Dvorak to me, Dvorak has the vowels on the left, QG has them on the right. I mist say, the inclusion of "h" on the homerow in Dvorak makes words like "The" really easy to type.

Good point about "H" almost always being followed by a vowel, though.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Tue, 20 September 2011, 13:19:49
You get similar in Dvorak actually since you have T and H together, which is actually even more common. It's just in Colemak where you lose that, which I recall someone here complaining about, specifically how you have to move to one of the middle columns to reach the H and then because of that movement you'd no longer have your finger hovering on top of the E. However, if you were going to put a consonant over with the vowels, H does seem like a very good choice. You lose the TH, which is the most common digraph in English apparently, but HE is the second and you gain all the other H-vowels as well.

What I was more curious about is why the left hand has STN in that order. A look at common digraphs would make me think that having the N before the T (as is done in Dvorak) would be much more useful in terms of performing rolling motions (though perhaps it would unbalance finger load, which is something more difficult for me to analyse). Furthermore, I would even think that having NST in that order would be even more useful as S and T seem to have a tendency to follow N rather than leading it, not to mention the use of the letter S to pluralize any word that may end in N. Also, as T is a more common letter than N, moving it as such would put it on the more apt index finger (though again, perhaps this is undesirable as the index finger is already busy reaching for the middle column). One thing that is influencing it is perhaps the fact that T and L are on different fingers in the STN arrangement why would reduce same finger usage for words ending with -tly whereas in NST they would lie on the same finger... Hmmm... maybe I better try his layout simulator.

Here's something nifty to look at as well regarding this type of thing: http://scottbryce.com/cryptograms/stats.htm
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Playtrumpet on Tue, 20 September 2011, 14:07:26
Do we have any hard stats on the ease of typing these most common digraphs, trigraphs, short words, etc.? And where are people on the alteration vs. rolling thing and do we have good statistics on those things? I'm not someone who debates, I just like looking at facts. Thanks for that list; I find that information really cool. ^_^
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Tue, 20 September 2011, 14:49:56
Well for things like the "ease" of typing things, it's subjective. It's hard to argue whether alternating is better or worse than rolling. I've tried both Dvorak and Colemak and I have to say that I personally prefer rolling. Some things that are more certain are that when you do roll, it's nicer to roll from the outside of the keyboard inwards, which is why I think that the STN order on the left hand of QG isn't as good as it could be because N seldom comes after S or T but it does come before them quite often. The stats on the carpalx site do include considerations for the ease of typing trigraphs however, so there is some evidence there to support that his layout does perform well in that regard, though it's possible that it scored slightly worse in that and better in other fields which made it come out on top overall, not sure if you can see exactly how much of an effect that individual aspect had on it.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Keymonger on Tue, 20 September 2011, 17:46:10
Quote from: oneproduct;419116
I was more interested in the "feel" of the layout.

This is actually a pretty big deal... I've used Dvorak, a little bit of Colemak, and a custom layout. I prefer my custom layout because it involves certain finger motions that I find very pleasant, and it's very noticeable. Colemak is very neutral and boring, but good nevertheless.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Tue, 20 September 2011, 20:13:28
Ah, you're the person I was referring to before regarding the HE digraph on Colemak, I remember your avatar. I think I recall there was some keyboard layout testing Java applet you were using to test out your layout? I remember seeing one a long time ago but I can't seem to find it any more. I was curious to try some changes to QG. Would also be interested to see your layout if you're willing to share.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Tue, 20 September 2011, 21:52:55
I really like the "th" position on Dvorak, mainly because it's such a natural motion for me. I wonder if there's a layout specifically for "rolling" of common digraphs? I feel like I'd prefer that no dvorak.

Also, I love the lighter weight MX-browns, but I'm taking a bit to get used to them.

how much would you say they switch type impacts your typing? Just as a layout has a "feel", so do the switches. I wonder if there's a better layout for specific switches, or typing styles.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Wed, 21 September 2011, 08:58:04
Yea, TH is pretty good, but like I was saying, TH is usually followed by a vowel so H-vowel on QG is generally just as good except if the TH is at the end of a word (fourth, fifth, sixth and such come to mind). You might have fun with Colemak, which has some more rolling. I went from Dvorak to Colemak and I sure like it better. I really feel that I would like QG more if the left hand had DNST in that order as I feel that that would help rolling a lot more, but I'm not sure if that would detract from it's efficiency in some way that I can't foresee.

I would imagine that lighter switches are better for rolling motions as the idea of the roll is to have a smooth motion. I suppose that conversely, heavier ones would be better for alternating due to what some people say about heavier switches being more typo friendly as you make fewer accidental presses and if you're hunting for one specific key with your finger as you are alternating that could be useful. I've tried blues and reds and I enjoy the reds for making rolls feel so smooth but at the same time, I do probably make more typos with them and I'm pretty sure that I double tap sometimes with them when I don't mean to.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Keymonger on Wed, 21 September 2011, 12:14:27
Quote from: oneproduct;419325
Ah, you're the person I was referring to before regarding the HE digraph on Colemak, I remember your avatar. I think I recall there was some keyboard layout testing Java applet you were using to test out your layout? I remember seeing one a long time ago but I can't seem to find it any more. I was curious to try some changes to QG. Would also be interested to see your layout if you're willing to share.

