keyboard layouts

6 files changed, 152 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/atom.xml b/atom.xml
index 17c5e47..6ec8b0d 100644
--- a/atom.xml
+++ b/atom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
   <id>gemini://l-3.space/</id>
   <title>l-3.space</title>
-  <updated>2025-08-23T15:00:00+00:00</updated>
+  <updated>2025-08-24T16:27:00+00:00</updated>
   <author>
     <name>tslil</name>
     <email>hello@l-3.space</email>
@@ -10,12 +10,6 @@
   <link href="gemini://l-3.space/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
   <link href="gemini://l-3.space/" rel="alternate"/>
   <entry>
-    <id>gemini://l-3.space/dwm.gmi</id>
-    <title>Why tiling</title>
-    <updated>2023-12-23T13:59:51.221083+00:00</updated>
-    <link href="gemini://l-3.space/dwm.gmi"/>
-  </entry>
-  <entry>
     <id>gemini://l-3.space/tak.gmi</id>
     <title>Tak</title>
     <updated>2023-12-23T13:59:51.267749+00:00</updated>
@@ -69,4 +63,10 @@
     <updated>2025-08-23T15:00:00+00:00</updated>
     <link href="gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi"/>
   </entry>
+  <entry>
+    <id>gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi</id>
+    <title>Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used</title>
+    <updated>2025-08-24T16:27:00+00:00</updated>
+    <link href="gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi"/>
+  </entry>
 </feed>
diff --git a/index-all.gmi b/index-all.gmi
index 01ce2b2..105d2dd 100644
--- a/index-all.gmi
+++ b/index-all.gmi
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # l-3.space: all
 
 All content
+=> gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi 2025-08-24 - Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi 2025-08-23 - Maybe there are different kinds of lifters
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-1.gmi 2025-08-23 - Well done Debian team
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-240222-1.gmi 2024-02-22 - Formatting strings with separators in BQN
diff --git a/index-log.gmi b/index-log.gmi
index 4e93fb2..484343a 100644
--- a/index-log.gmi
+++ b/index-log.gmi
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 Shorter thoughts and articles.
 
+=> gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi 2025-08-24 - Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi 2025-08-23 - Maybe there are different kinds of lifters
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-1.gmi 2025-08-23 - Well done Debian team
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-211006-1.gmi 2021-10-06 - Play Tak against a bot over Gemini!
diff --git a/index.gmi b/index.gmi
index 4c1e33e..be7aae1 100644
--- a/index.gmi
+++ b/index.gmi
@@ -22,11 +22,11 @@ Contact: hello@l-3.space
 
 ## Recent posts
 
+=> gemini://l-3.space/log-250824-1.gmi 2025-08-24 - Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-2.gmi 2025-08-23 - Maybe there are different kinds of lifters
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-250823-1.gmi 2025-08-23 - Well done Debian team
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-240222-1.gmi 2024-02-22 - Formatting strings with separators in BQN
 => gemini://l-3.space/log-240212-1.gmi 2024-02-12 - APL-likes as a notation for thought
-=> gemini://l-3.space/log-240211-1.gmi 2024-02-11 - Finally an APL for my flying saucer?
 
