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Add to SafariWhen comparing Row Swap (QWDFGY) 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 Row Swap (QWDFGY) is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Neo2 (Classic Neo) is:
Easily reachable programming relevant symbols, like {}'()|~"_[]<>, on the third layer.
Specs
Question 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 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
Cons
Con Punctuation is not optimized
Punctuation is just as bad as Colemak.
Con Developed primarly for the German language
English is considered a major target, but the homepage and docs are mostly in German.
Con Harder to learn
