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Comment by smabie | Hacker News Reader

> Try typing “The” with the T capitalized on Colemak and hopefully you’ll see what I mean. Try typing “The” with the T capitalized on Colemak and hopefully you’ll see what I mean

Why is he shifting with his right hand instead of his left? It seems obvious, but maybe isn't: you should shift/ctrl with the opposite hand that is going to type the letter.

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I tripped up on this part as well. I've been using colemak for many years, and I don't enter "the" the way described.

When your hands rest on the home row, you left pointer finger is already on "T" and your right middle is on "E." To enter "The" you only need to move your left pinkie 1 cm to the left-shift key and your right pointer 1 cm left to "H". It's so little movement you can just about smash all four keys at once.

This is going back into the dark ages (we were taught on electric typewriters!) but when I did a typing course I was told only ever to use my left pinky for shift and right thumb for space.

Is there a rationale behind that?

Not one that I'm aware of, and a quick check of modern online typing resources doesn't share the same bias. I guess it was either the teacher's preference or something she was taught in typewriter school.

I think “in the dark ages” it was more common to end up using keyboards with only one Shift key - think “nuclear reactor control panel” and stuff like that. So it probably made sense to bend touchtyping theory for practical purposes when preparing kids.

On Colemak, the T is on the left hand, so the right hand would be moving to the right to press shift, then moving to the left to press the H, the moving right again for E.

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