 ## Indices
 
diff --git a/isrq_comparison.png b/isrq_comparison.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf68b81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/isrq_comparison.png
diff --git a/log-250824-1.gmi b/log-250824-1.gmi
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d97c03b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/log-250824-1.gmi
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+Time-stamp: <2025-08-24 16h27 UTC>
+
+# Thoughts about keyboard layouts i have used
+
+A brief log of what i used, when i used it, how it felt, and why i moved on. Where layouts are presented i've chose to show them in "ortholinear" form (suitable for column staggered keyboards) with the understanding that each column is assigned to a finger from the appropriate hand.
+
+Let the listing commence!
+
+## QWERTY
+
+```
+Q W E R T Y U I O P
+A S D F G H J K L ;
+Z X C V B N M , . /
+```
+
+* Period: late Babylonian - 2008 ?
+* Feel: unknown
+* Dropped because: i realised that there were other options and i was a teenager
+
+## Colemak
+
+I think i found this by looking up a list of "alternate keyboard layouts" which, at the time, probably had two entries and this was the only layout from the then contemporaneous century.
+
+```
+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 , . /
+```
+
+* Period: 2008 (?) - 2011 (?)
+* Feel: very good, except the classic lateral stretch bigrams or, at the time, "my index finger hurts"
+* Dropped because: i was young and thought that i could do better
+
+## ISRQ
+
+For your amusement i present
+```
+' F U Y , G P D M V K Z
+A N E O H L T I S R Q
+/ W ! B ; C - . J X
+```
+
+Actually it was worse than this, i mixed and matched punctuation (eg ! and ? on one key) and various other things.
+
+=> isrq_comparison.png The only PNG i have of the layout
+
+As i wrote at the time
+> I have been using ISR for many a year now, and I can't quite recall what I created it to achieve.
+
+* Period: 2011 (?) - 2013
+* Feel: terrible, but dang it i made it
+* Dropped because: i learned about a concept called humility
+
+Side note: i ended up emailing the author of CarpalX about this layout because i was young and naive and they graciously and patiently replied to explain to me how wrong i was about everything. Thank you Martin Krzywinski!
+
+## Colemak DH
+
+Eventually i looked up whether somebody had made a "colemak but better" and lo, people had done exactly that!
+
+```
+Q W F P B J L U Y ;
+A R S T G M N E I O
+Z X C D V K H , . /
+```
+
+* Period: 2013 - 2016
+* Feel: great! no complaints especially once i discovered the angle/wide mods
+* Dropped because: it was boring to young me
+
+## Workman
+
+```
+Q D R W B J F U P ;
+A S H T G Y N E O I
+Z X M C V K L , . /
+```
+
+* Period: 2016-2018
+* Feel: not great! noticeably worse than colemak dh and it made my hands hurt
+* Dropped because: it made my hands hurt
+
+## Colemank DH (again)
+
+I grew tired of hurting hands.
+
+```
+Q W F P B J L U Y ;
+A R S T G M N E I O
+Z X C D V K H , . /
+```
+
+* Period: 2018-2022
+* Feel: same as before, great!
+* Dropped because: keyboard layouts were going through a renaissance and i had the NIH itch again
+
+## VLOM
+
+There's lots to say here, so i'll just point at the link
+
+=> https://git.sr.ht/~tslil/keyboard
+
+```
+V L O M Q W F U H .
+S R A T K Y C E N I
+X J ' D Z G P / B ,
+```
+
+* Period: 2022-2024
+* Feel: efficient but staccato, no fluidity
+* Dropped because: i realised that my optimisation criteria were not creating the sort of layout that i wanted to actually use
+
+## Pine v4
+
+Unfortunately the author of this layout appears to have removed their pages about the layout. I can say that i came to this by playing around on the following website
+
+=> https://keyboard-layout-battles.fly.dev/
+
+where it seemed that most people found this layout quite comfortable.
+
+```
+Q L C M K ' F U O Y
+N R S T W P H E A I
+J X Z G V B D ; , .
+```
+
+* Period: 2024-2025
+* Feel: alright, more fluid than VLOM and my fastest layout (109WPM monkeytype on a laptop on the bed) but "fiddly" right hand
+* Dropped because: i felt that there were many layouts converging on the new home row meta (NRTS HAEI)
+
+## Gallium
+
+Pine v4 was fast, but too fiddly for my taste. I asked around on some keyboard layout communities which of the new wave of (NRTSHAEI) layouts was worth trying and the answer was essentially "they're all good". Gallium beat out Graphite for me for not optimising punctuation and having a row stagger/angle version ready (work laptop i'm looking at you!).
+
+```
+B L D C V J F O U ,
+N R T S G Y H A E I
+X Q M W Z K P ' / .
+```
+
+* Period: 2025 - ?
+* Feel: very nice, less "fiddly" than pine v4, time will tell whether it beats colemak dh for my taste