I think it was this: http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/

I think a lot of analyzing tools aren't good enough and I want to program my own but I'm just beginning programming so it'll take a while.

I'm on qwerty most of the time but here is my touch-type layout

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27015[/ATTACH]

It has some issues but it's mostly good.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: insilica on Thu, 22 September 2011, 08:59:50
ok i've just installed in X using gentoo and I like it - so slow, I feel like a turtle atm
Title: I'm trying QGMLWY
Post by: rgomes on Sun, 02 October 2011, 07:02:27
I would prefer QGMLWY for these reasons:

* ZXCV in same positions as QWERTY
* looks just perfect for Latin language speakers.

My native language is Portuguese... and we use vowels a lot, in every syllable you will find at least one vowel. So, QGMLWY puts all common vowels in the home row, not under the pinkies, which is definitely the right thing to do. I never tried Colemak when I saw that A and O are under the pinkies.

I've provided configuration files for Linux which allow Carpalx layouts be selected via keyboard configuration applet.
I've also created a keyboard emulation for the wonderful Miniguru, in case you would like to have arrows as IJKL.

Links: (sorry guys and gals... I'm not allowed to post links)

     host: mkweb.bcgsc.ca path: carpalx/distribution/carpalx-x11.zip

     host: duartes.org  path: gustavo/blog/post/home-row-computing (see post #26)

I hope it helps :)
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Sun, 02 October 2011, 13:12:20
rgomes, thanks a bunch! I think I'll try this out, later.

Also, you can try using h**p:URL.TLD for paths, and it usually works, I assume that posting links isn't illegal, here, though if it is, I certainly don't condone it.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Sun, 02 October 2011, 21:40:24
This layout needs a name. Let's say Carpak instead of QGMLWB.

For more users, this layout needs a Windows install and typing software courses (Typing Faster, for example). And a separate forum for users to discuss their own experience.

Just like Shai Coleman have done for his Colemak layout.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Fri, 21 October 2011, 22:16:19
Once you are good with Autohotkey, there is a compiling option that allows you to compile the ahk file to exe file like colemak.exe.

Colemak is popular since there is an active community website where users share experiences and help each other.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Playtrumpet on Sat, 22 October 2011, 23:30:30
I was reading more about QGMLWB and I'm more and more impressed with the methodology used to determine this layout.

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?component_optimization

Basically, it starts with a slightly higher "base" (pure finger distance) than Colemak and a few other layouts, but makes up the most because of it's extremely small "penalty" effort (use of off-home rows and certain fingers (e.g ring and pinky)) and "stroke" effort values (hand and finger alternation, row jumping and finger rolling). I really like how objective Mr. Krzywinski is trying to stay in his interpretations of these variables, as well as his suggestion that one must first choose the variables that THEY want optimized in a layout.

QGMLWB offers a great compromise and optimization for stroke and penalty and still maintains a low base. I'm curious to see the program run with different interpretations of what truly makes up the "penalty" data which is by far the most flexible of the data. Base is the most solid since finger distance is pretty easy to measure accurately. Stroke is more flexible and could be up for more interpretation as rolling/vs alteration is usually a personal preference thing, but again, he's made a good call in coming to a midway compromise for that.

I kinda wanna try out this layout now.. Though I just became proficient in Dvorak. I probably won't make another switch anytime soon. =\
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Sun, 23 October 2011, 04:31:48
Agreed. The switching experience is hellishly difficult for the first three weeks so unless you are from Qwerty, changing from Dvorak/Colemak to another layout is not worth 1-2% overall efficiency.

Of course, other people can be more experimenting and have lots of time to switch to another layout just for fun.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: xorxpto on Sun, 20 November 2011, 17:48:05
Quote from: dante;436330
I'd be more inclined to try one of the carpalx layouts if there was a simple .exe to run like Colemak.

i'd say between the three carpalx and colemak layouts I'd prefer carpalx as there is more alternating hands.


With “Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator” you can compile the .klc files found at the carpalx site (http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/distribution/carpalx-pkl-layouts-0.02.zip (http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/distribution/carpalx-pkl-layouts-0.02.zip)) and generate the installation files.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Sun, 20 November 2011, 21:03:02
Hopefully someone with Autohotkey proficiency will produce a portable QGMLWY and other Carpalx .exe soon.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: xorxpto on Mon, 21 November 2011, 04:13:44
Quote from: Tony;456458
Hopefully someone with Autohotkey proficiency will produce a portable QGMLWY and other Carpalx .exe soon.


Something like this?: h**p://dl.dropbox.com/u/49319255/AutoHotKey/QGMLWY.zip

I made this one to use at work.
I carry it in a usb pen, so I can use QGMLWY on computers that don't belong to me.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: funkymeeba on Sun, 27 November 2011, 22:46:57
I have literally never used anything other than qwerty, but I'm going to give this a shot. Got it all set up with Funtoo, now I just need to learn it. So things strike me immediately as being very nice. We'll see how this goes.

UPDATE: My head is in several knots with this right now, but progress is being made, and I am finding it not horribly difficult.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Tony on Mon, 28 November 2011, 02:29:48
Oh, the switching experience is hellish to everyone so be patient. Your head will feel like exploding, your fingers will feel confused, but outwardly there's no physical evidence except high error rate.

