Homing keys in the number row.

[Giorgio]

In order to make it easier to input a numbers, I'm considering the use of homing keys in the 4 and 6 positions. Do you think that it would make a difference in speed and in decreasing the number of mistakes? I'm talking about small sessions in which I enter only numbers.

[berserkfan]

In order to make it easier to input a numbers, I'm considering the user of homing keys in the 4 and 6 positions. Do you think that it would make a difference in speed and in decreasing the number of mistakes? I'm talking about small sessions in which I enter only numbers.

AHHAAAAA!

You are obviously a 60% or TKL user!

Most people don't require homing keys because they have enough muscle memory to input the @#$%^. When they need to type only numbers and don't have the benefit of muscle memory by returning to alphas periodically, they use numpad.

This my dear sir is why you should use a fullsize keyboard like me. I've got 128 keys on my board; enough to do lots of things with! (Hint: buy from your neighbour Slovenia.)

[PieterGen]

How about this one from MTGAP?

9 7 5 3 % $ 2 4 6 8
/ = * 1 \ _ 0 : ; #
< > ^ + | @ [ ] { }

The author (not me, but Michael  Dic kens from MTGAP) writes:  "You press AltGr to access this layout. This layout puts the most common special characters on the home keys. It's also easy to remember: I spent no time trying to memorize it, but I have no problem remembering it. Odd numbers are all on the left, and evens are on the right. All the paired symbols (like brackets) are on the bottom. All the mathematical symbols are on the left. \ and |, which are on the same key in QWERTY, are next to each other. As a little bonus, % is in its QWERTY position."

[Sigmoid]

I believe 9753 2468 was originally part of the Dvorak Simplified design... It definitely does make some sense.

Anyway... I do think that in theory, having homing keys on the number row would make sense. Numpads are sure cool to have though, even if on an Fn layer.

[PieterGen]

I believe 9753 2468 was originally part of the Dvorak Simplified design... It definitely does make some sense.

Yeah, sort of. The original Dvorak (not the "Simplified Dvorak") was 7531902468. The idea is Benford's Law, that states that not all numbers are typed as much:


So the smaller numbers (much typed) should be on stonger fingers. This is not like the standard qwerty layout in which 1 and 2 are on pinky and ring finger.
 
The layoutidea from Mtgap takes Dvorak' s idea further: 1 and 0 are on the home row, the other numbers are on the Q row (= closer than the numbers row) and other numerical characters, such as = + : () and so on are easy to type.

Hmm.... I may even try this one out myself!