Grade my near stabilizer free 55% Space-Fn layout

[dante]

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/02196257b06b417305223c8531976dbd

Stabilizer free except for the space bar; all embedded functionality is obtained through Space-Fn.

[Evo_Spec]

interesting!
What's your plan for the frame and such? is it gonna be cut so that the spacebar sticks out or is it just gonna be square? Because if it's gonna be square you may as well add a few keys or something.

Also how do you link layouts like this? i tried by clicking the permalink button before but it didn't work properly.

[user 18]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

[dante]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

For example the spacebar itself becomes a function key.

This could be programmed such as - Space + Shift = Capslock toggle, Space + Number Row = Function keys.

Yes the size of the keys are not even - that's not the point; those could be blank dsa or something to make it work.  The entire goal is to eliminate as many stabilizers as possible.

[esoomenona]

.

[dante]

It sucks. Stop it. Remove the stabilizer from the spacebar

Better?  NO stabilizers!


http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/a044972ae485d3d8c5825f86deddcee3

[esoomenona]

.

[user 18]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

For example the spacebar itself becomes a function key.

This could be programmed such as - Space + Shift = Capslock toggle, Space + Number Row = Function keys.

Yes the size of the keys are not even - that's not the point; those could be blank dsa or something to make it work.  The entire goal is to eliminate as many stabilizers as possible.

I understand the concept, I was just expecting to be able to see what the second layer functions were is all.

I'd be tempted to make use of the space around your spacebar, but it depends what your goals are.

E: I don't see an alt or a super key (winkey), which means it definitely wouldn't work for me. But you don't need your layout to work for me, it just has to work for you.

[dante]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

For example the spacebar itself becomes a function key.

This could be programmed such as - Space + Shift = Capslock toggle, Space + Number Row = Function keys.

Yes the size of the keys are not even - that's not the point; those could be blank dsa or something to make it work.  The entire goal is to eliminate as many stabilizers as possible.

I understand the concept, I was just expecting to be able to see what the second layer functions were is all.

I'd be tempted to make use of the space around your spacebar, but it depends what your goals are.

E: I don't see an alt or a super key (winkey), which means it definitely wouldn't work for me. But you don't need your layout to work for me, it just has to work for you.

The keyboard is fully programmable off space - you can make the alt or win key be where ever you want.  I only use Win+E to open windows so in this instance I make it Space+E, same number of keystrokes.

[spiceBar]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

For example the spacebar itself becomes a function key.

This could be programmed such as - Space + Shift = Capslock toggle, Space + Number Row = Function keys.

Yes the size of the keys are not even - that's not the point; those could be blank dsa or something to make it work.  The entire goal is to eliminate as many stabilizers as possible.

I understand the concept, I was just expecting to be able to see what the second layer functions were is all.

I'd be tempted to make use of the space around your spacebar, but it depends what your goals are.

E: I don't see an alt or a super key (winkey), which means it definitely wouldn't work for me. But you don't need your layout to work for me, it just has to work for you.

It's a SpaceFN keyboard, so you can find the basic idea and layout here:
  https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51069.0

The original SpaceFN layout can be adapted, naturally, but I guess most of it can be directly used on Dante's keyboard.

I agree with you that to make it useable for more people, one would just need to add Super (Win) and Alt keys. The good news is that these keys do not require any stabilizer.

[spiceBar]

Looks neat. I can't see any of the 'embedded functionality' you mention though.

I might consider making some of the keys longer in order to make the edges match up nicely, but the tradeoff is that it would make it much harder to find keys with legends that worked.

For example the spacebar itself becomes a function key.

This could be programmed such as - Space + Shift = Capslock toggle, Space + Number Row = Function keys.

Yes the size of the keys are not even - that's not the point; those could be blank dsa or something to make it work.  The entire goal is to eliminate as many stabilizers as possible.

I like your concept.

I would like to give you some advice in order to make the best out of SpaceFN:

Using Space+Shift for CapsLock is probably not a good idea. You should not overload Shift, because Space+Shift+L, for example, is a very common combination (it's Shift+Right_arrow), and it will trigger an accidental CapsLock.

Don't overload Shift or Ctrl. You can overload Enter if you prefer, I have left it unused in the SpaceFN layout so it can be used for some function, Space+Enter for CapsLock sounds good.

I have also left Tab unused, but your keyboard does not have a Tab key.

How are you going to trigger some key combinations, like Alt-Tab? There are so many Alt- combinations that it sounds a little bit risky to assume you can map them all to the alphabetical keys.

I would also like to warn you against overloading the letters located on the left side of the keyboard. In SpaceFN the letters located there are generally not overloaded because there are already very common Ctrl- chords with these keys. Not overloading them allows you to type these common chords without even thinking about pressing or releasing Space.

For example: when editing text it's common to type the following sequence:
  arrow arrow ... (you go somewhere)
  Shift-arrow ...  (you select some text)
  Ctrl-C  (copy to the clipboard)
  arrow arrow ... (you go somewhere else)
  Ctrl-V  (you paste the text there)

If you don't overload the left-hand letters in the SpaceFN layout, you can type all of the above while pressing Space all the time. You need to press Space to generate the arrow (Space- I J K L), and you can keep Space depressed when you type Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V: nothing wrong happens. This little trick frees you mind and makes SpaceFN really more comfortable to use.

So in a nutshell: I think you need dedicated Win and Alt keys, and it's much better if you overload only keys located on the right-hand side of the keyboard.

[Findecanor]

The offset between the QWERT and ASDFG rows is different from a standard keyboard. Are you sure you want that?

I see that you have only two sizes. You could go up to 1.75 width without stabilisers, at least with Cherry MX switches.

[dorkvader]

very similar to the cherry TDD keyboards.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dork_vader/sets/72157649351363970/

[Oobly]

The 0.75x stagger from Q row to A row would really mess up the feeling for me and make me mistype a whole lot.

Also, I think you should split up the spacebar so you have some modifiers on the bottom row. It's really hard to do modifier combinations when your modifiers are on a layer only.