This is an optimal layout so the more you use it, the more you realize Qwerty is not good. Try to go at least three weeks typing on it, you will be richly rewarded.

The switching experience is quite the same for any layout. You can read my Colemak switching experience (http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970) for encouragement and fun.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: funkymeeba on Mon, 28 November 2011, 08:42:08
The layout has been simple. I am already able to do it sans-reference, but I am still quite slow. It might be a bit before I'm back to 90+ wpm.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: 7bit on Mon, 28 November 2011, 08:56:57
Pah!

This layout is for wimps!

Real men use Bépo:

(http://deskthority.net/w/images/c/c3/BEPO.png)
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Martin227 on Tue, 20 December 2011, 14:23:28
The CarpalX guy keeps a "Colemak letter mask" which I frankly don't understand at all. You're already changing the layout, what harm is there in moving the punctuation symbols around if that would maximise your efficiency?

That and this guy puts too much emphasis on the math without seemingly evaluating the layouts from a human perspective also, in order look for flaws. Read about the MTGAP guy and his New Keyboard Layout Project. He made a layout generator of his own inspired by Klausler's and Capewell's. You find it at the Mathematical Multicore blog (I'm unable to link – new account restrictions?). I've read all the posts from beginning and he brings up a lot of good points nobody else seems to have, so his machinations are a lot more convincing than CarpalX.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Tue, 20 December 2011, 21:36:13
martin227, is this the link:
http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/mtgaps-keyboard-layout-2-0/

Looks interesting: I agree with the logic of moving the modifiers, and other keys (as a Dvorak user, I must be) I feel like most of these layouts are just missing "something" that they would be great with otherwise.

For example, when I switched from QWERTY, I chose Dvorak over Colemak for a number of reasons. One of them was Colemak keeping the ZXCV placement. While I can't fault the logic of keeping them there, and also agree that there's not too much of a performance reason to move them, It's the principle of the thing that kept me from it.

I really prefer Dvorak's layout of the /=\ keys being all in a row. I'll look into the MTGAP guy's layout. Thanks for the good information!
---
Edit: I'm pretty interested about the below layout:
http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/fully-optimized-standard-keyboard/

Code: [Select]
= 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 q z
y p o u - k d l c w x / j
i n e a , m h t s r "
( ) ; . _ v f g b '
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Martin227 on Wed, 21 December 2011, 04:54:20
That last link is indeed his latest work. It's pretty interesting to note the differences in finger usage to Colemak (note that this is the Kinesis-adapted variety):


MTGAP Full 0.1

Hands: 52% 47%
Fingers: 9% 10% 18% 13% 13% 14% 10% 9%

Code: [Select]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 q
y c o u ( ) l d p w x
i s e a , m h t n r k
_ v " . ; ' f g b -
/ =             z j



Colemak

Hands: 46% 53%
Fingers: 8% 8% 11% 18% 18% 15% 10% 9%

Code: [Select]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 -
q w f p g j l u y ; =
a r s t d h n e i o '
z x c v b k m , . /
_ "             ( )



Less index-finger strain, more emphasis on the middle-finger.

The middle-finger gets too little credit by most layout designers. Considering that this finger also has an easy time jumping one key up in rapid succession – almost as though riding on the momentum of the previous keypress – and owing to its length, the key above the middle-finger home-key has been called essentially another home-key, which this layout recognises. It's a pity it doesn't look quite the same on both sides of the keyboard.


I also like how it's almost completely unrecognisable from QWERTY, like Dvorak, should help prevent confusing the layouts with each other. Only S is on the same location, and H as well as P are just next to their QWERTY position. That's an even better dissonance than Dvorak.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: omuerte on Thu, 22 December 2011, 18:09:28
I downloaded the MS keyboard layout creator earlier today and had a go at setting up a QGMLWB keyboard layout for windows. It should work on xp, vista and win7 both 32 and 64-bit.

I 7-zipped everything and put it up on google docs if anyone wants to play around with QGMLWB in windows: goo.gl/d7yR0

The keyboard layout creator source file (.klc) is included if you're paranoid and would like to build the installers from scratch yourself. The key layout creator is a bit buggy so you may have to flex your google-fu to get it to work perfectly if you want to build a layout from scratch. Other than the bugs the layout creator is trivial to use so you can bang out a layout in a couple of minutes, it's pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to giving QGML a try here.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: xorxpto on Thu, 22 December 2011, 19:57:38
Quote from: omuerte;476249
I 7-zipped everything and put it up on google docs if anyone wants to play around with QGMLWB in windows: goo.gl/d7yR0


Has already been done:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?24370 (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?24370-QGMLWB-keyboard-layout)
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: omuerte on Thu, 22 December 2011, 22:40:09
My bad, I noticed the same thing shortly after I posted. Oh well.
Title: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: oneproduct on Thu, 22 December 2011, 23:57:41
Quote from: dorkvader;474871
martin227, is this the link:
http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/mtgaps-keyboard-layout-2-0/

Looks interesting: I agree with the logic of moving the modifiers, and other keys (as a Dvorak user, I must be) I feel like most of these layouts are just missing "something" that they would be great with otherwise.

