So, I went ahead and changed my keymap on the UHK level from Qwerty to Dvorak, and I switched my English keyboard layout on OS level from Dvorak to Qwerty, cause I thought it’d be cool to have keyboard work with any Qwerty PC and have all macroses all the text readable / easily writable.
However, one issue instantly arose: I’m using a second Cyrillic keyboard layout. And as soon as I switched to my Cyrillic layout - I noticed all the letters are jumbled and I’m typing nonsense. Obviously.
How do you guys tackle this problem?
I see couple of options:
Revert back to having OS declare Dvorak, and send Qwerty codes from UHK. Simplest choice, I did not delete old keymaps. However I’d really like to try make it work
Create a macro that will both switch layout between Qwerty and Dvorak, and use a key combo that will switch the language in the OS between layouts. This option has two drawbacks:
it has a chance of getting out of sync, for example if you switch keymap when OS doesn’t register the shortcut for some reason
all the keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+c, etc) will be on the wrong place while using Cyrillic layout, cause, well, they will be on their qwerty places instead of dvorak places
Create a separate cyrillic keymap on the keyboard itself and delete cyrillic layout from the OS altogether, but I’m not sure whether this is doable at all given UHK just sends key codes to the OS
So far unfortunately I don’t see any good options and am thinking of rolling back for now. I’d be happy to hear any (even hacky) solutions that might make it work.
p.s. for everyone who read my configuration post, I guess this is why I went with OS layout initially and not with the UHK one. I already forgot about this
yep but it still doesn’t solve shortcuts problem. for example vimium/cvim/surfingkeys in chrome starts to behave completely unpredictable when I’m using qwerty layout and press keys assuming they are dvorak keys
I have no advice there. I never managed to transition to dvorak because of this discrepancy (of some shortcuts being mapped according to meaning while others because of their qwerty position).
I did manage, after successfully typing 100 wpm on qwerty, it’s not so bad, ctrl+c & ctrl+v are kinda bad tho haha but I’m having my both hands on the keyboard anyway and for the rare case when I need them single handed I bound them to their qwerty places on a different uhk layer (with a mod key).
Now, relearning vim again from scratch was definitely an adventure completely new muscle memory needed to be developed. But vim keybinds aren’t too bad on dvorak either once you get used to them.
Now after a long time I can successfully say that you just need a meager 4 years of time and you’ll be up to your previous qwerty speed on the dvorak and in 5 I just about managed to increase it further.
That’s one of the reasons why I picked Colemak over Dvorak. It keeps the most important shortcuts (Ctrl+z/x/c/v/a/q/w) in the same positions as Qwerty.
After a week of having my UHK in a dvorak mode and my system in a qwerty mode, I have to say it’s an absolute pain in the ass when I need to type something in cyrillic (which is, I’m surprised to say, quite often).
The main reason it’s pain in the ass though is because I did not make any macros to make my life easier, every time I need to switch a language I need to:
press key combo to switch a language
also press key combo to switch my UHK from Dvorak to Qwerty keymap
I will create a macro to sync language change together with keymap change and try using it for another week, to see if there are going to be some sync issues during the usage and whether they can easily be solved.
Yeah, that’s what I would suggest too. A macro that switches the keymap on the UHK and at the same time, sends the appropriate scancodes to make the host OS switch keymap accordingly.
I guess that was the reason back then. Do you still use the shortcuts in that way? Now as a keyboard wizard (did you receive your keyboard-wizard PhD already? ) I think there are far better options to realize the bread and butter shortcuts. With programmable keyboards and software like Kanata I would say those shortcuts are least important to keep in their (not really good) original places!?
Tried the macro, it’s still kinda a pain in the ass that when in cyrillic layout (and qwerty keymap) keyboard shortcuts stop working cause, well, all the letters are on unexpected places. usually I could use some browser shortcuts even while on cyrillic layout, in this new mode it doesn’t work
I guess after a week of trying this out I’ll be reverting back to having Dvorak on the OS level. I’m mostly 99% of the time using my uhk with my own pc anyway.
The only downside being that my macros that type text would need to be reverted back to their unintelligible variants.
Interesting. I would not know how to use those comfortable with one hand. You have not overloaded the space-key with anything, right? Might be worth a try. But be careful, you might like it
What’s the issue with pressing capslock+x with your left hand? Pinky on capslock and some of the other fingers for x/c/v. A lot of people configure control on capslock; they would type exactly the same key combination.
I wanted to be able to press these shortcuts with my left hand in case I am using my right hand to select items with a mouse, then cut/copy/paste them, e.g. when editing sketches, creating presentation slides etc.
I’ve got control on capslock but I’m using the right-side control key when I need to press some ctrl+key combo with the key being on the left side of the keyboard yep I’m an advocate of using keyboard with both hands. I’m using right control/win/alt whenever the key I need to press with it is on the left side and vise versa
Many people doing something does not mean it makes sense or is the best way. Just thinking of Qwerty…
It is not really comfortable to hold a key with the pinky and press a second key with another finger. Of course one can do it, but it is not good practice IMO. I always use the other hand when using a modifier key – that is way more comfortable.
But: using the thumb for the mod-held-key and pressing a second key with another finger on the same hand is way easier than using the pinky as the held mod-key. Whenever I can use both hands that is preferred. But when using the mouse I regularly use the one-handed cut/ copy/ paste / select all / close window… keys – which works very well.
It is going surprisingly well for now, it looks like I don’t use much shortcuts while in cyrillic layout. And there wasn’t a case when my keyboard de-synced with the OS yet.
completely new muscle memory needed to be developed. But vim keybinds aren’t too bad on dvorak either once you get used to them.
and in 5 I just about managed to increase it further.