When comparing Row Swap (QWDFGY) vs Maltron Letter Layout, the Slant community recommends Row Swap (QWDFGY) for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” Row Swap (QWDFGY) is ranked 9th while Maltron Letter Layout is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Row Swap (QWDFGY) is:
It scores 2.122 on the Carpalx effort model, vs 2.098 for Dvorak (QWERTY is 3.000).
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Punctuation is also optimized
The comma and period are more frequent than KVJZXQ.
Pro E on the thumb
E is the most used English letter by far at almost 13%.
Pro Highly optimized for frequency of use
This includes di- and tri-graphs, as well as the individual letter frequency.
Cons
Con Punctuation is not optimized
Punctuation is just as bad as Colemak.
Con Requires a physical keyboard
The Maltron layout requires an expensive physical Maltron keyboard. Most layout options are a simple change in software, to remap existing keys. (Touch typists mostly don't look at the labels anyway.) But there's no way to add the required thumb keys for this layout in software.