[afarviral]

You use your index finger to type C on a Qwerty row-stagger board. Its actually an advantage of row-stagger that the most dextrous fingers have access to multiple keys less than a key unit away. In saying that I just learned colmak-dh on a columnar 36 key board and I am happy typing C with middle finger. I would say there are some factors that were not considered with these supposedly ergonic column-stagger and alternative layouts, such as something I term psychological contrast; the more distributed layout of qwerty (not optimised for home row) enhances the distinctness of movements, compared with pressing keys next to each other where the differences betweem them (contrast) is low. I also think that alternative layouts and ergonomic boards tend to discourage overall motion or encourage holding muscles in spasm, rather than the more chaotic/increased motion of less efficient layouts which provides opportunities to release tension via more varied motion to avoid injuiries! For anyone with RSIs, I would suggest working on ways to release muscle spasms (e.g. with hand stretches or subtle motions that can be incorporated while working, or by using the mouse sometimes! I know, blasphemy right?).