Here’s the Deal

QWERTY vs Colemak

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When comparing QWERTY vs Colemak, the Slant community recommends Colemak for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” Colemak is ranked 1st while QWERTY is ranked 5th.

Specs

Bottom Row Key Freq.13.9%

Consecutive Same-Hand Keystrokes (L/R)65.5%/34.5%

Home Row Key Freq.27.0%

Left Index Finger Travel28.5%

Left Index Finger Usage18.6%

Left Little Finger Travel0.4%

Left Little Finger Usage6.4%

Left Middle Finger Travel22.0%

Left Middle Finger Usage18.2%

Left Ring Finger Travel2.6%

Left Ring Finger Usage7.1%

Right Index Finger Travel25.5%

Right Index Finger Usage15.4%

Right Little Finger Travel3.5%

Right Little Finger Usage2.4%

Right Middle Finger Travel8.6%

Right Middle Finger Usage6.2%

Right Ring Finger Travel8.8%

Right Ring Finger Usage10.4%

Spacebar Row Key Freq.15.3%

Thumb Usage15.3%

Top Row Key Freq.43.8%

Bottom Row Key Freq.8.8%

Consecutive Same-Hand Keystrokes (L/R)40.2%/59.8%

Home Row Key Freq.59.8%

Left Index Finger Travel34.4%

Left Index Finger Usage16.8%

Left Little Finger Travel0.9%

Left Little Finger Usage6.4%

Left Middle Finger Travel14.6%

Left Middle Finger Usage10.1%

Left Ring Finger Travel5.1%

Left Ring Finger Usage7.8%

Right Index Finger Travel31.0%

Right Index Finger Usage16.2%

Right Little Finger Travel0.7%

Right Little Finger Usage6.2%

Right Middle Finger Travel7.8%

Right Middle Finger Usage14.0%

Right Ring Finger Travel5.4%

Right Ring Finger Usage7.4%

Spacebar Row Key Freq.15.3%

Thumb Usage15.3%

Top Row Key Freq.16.1%

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?

QWERTY

Colemak

Pros

Pro
Popular

You don't have to carry your own keyboard everywhere, QWERTY is pretty popular.

Pro
Default keyboard shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts for most applications were designed with QWERTY in mind.

Pro
Good for Vim users

Vim is most natural in QWERTY, since this is the layout it was designed on. Learning a good editor will help with your programming a lot more than learning a new layout.

Pro
Easy access to important keys

Some of the most used keys in programming such as ; . / " | ' < > * are very easily accessible because they either have their own keys or are "shift options". People who grew up using alternative layouts, such as Belgian AZERTY, know from experience this shouldn't be taken for granted.

Pro
Much more comfortable than QWERTY when touch typing

Pro
Highly ergonomic

Pro
You can type faster

Because the home row contains more high used frequency characters.

Pro
AZXCV don't move compared to QWERTY

If you rely on the Control-A/X/C/V shortcuts (select all, cut, copy, paste), these keys don't move from their QWERTY locations.

Pro
Relatively quick to learn

If coming from QWERTY, only a couple of keys move between hands.

Pro
Optimized for quick two-letter bigrams

Not only are the most common English letters on home row under your fingers, but many common two-letter combinations are placed next to each other as well allowing for a fluid "inward roll" motion of letter combos (a-r, r-s, s-t, n-e, e-i, and i-o combos). The inward roll motion is debatably speedier than optimizing finger alternation like Dvorak offers.

Pro
Backspace is closer

While the uncommonly used caps lock is further away. May be problematic if you previously developed muscle memory of using caps lock as some other key.

Pro
Possibly faster

Most people like the common home row and believes it improves speed in comparison to QWERTY.

Pro
Multilingual support

Although it‘s optimized for English, the support for a wide range of special characters enables occasional use of other languages. Still, the Carpalx research shows that a significant improvement is also present in Dutch compared to Qwerty. http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?de_correspondent

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Cons

Con
Not an easy to gain speed on QWERTY

Learning to touch type using traditional touch typing methods, you would not be as fast as others on Dvorak and you would be making quite a few mistakes.
The reasons that most of record holders have placing in typing speeds is because they do not use traditional typing methods.

Con
Made for typewriters, not computers

It was created before computers got popular. This layout was created for typing machines, so as to prevent collision between character hammers from slowing down the typist.

Con
Very unintuitive

Why QWERTY?

Con
Correct typographic letters and symbols not easily reachable

Con
Bad for Vim users

Vim was designed on QWERTY. The HJKL "arrow" keys still work in Dvorak, but their positions make less sense in Colemak.

Con
Overrated

People think Colemak is great because it is easier to learn, but in reality they are deluding themselves thinking that it is better than more advanced alternative layouts.

Con
Designed for English

Like Dvorak, this layout privileges English letter frequency, and lacks accented letters.
Since the topic is about programming, the argument is weak as most code is written in English, yet you don't want to learn a layout to type code, and another to type in your native language...
But the problem isn't specific to Colemak, it is tied to all "ergonomic" layouts, and might have no solution.

Con
The "HE" bigram is awkward

For all of Colemak's focus on optimizing English bigrams, the second-most used English bigram, "HE", is still kind of awkward due to same-hand lateral motion. This bigram is much easier in both QWERTY and Dvorak. If your concern is RSI, Colemak isn't good enough.

Con
AZXCV don't move compared to QWERTY

This will allow one to intuitively access popular shortcuts, but the truth is that the placement of these keys is a compromise in terms of actual typing ergonomics.