For example, when I switched from QWERTY, I chose Dvorak over Colemak for a number of reasons. One of them was Colemak keeping the ZXCV placement. While I can't fault the logic of keeping them there, and also agree that there's not too much of a performance reason to move them, It's the principle of the thing that kept me from it.

I really prefer Dvorak's layout of the /=\ keys being all in a row. I'll look into the MTGAP guy's layout. Thanks for the good information!
---
Edit: I'm pretty interested about the below layout:
http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/fully-optimized-standard-keyboard/

Code: [Select]
= 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 q z
y p o u - k d l c w x / j
i n e a , m h t s r "
( ) ; . _ v f g b '

Careful! That article is quite old (Jan 16) and if you look in the comments that is no longer the layout the author recommends. This comment posted by him in reply to that article on Nov 2 recommends a different layout: http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/fully-optimized-standard-keyboard/#comment-1877

b  l  m  p  v   j  u  o  c  q
 n  s  t  h  d   .  i  e  r  a
 w  x  g  f  k   ;  y  ,  z  '
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Flaubertt on Sat, 08 June 2013, 15:07:24
I'm currently testing the QGMLWB layout (I call it QG-B for short, to distinguish it from other members of its family), and my WPM has dropped ~95%, which is a smaller plunge than I was expecting. In time I do think that I'll surpass my QWERTY speed, and even in this early stage I can feel it considerably superior to QWERTY.

Also, I do think QG-B is pretty optimal (if that makes sense). In that regard, I think that Dvorak, Colemak and a couple others are also good solutions. In the end I don't think that there's an absolute and strictly optimal layout, because the solutions to the optimization problem depend on your criteria for 'best layout' (and that's somewhat subjective), not to mention that they're stochastic (random layouts are tested a few thousand times, and the one remaining in the end is considered the 'optimal' solution of that run), because in order to find a truly deterministic solution we'd have to compute ~10^26 layouts for any given set of criteria!

So, QG-B might not be a truly optimal solution, and its criteria may not be THE criteria, but under those criteria it IS better than Dvorak, Coleman and others (not by much), and those are criteria I value, so I went ahead and chose it.

And yes, I did type all of this in QG-B, and it took me like 1 hour! Learning pains....
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: davkol on Sat, 08 June 2013, 16:34:44
Well, the only problem is the corpus. QGMLWB might be optimal for some English corpus, but not e.g. French.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Flaubertt on Sat, 08 June 2013, 17:31:00
Well, the only problem is the corpus. QGMLWB might be optimal for some English corpus, but not e.g. French.
Ahhhhh yes!!! There's that too!!
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sun, 09 June 2013, 18:13:31
I wish I could find everything as interesting as keyboard  metrics.

The short story: On a Kinesis Advantage I use Colemak from qwerty...and I've played with Dvorak too. According to CarpalX there seem to be several "improvements" to Colemak, and/or other alternatives. My first choice would be to try one of the "improved Colemaks", or possibly the layout discussed in this thread.  My hesitation to changing/modifying what I currently use is that I almost doubt I'll notice any difference, and using Colemak is so convenient now that it's selectable part of operating systems. And, the metrics don't tell the whole story.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Flaubertt on Sun, 09 June 2013, 22:35:14
I wish I could find everything as interesting as keyboard  metrics.

The short story: On a Kinesis Advantage I use Colemak from qwerty...and I've played with Dvorak too. According to CarpalX there seem to be several "improvements" to Colemak, and/or other alternatives. My first choice would be to try one of the "improved Colemaks", or possibly the layout discussed in this thread.  My hesitation to changing/modifying what I currently use is that I almost doubt I'll notice any difference, and using Colemak is so convenient now that it's selectable part of operating systems. And, the metrics don't tell the whole story.
As far as convenience goes, this is a major point for me. There's a compiled Autohotkey file that you just double-click to enable the your layout, and then close it from the taskbar to disable it.
If I didn't have the certainty that I can activate my layout in any computer and de-activate just as easily, I wouldn't use it at all!!

I'd love to hear the long story :(
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sun, 09 June 2013, 22:57:17
I wish I could find everything as interesting as keyboard  metrics.

The short story: On a Kinesis Advantage I use Colemak from qwerty...and I've played with Dvorak too. According to CarpalX there seem to be several "improvements" to Colemak, and/or other alternatives. My first choice would be to try one of the "improved Colemaks", or possibly the layout discussed in this thread.  My hesitation to changing/modifying what I currently use is that I almost doubt I'll notice any difference, and using Colemak is so convenient now that it's selectable part of operating systems. And, the metrics don't tell the whole story.
As far as convenience goes, this is a major point for me. There's a compiled Autohotkey file that you just double-click to enable the your layout, and then close it from the taskbar to disable it.
If I didn't have the certainty that I can activate my layout in any computer and de-activate just as easily, I wouldn't use it at all!!

