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qwpr vs Neo2 (Classic Neo)

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When comparing qwpr vs Neo2 (Classic Neo), the Slant community recommends Neo2 (Classic Neo) for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” Neo2 (Classic Neo) is ranked 7th while qwpr is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Neo2 (Classic Neo) is:

Easily reachable programming relevant symbols, like {}'()|~"_[]<>, on the third layer.

Specs

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Bottom Row Key Freq.6.1%

Consecutive Same-Hand Keystrokes (L/R)76.7%/23.3%

Home Row Key Freq.61.1%

Left Index Finger Travel33.5%

Left Index Finger Usage24.1%

Left Little Finger Travel0.6%

Left Little Finger Usage2.8%

Left Middle Finger Travel11.2%

Left Middle Finger Usage10.5%

Left Ring Finger Travel2.9%

Left Ring Finger Usage6.6%

Right Index Finger Travel35.3%

Right Index Finger Usage18.3%

Right Little Finger Travel6.7%

Right Little Finger Usage5.9%

Right Middle Finger Travel5.8%

Right Middle Finger Usage8.2%

Right Ring Finger Travel4.1%

Right Ring Finger Usage8.3%

Spacebar Row Key Freq.15.3%

Thumb Usage15.3%

Top Row Key Freq.17.5%

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?

qwpr

Neo2 (Classic Neo)

Pros

Pro
Good for vim users

Qwpr is pretty close to QWERTY, and even the HJKL keys are in the same left-to-right order (though on different rows). Alternatively, the AltGr plane also has arrow keys in a sensible position under the right hand.

Pro
Common shortcuts don't move

A, Z, X, C, and V are in the same positions as QWERTY and Colemak.

Pro
As easy as Dvorak

It's 32% easier than QWERTY by the Carpalx metric, which is slightly better than Dvorak's 30%. This is probably within Carpalx's margin of error though.

Pro
Alternate plane with CapsLock key

CapsLock is pretty useless for most people, but qwpr layout uses it to shift to another plane with easy access to punctuation and arrow keys. This is especially useful for programmers.

Pro
Minimal retraining from QWERTY

11 keys move, but except for P and E, they don't change fingers.

Pro
Best for programming

Easily reachable programming relevant symbols, like {}'()|~"_[]<>, on the third layer.

Pro
Type mathematical symbols natively

Pro
Many layers

You can type more symbols and letters, that do not even exist on other keyboard layouts.

Pro
Its possible to type letters from the International Phonetic Alphabet

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Cons

Con
Puts E on the pinky

'E' is the most used English letter by far, at almost 13%. That's almost as much as the spacebar. It needs to be on a strong finger. The pinky is the weakest finger and on the right side it is already overtaxed from Ctrl, Shift, and Enter.

Con
P and E change fingers from QWERTY

Which makes it harder than necessary to learn from QWERTY. (And makes no sense. 'E' was arguably better in its QWERTY position on a strong finger.) This is due to using the flawed Carpalx effort model.