When comparing Colemak Mod-DH vs Row Swap (QWDFGY), the Slant community recommends Colemak Mod-DH for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” Colemak Mod-DH is ranked 3rd while Row Swap (QWDFGY) is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Colemak Mod-DH is:
Some people find moving D and H to the bottom row much more comfortable (especially with flat keyboards). Curved keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage also help with lateral motion. Regular Colemak on these keyboards might be the ideal solution since then you help resolve some of the cons of regular Colemak without adding on the ones from Mod DH.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Much less lateral hand movement compared with regular Colemak
Some people find moving D and H to the bottom row much more comfortable (especially with flat keyboards). Curved keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage also help with lateral motion. Regular Colemak on these keyboards might be the ideal solution since then you help resolve some of the cons of regular Colemak without adding on the ones from Mod DH.
Pro Easy to learn from Colemak
No keys change fingers from Colemak (with the possible exception of Z , which is rarely used, in one variant).
Pro 'HE' easier to type compared with regular Colemak
Pro Letter G goes back to its original QWERTY position
This puts ING all on the middle row. Regular Colemak has G in the top row.
Pro As effortless as Dvorak
It scores 2.122 on the Carpalx effort model, vs 2.098 for Dvorak (QWERTY is 3.000).
Pro Very easy to learn from QWERTY
The swaps are strictly vertical. No letter changes fingers. Possibly even easier to learn than other minimal-change layouts like qwpr and Minimak-4.
Pro Common Ctrl-shortcuts don't move
Most letters are in their QWERTY position, including the important AZXCV. Those that moved are very close to their old positions.
Pro Good for Vim users
HJKL are still in order.
Cons
Con Regular Colemak is more standard
Mac and Linux have regular Colemak keyboard options. This isn't an issue if your keyboard is programmable through QMK, VIA, etc.
Con H, M, V, B change from original QWERTY position
Regular Colemak has these in their original QWERTY position. The learning curve increases somewhat in Mod-DH.
Con Breaks up ZXCV slightly
Breaks up ZXCV (moves V over one space). Could cause copy paste confusion if also using other layouts like QWERTY. For ANSI layouts the Z is also moved to a new position.
Con No Innate Layout Configuration In Keybr
Keybr supports Standard Colemak but in order to adjust to DH Mod you must use an extension like tampermonkey and run a Script like this one and adjust to fit whichever variant.
Con Index fingers jump rows more often
Con More optimized for ISO and ortholinear style keyboards, not ANSI
Con Punctuation is not optimized
Punctuation is just as bad as Colemak.