I'd love to hear the long story :(

I use Mac most of the time, and AutoHotKey is a PC program...so I think I'm out of the running on having a quick "drop in" solution for layout modifications (other than remapping on my Kinesis). But again, I'm not too sure there will be much of a difference. I don't mind remapping a few keys, but any more than that is a bit of a pain if I want to switch back and forth to try out different layouts.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: tufty on Mon, 10 June 2013, 00:45:32
I use Mac most of the time, and AutoHotKey is a PC program...so I think I'm out of the running on having a quick "drop in" solution for layout modifications (other than remapping on my Kinesis).
Are ya cobblers.  Since 10.2, adding a keyboard layout has been a simple matter of dropping a new .keylayout file into ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts and selecting it in the control panel.  It's a bloody sight easier than under Widnows.

Under the "language and text" preferences, there should be an option to show the input menu in the menu bar; select this and you get a little menu at the top of the screen where you can select between layouts.  There's also a key combination to cycle layouts, I forget what it is.

Wanna edit your layouts?  http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Tue, 11 June 2013, 21:13:38
I use Mac most of the time, and AutoHotKey is a PC program...so I think I'm out of the running on having a quick "drop in" solution for layout modifications (other than remapping on my Kinesis).
Are ya cobblers.  Since 10.2, adding a keyboard layout has been a simple matter of dropping a new .keylayout file into ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts and selecting it in the control panel.  It's a bloody sight easier than under Widnows.

Under the "language and text" preferences, there should be an option to show the input menu in the menu bar; select this and you get a little menu at the top of the screen where you can select between layouts.  There's also a key combination to cycle layouts, I forget what it is.

Wanna edit your layouts?  http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele (http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele)

Thanks for that, I had entirely forgotten about Ukelele, I had never actually used it but I had downloaded it years ago. Off to see what I can do!
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Burz on Tue, 18 June 2013, 00:55:08
Mmmm... this stuff about Colemak and Dvorak being within 1-2% of each other:

Not according to Carpalx. I recall them showing Colemak at about 13% less effort than Dvorak.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Tue, 18 June 2013, 01:19:42
I'm not up to speed with the alleged actual percentage differences, but I think there is a bit of an error in that 1-2% statement. I believe it's more of a difference relating from qwerty, and a big change to Dvorak, with a modest change to Colemak, and from that point the differences are 1-3% or something very similar. You're basically trading positives/negatives with other positives/negatives.

CarpalX is very interesting, fun and a great piece of work, but remember, it's not all inclusive and is certainly not the final word on layouts (even though I'm captivated by the website).

The Colmak forum has some very informative threads on the DRAWBACKS of the 'improved Colemaks', QGMLWB family of layouts and Workman. You gotta search because I don't have the threads handy at this time and it's late at night, so I gotta sleep: http://forum.colemak.com/index.php
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Burz on Tue, 18 June 2013, 23:56:24
I'm not up to speed with the alleged actual percentage differences, but I think there is a bit of an error in that 1-2% statement. I believe it's more of a difference relating from qwerty, and a big change to Dvorak, with a modest change to Colemak, and from that point the differences are 1-3% or something very similar. You're basically trading positives/negatives with other positives/negatives.

CarpalX is very interesting, fun and a great piece of work, but remember, it's not all inclusive and is certainly not the final word on layouts (even though I'm captivated by the website).

The Colmak forum has some very informative threads on the DRAWBACKS of the 'improved Colemaks', QGMLWB family of layouts and Workman. You gotta search because I don't have the threads handy at this time and it's late at night, so I gotta sleep: http://forum.colemak.com/index.php

Another interesting work is the layout analyzer at the andong.co.uk site. It doesn't seem as rigorous as Carpalx, but it is fun to try layout variations there. I once did a tweak of Colemak that was 4% more efficient (if backspace was included in simulation).
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Fri, 21 June 2013, 00:35:50
<gonna post this in another similar thread>

http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1525

This link was sent to me by DreymaR even though I participated in it, but couldn't remember where it was.

It covers the ideas behind various metrics used in determining layouts and some pros/cons. It touches on some concepts. From what I remember it may beat a dead horse and, but should say a lot of what is going on in these couple threads. I post because I think it's relevant in the idea of changing layouts and why.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jroes on Tue, 28 January 2014, 10:16:28
Hey guys!

If you want to use QGMLWB on OSX, here's a layout I created with Ukelele: https://github.com/jroes/QGMLWB
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Tue, 28 January 2014, 23:42:40
Hey guys!

If you want to use QGMLWB on OSX, here's a layout I created with Ukelele: https://github.com/jroes/QGMLWB

Hey, thanks for that! So helpful for those of us that always "mean" to do something but sometimes have issues getting to it………
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx + emulators for MINIGURU and TEX Yoda
Post by: rgomes on Wed, 22 October 2014, 13:29:19
I inform that I've created a xkb configuration for X11 (Linux/FreeBSD) which contains QGMLWB (among others) and also provides emulation for MINIGURU and TEX Yoda keyboards. There's also some small bits aiming making life of Emacs users less stressing.

https://github.com/frgomes/carpalx

This package is sort of evolution of a similar thing (but without the emulators for MINIGURU and TEX Yoda) that I've previously published on the CarpalX Research website.

I hope it helps :)
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Mon, 27 October 2014, 23:30:24
I inform that I've created a xkb configuration for X11 (Linux/FreeBSD) which contains QGMLWB (among others) and also provides emulation for MINIGURU and TEX Yoda keyboards. There's also some small bits aiming making life of Emacs users less stressing.

https://github.com/frgomes/carpalx

This package is sort of evolution of a similar thing (but without the emulators for MINIGURU and TEX Yoda) that I've previously published on the CarpalX Research website.

