When comparing Neo2 (Classic Neo) vs Carpalx QGMLWB, 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 Carpalx QGMLWB is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Neo2 (Classic Neo) is:
Easily reachable programming relevant symbols, like {}'()|~"_[]<>, on the third layer.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Punctuation is in the same location as QWERTY
If you already know QWERTY you don't have to relearn the punctuation, with the single exception of the ;:
key which is in QWERTY's P
position, like Colemak.
Pro ZXC don't move compared to QWERTY
Like Colemak, the common undo, cut and copy Ctrl-commands don't move from their QWERTY positions. The V
(paste) key does though.
Pro Uses a colemak-like character layout
Uses the colemak character layout of moving P on a standard QWERTY keyboard layout one step down, extending the home row.
Pro Has low consecutive finger use
See the source here.
Pro Letter positions optimized
Via a quantitative effort model.
Cons
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
Con Effort model is speculative
The quantitative effort model central to the optimization is based on armchair speculation, rather than a scientific biomedical study. The chosen metrics and weighting for them are likely partially correct. But no-one is really sure how correct.
Con Doesn't take finger length into account
Unlike layouts such as norman and workman, QGMLWB doesn't take the length of fingers into account, for example on a standard QWERTY layout, it's easier to reach E than C.
Con Punctuation is not optimized
Programmers have to use punctuation a lot, but (except for the ;:
key, like Colemak) punctuation hasn't been moved from their positions on QWERTY. In fact, the non-letter characters , . - " _ ' ) ( ; 0 1 = 2 :
are used more than the least-frequent letter z
in a reasonable English corpus. Not optimizing punctuation at all, especially for programmers, is nonsense.
Con V key has moved compared to QWERTY
The common paste shortcut used in for example windows has been moved to the right hand, making the layout harder to learn. This however is fixed in the QGMLWY variant of the carpalx series.
Con A very small user base and community
Con Doesn't favor the right hand
For right handed users, this keyboard layout doesn't use the usually stronger right hand more than the left, infact it sometimes favors the left hand more.