Stop me before I spend hours thinking up ways to remap a Maltron...

[urlwolf]

I just got a Matron 89 UK qwerty, and moved it to colemak already
I've been wondering about the differences in the layouts 89 and 90. Many keys have been moved. Particularly important are the arrow keys and the modifiers. Is the 90 layout an evolution of the 89, and as such, better? Or are they just different? Is there any research on the placement of arrow keys and modifiers?

One key that is horribly placed is /. This is used very often (just look at urls and file paths), yet it is in the worst finger (ring) and on the new additional bottom row: extraordinarily difficult to reach!

Selecting text with shift ctrl arrows is extremely hard on the split arrow layout.

In general, are there guidelines for chords with more than two key presses (ie the above shift ctrl arrows)? And how about the numpad? Since the central key has no indentation, it's impossible to touch type on the numpad. shoud one access the keys on the borders (page up, down) with the thumbs?

[boli]

Why would you be stopped? Go have fun.

As for the 89 vs 90 layout: Good question. Personally I like that they shifted the number row one spot to the left on the 90 layout, because this makes it easier to type numbers on regular keyboards as well as a Maltron (or any other matrix/grid layout keyboard) without missing a beat, in my experience. The /? location is easier to get to as well.

I don't understand why Maltron moved the important modifier keys away from the thumb area with the 90 layout, as thumb + some finger seems much more intuitive to me.

Anyway, here's the layout I've been using since 2008-03-29 on my Kinesis Advantage:

- Numbers shifted one spot to the left
- Arrow keys moved to the left hand in VI-like arrangement (useful when right hand is on the mouse)
- Second Enter on left hand (useful when right hand is on mouse)
- Waste of a nice spot for the `~ key, I know. Should have put ESC there maybe.

I hope this inspires you to try stuff out.

[urlwolf]

Why not remap? Because it's a huge time sink, and makes me less portable. Remember that the Maltron is not programmable, so if you plug it in another computer, it doesn't take the new mappings with it.

I'm digging the arrows where they are. Maybe for selection I'll just use the numpad. I just placed a number 5 with a tactile bump in the middle from another keyboard...

[boli]

Doh, I thought they added the ability to remap recently. I know it's an extra effort to remap stuff in software, as I'm still using a TECK somewhere which I can't type on properly without a few remappings. Are you really so mobile that remapping all computers you use is impractical (more impractical than bringing the keyboard with you)?

Anyway, I never saw any studies regarding modifier keys and navigation keys, so I just experimented for maybe a month until something stuck, for the reasons I gave.

Regarding guidelines for chords, the only thing I'm aware is that it's usually much easier using both hands, say you could use right Shift and Ctrl with left/up arrows, and left Shift and Ctrl with down/right arrows. Or maybe Shift + arrow on one hand and Ctrl on the other feels better to you. Or like you said: Shift + Ctrl with one hand, and the central numpad arrows with the other hand. Experiment.