I hope it helps :)

Great stuff!
Thanks for putting all the info on Github, very tasty indeed. :)
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Vibex on Mon, 27 October 2014, 23:33:09
To tired right now, but I'll give this a look tomorrow. Always interested in this kind of stuff. :p

EDIT: Just looked at the dates on this thread, seems I'm a little late. :))
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: PieterGen on Tue, 28 October 2014, 09:29:45
Mmmm... this stuff about Colemak and Dvorak being within 1-2% of each other:
Not according to Carpalx. I recall them showing Colemak at about 13% less effort than Dvorak.

The scores of layouts depend on the underlying scoring model that is used. What is the penalty for same hand strings? Waht are penalties for the top row and bottom row? Are (qwerty) W and E seen as equally bad as Q, R and T? What about neighbouring fingers, especially pinky and ring: is there an extra penalty for (qwerty) AS? Do you see outward rolls (SA) as superior to inward rolls? (AS)?  Do you prefer a layout where 90% of all words are very nice to type, but 10% are really bad; or do you prefer a layout in which 99% of words are reasonably well ? Etc.

Of course, in Carpalx model, the Carpalx layout scores the best. That is the layout that the algorithm has produces, so by definition it will score the best! Just as the ADNW algorithm sees the ADNW layout as the best, and MTGAP sees the MTGAP layout as the best! :-)
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: Input Nirvana on Tue, 28 October 2014, 10:17:36
Mmmm... this stuff about Colemak and Dvorak being within 1-2% of each other:
Not according to Carpalx. I recall them showing Colemak at about 13% less effort than Dvorak.

The scores of layouts depend on the underlying scoring model that is used. What is the penalty for same hand strings? Waht are penalties for the top row and bottom row? Are (qwerty) W and E seen as equally bad as Q, R and T? What about neighbouring fingers, especially pinky and ring: is there an extra penalty for (qwerty) AS? Do you see outward rolls (SA) as superior to inward rolls? (AS)?  Do you prefer a layout where 90% of all words are very nice to type, but 10% are really bad; or do you prefer a layout in which 99% of words are reasonably well ? Etc.

Of course, in Carpalx model, the Carpalx layout scores the best. That is the layout that the algorithm has produces, so by definition it will score the best! Just as the ADNW algorithm sees the ADNW layout as the best, and MTGAP sees the MTGAP layout as the best! :-)


Whaaat???
Data is biased?
Say it ain't so!
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dusan on Tue, 28 October 2014, 12:50:10
Quote from: Carpalx
The statistics that Carpalx uses attempt to capture the essential human factors of typing. Fundamental considerations like finger travel distance and symmetric hand use can easily be agreed upon. More nuanced ones, like finger rolling and curling vs extending are harder to pin down — but extremely important. It's realtively easy to improve on QWERTY. It's much harder to refine a layout that already achieves all the fundamental improvements. already good layout.

The Workman layout incorporates advanced human factors and discusses their application to Dvorak and Colemak.

In recent conversation with Stephen O'Connor (Sep 2011), who has analyzed the Workman layout, I've been persuaded to seriously reconsider the parameters in my effort model. In particular, I do not consider that the index, middle and ring fingers have different prefered motions, for a given travel distance. For example, most will agree that the ring finger prefers to extend for the W rather than curl to the equidistant X. On the other hand, the index finger has easier access to V than R.


The Carpalx documentation didn't make it explicit on keyboard geometry. But it seems that the model keyboard is ortho-linear, while the physical keyboard that has been used to collect user's experiences (hence, to establish the concrete values of parameters) is staggered.

The inconsistency is big enough to invalidate the result (i.e. the optimized layout). Validity can be doubted even more, when it is applied back to a physical keyboard that is heavily non-ortholinear, such as the staggered keyboard.

The same problem may apply on other alternative layouts that are designed under similar considerations. The Dvorak layout is an exception, as it is heavily asymmetrical.

That's not to say that I'm trying to underestimate the methodology. I think the Carpalx model is sound. But as a model, it can output anything, depends on what data one puts into it.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Tue, 28 October 2014, 14:05:09
The Carpalx documentation didn't make it explicit on keyboard geometry. But it seems that the model keyboard is ortho-linear, while the physical keyboard that has been used to collect user's experiences (hence, to establish the concrete values of parameters) is staggered.

The inconsistency is big enough to invalidate the result (i.e. the optimized layout). Validity can be doubted even more, when it is applied back to a physical keyboard that is heavily non-ortholinear, such as the staggered keyboard. [...] That's not to say that I'm trying to underestimate the methodology. I think the Carpalx model is sound. But as a model, it can output anything, depends on what data one puts into it.
I think the Carpalx scoring model seems mostly arbitrary, and I wouldn’t trust any of the results that come out of it. I don’t think it makes any more sense on an ortho-linear keyboard (which one?!) than on a row-staggered standard keyboard.

Very little justification is provided for the scoring Carpalx uses, and what justification there is seems mostly like one guy’s opinion.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: batfink on Sat, 06 December 2014, 12:01:12
Very little justification is provided for the scoring Carpalx uses, and what justification there is seems mostly like one guy’s opinion.

