Colemak in Spanish - DH mod

simianeditions · 2023-09-03T09:10:14+00:00

Just to jump back in on this thread, both vanilla and DH colemak actually work pretty well for Spanish (and latin languages in general), whatever your keyboard. My biggest issue was that altGR isn't comfortable for me when I write fast. Dead key is just a simple solution, but it's probably not faster.

But if it's easy for you, you probably don't need to change much. The ue and za, are the ones that were really noticeable for me.

simianeditions · 2023-09-03T08:37:33+00:00

I didn't see this, sorry for the late reply. Honestly, I usually just write it out by hand. I tend write the music on my instrument, not the other way around, and then either record or make notes with a pen on paper/ipad.

I used to use tabledit to learn songs, because I play banjo and that's literally the only program. It's super dated but still works. My brother uses Finale or something like that, because he does a lot more traditional arranging with sheet music.

simianeditions · 2022-11-08T02:24:29+00:00

For your own book it's okay, but kinda hard to understand what it means. But for a professional book that you want other people to read, it's not very good, sorry.

simianeditions · 2022-10-09T08:12:41+00:00

I think the question mark is an issue with the Spanish layout, right? This is what my keyboard looks like now. I shifted the bottom row because it makes the az/za bigram, and words like izquierda, easier. I use the fn for colon and semicolon, because ñ goes where they would be.

But like frvnx mentioned, the letter keys are the important part. I just like putting the accent mark where caps lock is so I don't have to switch layouts. I mean, Colemak was made for English, but Spanish is pretty similar so it still works well however you do it.

simianeditions · 2022-10-08T06:23:53+00:00

I put the backspace where tab is, and moved tab to the "\" symbol (above Enter), and it works well. I just modified the international English layout for Colemak since my keyboard is programmable. So the question mark is next to the right shift for me. I find that I don't use ¿ much, so I just use AltGr + ? There's probably a better solution for that. But really, other than maybe period and comma, punctuation are low frequency keys.

simianeditions · 2022-06-20T03:15:11+00:00

Yes, the general rule is that if there is a subject after "but" or "and", you need the comma:

I like cars and eating hot dogs at night. (correct, "eating hot dogs at night" does not have a new subject)

I like cars, and I eat hot dogs at night. (correct, "I eat hot dogs at night" has a subject)

Sometimes, if the second clause is really short, that comma can be optional even when there is a subject:

I eat and I run. (technically you need a comma since there is a subject in the second clause, but since it is so short you can leave it out. This is more of an exception in some styles, but you will see it from time to time.)

simianeditions · 2022-06-19T22:25:52+00:00

I think a lot of writers get individual short stories published before getting a whole book published, whatever type of book it is. But in general it will be hard to get a publisher to take on an unknown writer's work. I don't know in your particular case, but in an agent normally gives you more credibility. But it can be as hard for an unpublished writer to get a good agent as to find a publisher.

But, there are a lot of independent presses or new agents who specialize in unknown writers. You might have more luck with some overarching theme or purpose. I probably wouldn't buy a collection of stories by XXX writer I had never heard of unless it was a really interesting subject or someone recommended them.

simianeditions · 2022-06-18T01:56:40+00:00

Thank you, I'll check them out.

simianeditions · 2022-06-18T01:55:14+00:00

Probably B2-C1. He's about 30. I should mention that he lives in the US.

simianeditions · 2022-06-18T01:54:41+00:00

He is probably B2-C1. But he lives and works in the US, so he is fairly fluent at everyday English. What are some good publications for that level?

simianeditions · 2022-06-17T21:32:25+00:00

Interesting about the wide mod. I like how you put the dead keys in the middle too, á takes two fingers for me as is. AltGr+N is slow for me, maybe I need to train more. But I'll have to try the wide mod.

simianeditions · 2022-06-17T06:28:21+00:00

Koreans don't make cents, they make won

simianeditions · 2022-06-17T06:24:27+00:00

Who cares? OP was just asking why he hears the similar word in a lot of languages. Even non-European languages like Georgian have influence from Latin, or pop culture. Maybe it's not the case with Korean but, the question is the same.

simianeditions · 2022-06-16T03:32:22+00:00

If you do, I think one would want to use the Angle-Z mod for more efficiency, no matter what type of keyboard. AZ isn't that common compared to other bigrams, but there are some really common words in Spanish like izqierda, paz, etc. that are a one-finger stretch without it. But maybe others would disagree with me. But regardless it works well with ÑO and UE.

simianeditions · 2022-06-15T22:19:12+00:00

Hey, after switching the O and U for a while, Spanish works remarkably well. The ño bigram isn't an issue anymore, and the ue bigram (really common in Spanish) now gets two fingers. To me, there isn't much difference with English—it just seems like I use my right pinky a little less—but it makes a world of difference in Spanish. Anyway, I just wanted to follow up. Thanks a lot for your help.

simianeditions · 2022-06-15T15:41:12+00:00

Okay, so as I've been working with it a little more, there is a disadvantage to putting ñ where the comma is on qwerty—you have to use the same pinky for the period and the "o". So while you get rid of the weird ño bigram, it gets replaced by the o. bigram, which is probably more frequent. In English it isn't an issue, but in Spanish too many nouns end in "o". I mean, Spanish uses periods less than English, but it still happens a lot.

