[StreakyCobra]

Anything other than [AQ]WERT[YZ] layout-based keyboard is already a big improvement for your fingers. The differences between Workman / Colemak / Dvorak and so on is mostly a matter of taste. One thing to note is that widely used layouts have more chances to be supported by software and by keyboard manufacturers (e.g. http://www.typematrix.com/). So it may be wiser to choose mainstream layouts that creating your own or using niche ones.

There is probably not a definitive answer for which one is better ("better" would have to be defined for this), so go ahead, read a bit about them and do your choice. Be aware though that once you have choose one, you will be stuck with it for a looong time, because switching layout is hard. You have to remap all your brain an muscle memory before being able to reach your previous efficiency. Spoiler alert: it takes months to years for this.

PS: For french speaking people, you may want to have a look at https://bepo.fr

[lorenzhs]

Agreed. I use neo2, which is the German equivalent of bépo. It's shipped with pretty much every Linux distro, which means that all I need to do is "setxkbmap de neo".

It definitely takes several months to achieve a decent speed on a new layout, but I wouldn't say years. I did a full switch after deciding I wanted to learn neo. That means that from that day on, I didn't use qwertz at all, and forced myself to type everything in neo. Also, don't use stickers. They teach you to look at the keyboard. Put a printout of the layout next to your keyboard and look at that. Otherwise you'll just form bad habits. It took me around a month to get to a point where my neo typing speed was reasonable, and maybe another month until I had managed to get to the point where it wasn't annoying any more. Of course I was in university back then, and not paid to develop software.

[0XAFFE]

Best thing is to print this https://neo-layout.org/grafik/aufsteller/neo20-aufsteller.pd... and put it behind your keyboard or somewhere where you can look with ease.

I think speed it no so much important when coding, but don't have to think about how and what you have to type.

[StreakyCobra]

Years is a little bit too much yes. I also did a full switch after 1 month of "klavaro" [1] training, but I think it took me nearly one year to be "fully" adapted. By "fully" I mean not thinking anymore about QWERTZ: not for french, nor for english, nor for coding and for beating my previous QWERTZ capabilities.

[1] http://klavaro.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

[lorenzhs]

Interesting. I don't really remember how long that took me, it's been some eight years now since I switched. I used ktouch to practise, which has lessons for neo2 and, apparently, BÉPO.

[StreakyCobra]

I found the article that motivated me to switch to bépo back in the time. It also also suggests a method that I used to do the transition: https://ploum.net/216-le-bepo-sur-le-bout-des-doigts/ (in French)