Carpalx's contribution is interesting, but I think there is a fundamental flaw in the base effort values he uses. For example, the Qwerty G key is deemed equal to Qwerty E and C.  The result of this flaw is that it ends up giving too much priority to the centre column and not enough to the easiest non-home keys. I can't see how having I and R in the centre column can possibly be a good idea.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Sat, 06 December 2014, 23:31:19
As one simple example, I find I can type the english word “doing” extremely quickly and easily on a QWERTY keyboard, probably among the easiest 5-letter words to type on QWERTY: every letter uses a different finger, the three letters 'oin' happen in one fluid motion rolling the right hand from outside-in, there’s a gap the 'd' and 'g' giving my left index finger time to reach over to the 'g', and since the hands are naturally rotated a bit, hitting the top row is very easy with my middle and ring fingers, while hitting the bottom row 'n' is very easy with my index finger.

In the “carpalx” scoring model, however, o, i, n, and g fall on keys with "2.0" base difficulty scores, and then there are additional penalties for the lack of hand alternation in the 'oin' triplet, and for the row changes (for 'oin' there is a 'path effort' by type of 3.2, I’m still not exactly clear on how to calculate the full effort score, as the complete model is very complex and the spec is very confusing).

In this example, the scoring model doesn’t correspond even in a loose way to real-world effort.

The problem is that the scoring was developed based on one guy’s untested personal ideas/preferences, rather than being based on any kind of evidence.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: davkol on Sun, 07 December 2014, 03:03:48
easily ~ with a two-row jump in adjacent columns in one digram
confusing ~ documented in English (!) on about seven A4 pages with several very simple formulas, and writen in a few dozens of surprisingly clean lines of Perl code
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Sun, 07 December 2014, 04:44:37
easily ~ with a two-row jump in adjacent columns in one digram
confusing ~ documented in English (!) on about seven A4 pages with several very simple formulas, and writen in a few dozens of surprisingly clean lines of Perl code
I don’t understand your comment. Can you rephrase that?

Edit: I think I understand, you’re disagreeing with my characterizations of the "in" digram as "easy to type", and the carpalx scoring model as "confusing". I stand by both.

Just looking at rows is a really bad analysis for a standard keyboard, because the fingers don’t sit in a line when the hand is in a relaxed position. Here’s a diagram I made showing approximately how the fingers reach:
(http://i.imgur.com/BODnxsT.png)
[This is by no means a perfect picture, but it illustrates the concept here.]

Some parts of the model would seem to make more sense in context of a column-staggered keyboard (in practice I think the scoring is still bad on basically any keyboard, but it would at least have a certain logic), but the Carpalx model purports to be about a standard keyboard.

As for confusing, I didn’t try reading or running the code, I’m just going off the webpage. It’s not that any particular formula or step is especially tricky, but rather that the model itself is very complex with many steps that to my mind don’t make logical sense, and figuring out exactly how the parts fit together is not trivial. I’m sure if I spent 30–60 minutes I could figure out all the implications. The way the model will score any particular text is not transparent at a glance. You need to work through all the steps in detail, and the resulting numbers aren’t intuitively obvious.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: davkol on Sun, 07 December 2014, 05:32:06
I certainly wouldn't call such stretch (or moving the whole hand that distance) "easy".
(http://i.imgur.com/jQFtvCq.jpg)

Commenting on the model is pointless at this point.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Sun, 07 December 2014, 05:47:51
Tomorrow, I’ll try to figure out how to make a video of myself typing the word 'doing' to demonstrate. Not sure if I have any cameras that are great for it, but we’ll see. At the very least I can take some pictures. In your picture, your hand is not in a remotely natural typing position.

* * *

Generally, I’d love to see someone set up keyboard firmware to precisely record the timing of every keypress (accurate to within 5-10 milliseconds if possible) and then try to compare relative typing fluency (speed, accuracy) against the predictions of models like this. There is obviously going to be some distortion from more common combinations getting memorized as units, so there likely won’t be a precise correlation between typing speed/fluency and difficulty of making the hand gestures in the abstract, but it would still be a good check on  models. If the models are sound, then it should be possible to corroborate them with real typing data.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Sun, 07 December 2014, 20:28:16
Okay, I read the model page again, here’s my summary:

For any particular triad of three characters in a row:

triad effort e = kbkb₁(1 + kb₂(1 + kb₃)) + kpkp₁(1 + kp₂(1 + kp₃)) + ks ⋅ s

Where the bs are "base effort" (roughly, distance from the "home" position), ps are "penalty" (each penalty value is made up of four subparts: base penalty, hand penalty, row penalty, and finger penalty), and s is the "stroke path" which is a basically arbitrary value that you look up in a table of 100+ entries, and the ks represent arbitrary weights that can be adjusted to a user’s preferences.

Default parameter values:

   • kb = 0.3555, kp = 0.6423, ks = 0.4268

   • k₁ = 1, k₂ = 0.367, k₃ = 0.235

   • base penalty and hand penalty default to zero, so the default penalty p for each key is the sum of: {1.9632 for the number row or 0.6544 for the top row or 0 for the home row or 1.3088 for the bottom row} + {0 for the index finger or 0 for the middle finger or 1.2974 for the ring finger or 2.5948 for the pinky}.

