On my keyboard, B is exactly equidistant between F and J so I couldn't even tell you which finger is correct for it. I wonder how it was decided which side it should go on in a split keyboard?
> On my keyboard, B is exactly equidistant between F and J so I couldn't even tell you which finger is correct for it.
It's not about distance but about logic. If the right index finger does y,h,n and u,j,m then the left index finger does r,f,v and t,g,b. Otherwise your left index only does five letters while your right index does 7.
Depending on how "badly" a staggered keyboard is staggered, some keys can be closer to one hand or another, but it doesn't change what the correct way to touch-type is.
If in doubt, look at where the keys are placed on ergonomic split ortholinear keyboard: the people designing these things tend to know what they're doing.
It's not at all clear that they "know what they're doing" in some way that makes what they're doing "correct."
If they and a majority of their customers learned to type Z with the left little finger, X with the ring finger, etc., that does not magically make that a better way to type than typing Z with the ring finger and X with the middle one.
Quite the contrary: If you bring your hands together naturally in front of you, they form an inverted V. In order to type the bottom row with the little finger on Z, you have to cock your wrist significantly, which is clearly worse from an ergonomics perspective.
If you bring your hands together like hands naturally come together, on the type of staggered keyboard virtually everyone learns to type on, an ortholinear one with be entirely wrong for you on the whole bottom row.
Designing around bad training may be a type of "knowing what they're doing," but it doesn't make it "correct," or even better.
It's not about distance but about logic. If the right index finger does y,h,n and u,j,m then the left index finger does r,f,v and t,g,b. Otherwise your left index only does five letters while your right index does 7.
Depending on how "badly" a staggered keyboard is staggered, some keys can be closer to one hand or another, but it doesn't change what the correct way to touch-type is.
If in doubt, look at where the keys are placed on ergonomic split ortholinear keyboard: the people designing these things tend to know what they're doing.