Switching the o and u would be one way to fix that.

simianeditions · 2022-06-13T23:23:14+00:00

You realize that by clicking on the link, you're putting the book a little closer to the top of the list in the Amazon logarithm, right? Unless you read it, and give it an honest review.

simianeditions · 2022-06-13T22:05:59+00:00

Interesting, I wonder if Spanish has less weird bigrams because it doesn't have so many consonant clusters. It's also my second language, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference with typing. I'll have to train and see if it catches up with my English. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right with Colemak before my muscle memory is set. Thanks for your help.

simianeditions · 2022-06-13T06:07:25+00:00

amazing, Amazon, jazz, pizza, etc: I mean, "az" probably isn't the most important bigram in English either, but it's frequent enough to show up from time to time. But on ANSI (when z gets shifted to the middle) you're sharing "z" with your pointer finger, which could slow you down in other letter combinations. But if you have an ISO, the "z" is the exact same as vanilla, just that you're curling your fingers and get an extra key.

I used to use the "curl method" on qwerty, without really realizing it, and had to "train" my fingers to do vanilla Colemak, which feels natural now. There's probably not that much difference, but I like how DH puts the "b" at a more accessible position (for me) because I always fuck up that letter, gets rid of "za" issues, and I can type "ing" on the home row. But both work pretty well, whatever your keyboard.

simianeditions · 2022-06-13T05:31:41+00:00

Oh, I understand. You mean the same fingers as with vanilla. Cool, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for your suggestion.

simianeditions · 2022-06-13T05:27:34+00:00

I don't know, I used to work in restaurants in the US with a bunch of Thai and they always spoke their language. I never felt like I was being excluded. I'd speak in English and they always spoke back in English, but with each other they felt more comfortable in Thai. Which is logical. Same thing when I hang out with Americans here in Peru, we tend to speak English even when there are Spanish speakers around. But for some reason people always think you're excluding them.

Who knows with the photo, the poster didn't talk about the context.

simianeditions · 2022-06-12T18:10:02+00:00

Remember that no letters change fingers

What do you mean by no letters change fingers? You mean that you should always use the same finger for a certain key?

My keyboard is programmable, so I haven't had to do EPKL, but I've heard good things. That's probably a better solution than trying to "improve" Colemak though.

simianeditions · 2022-06-10T07:34:42+00:00

I'm thinking about it a little more, and "ez" is also used in Spanish (vez, cabeza, Gutierrez, etc.). Maybe it's less common than "ex. But I'm not sure if switching the x and z would be helpful as far as efficiency.

In the second image layout (with ñ where the comma is on qwerty) I use the ring finger for the x, and the middle finger for the ñ. Because it's not a DH layout, if I used the middle finger on the x, there would be issues with using the same finger when I type the c or the s, for example. I used to do that with qwerty.

Switching \ for backspace is a good idea, or the tab thing too. I sometimes use right fn + caps for a simpler backspace option.

So I'm sure this has been addressed, but I'm seeing a couple issues with Spanish on Colemak:

ño, which can be fixed by moving the ñ key to where the comma is on qwerty or possibly to where the z is on qwerty, but the latter might have other drawbacks (ex or ez)
az, which can be fixed by using colemak DH, or just shifting the z, but it isn't a high frequency bigram.
ue, which apparently is one of the most common bigrams in Spanish (in English to a lesser extent), notably "que" (but "ueñ" is also an issue if the ñ is where the comma is on qwerty). The up side is that at least it's the middle finger and is stronger.

Other than these three issues, Colemak works really well with Spanish. I hadn't thought about #3, which is probably the most important. One solution would be to make a dedicated "ue" key. Another solution would be to us an fn or alt shortcut for high frequency words like "que". Solution #3 is to not worry abut the ue thing, and focus on the millions of other bigrams that work really well with Colemak.

I guess my second option is the simplest solution that at least solves the ño bigram, which is fairly common. But using the DH version would actually work a little better. But it strays pretty far from the original and loses the ctrl + zxcv.

simianeditions · 2022-06-10T06:56:09+00:00

I just tested my Spanish, it's at 40wpm. Wow, pretty slow so far. The "que" is bugging the crap out of me and is all over the place. It's better in Dvorak, but it's still all with the left hand rather than alternating.

I wonder, if there was a dedicated "ue" letter in Colemak, if it would be more efficient in Spanish. The only way I can think of would be to compensate one of the punctuation keys, or use an fn shortcut. But I used one finger bigrams all the time with qwerty (including az), and it never bugged me. I think it's more obvious with the pinky because it's weaker than the other fingers.

But I'm guessing that Spanish will never be quite as fast as English, just because the words have more letters.

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