Here are the base values b:
(http://i.imgur.com/yGZ7hQ6.png)

And here’s the table of "stroke path" values s:
(http://i.imgur.com/NxRJvuV.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/U88tX1d.png)

Now, I dunno about you, but I think this model is very complex without sufficient evidence (or really any evidence) for taking the form it has. It seems totally arbitrary to me.

I also find this model very difficult to reason about. Like, if I think up a particular triad of characters, it takes a few minutes to calculate out the score for it, if I try to do it manually. I should try to figure out how to get the code running to actually compute some example triad/word/sentence scores. I can’t intuitively guess which triads are going to be more or less expensive, because the model has so many moving parts.

As one example oddity: any triad which begins on 'f', 'd', 'j', or 'k' ends up with both the "base effort" and "penalty" portions of the score as 0, so the full difficulty of any such triad is left entirely up to the "stroke path" component.
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: jacobolus on Sun, 07 December 2014, 21:09:47
So as an example, let’s work through the score for the triad "oin":

triad effort e =
         kbkb₁(1 + kb₂(1 + kb₃)) +
         kpkp₁(1 + kp₂(1 + kp₃)) +
         ks ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ b₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ b₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ b₃)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ p₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ p₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ p₃)) +
         0.4268 ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ 2.0 ⋅ (1 + 0.367 ⋅ 2.0 ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ 2.0)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ (1.2974 + 0.6544) ⋅ (1 + 0.367 ⋅ (0 + 0.6544)(1 + 0.235 ⋅ (0 + 1.3088)) +
         0.4268 ⋅ 2.9
      = 0.3555 ⋅ 4.15796 +
         0.6423 ⋅ 2.5647272813054514 +
         0.4268 ⋅ 2.9
      = 1.47815478 + 1.6473243327824914 + 1.23772
      = 4.363199112782491


As another example, let’s work through the triad "fad":

triad effort e =
         kbkb₁(1 + kb₂(1 + kb₃)) +
         kpkp₁(1 + kp₂(1 + kp₃)) +
         ks ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ b₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ b₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ b₃)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ p₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ p₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ p₃)) +
         0.4268 ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ 0 ⋅ (1 + 0.367 ⋅ 0 ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ 0)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ (0 + 0)(1 + 0.367 ⋅ (0 + 2.5948) ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ (0 + 0))) +
         0.4268 ⋅ 2.6
      = 0.3555 ⋅ 0 ⋅ (1 + 0.367 ⋅ 0 ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ 0)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ (0 + 0)(1 + 0.367 ⋅ (0 + 2.5948) ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ (0 + 0))) +
         0.4268 ⋅ 2.6
      = 0 + 0 + 1.10968
      = 1.10968

Personally, I find "oin" easier to type than "fad". For example, if I repeatedly type "foinfoinfoinfoinfoin" I can type that dramatically faster and more fluently than typing "jfadjfadjfadjfad".

Now for one third example, let’s work through the triad "d.-":

triad effort e =
         kbkb₁(1 + kb₂(1 + kb₃)) +
         kpkp₁(1 + kp₂(1 + kp₃)) +
         ks ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ b₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ b₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ b₃)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ p₁(1 + 0.367 ⋅ p₂(1 + 0.235 ⋅ p₃)) +
         0.4268 ⋅ s
      = 0.3555 ⋅ 0 ⋅ (1 + 0.367 ⋅ 2.0 ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ 4.0)) +
         0.6423 ⋅ (0 + 0)(1 + 0.367 ⋅ (1.3088 + 1.2974) ⋅ (1 + 0.235 ⋅ (1.9632 + 2.5948))) +
         0.4268 ⋅ 2.1
      = 0 + 0 + 0.89628
      = 0.89628

Even if you disagree with me and think "fad" is four times easier to type than "oin", I hope you’ll at least agree that both are much easier to type than "d.-".

(Note: I’m not 100% sure I’m interpreting the model right or that my arithmetic is correct here; feel free to correct any mistakes.)
Title: Re: QGMLWB by carpalx
Post by: dorkvader on Mon, 08 December 2014, 13:39:48
Now, I dunno about you, but I think this model is very complex without sufficient evidence (or really any evidence) for taking the form it has. It seems totally arbitrary to me.

This is the main issue I have had with the various keyboard layout. I initially learned Dvorak because it's the only "good" one that's ubiquitous (other than qwerty). I started looking into other ones. Capewell, artensio, colemak, etc.

And I found that in general, it was totally arbitrary. Even the more modern ones like workman and carpalx are somewhat arbitrary. I think this is because there's really no "hard" evidence on what is "easy" vs. "hard" for keyboards. This is partially because the keyboard layout is probably not too conducive to such study, and partially because everyone is different, so we all have different preferences.

Dvorak favors alternation, colemak is on a "roll", capewell only has basic changes, but are well intended like colemak. carpalx and workman have their formulae. When I was reading through them as a young GH'er, I thought that everyone had their "idea" about how things should be, but they spend way more time on comparing their "model" to others and crunching a bunch of numbers though it than coming up with a really good model.

bytheway in dvorak, "oin" is really easy to type and "fad" is somewhat difficult.