I'd still like to see JIS compatibility keys get added to the international kit so that standard alphas are an option for JIS users, but failing that could you at least include the required keys in the katakana kit? The currently missing keys are:
There have been a couple of threads about JIS support recently, awareness about the issues involved is increasing, and support for JIS layouts in monolegend sets at least is on the rise: GMK Masterpiece blazed a trail which has been followed by GMK Sumi, GMK Shoko, KAT Monochrome, GMK Oni, and others. It's relatively easy to add support -- just four more keys in this case, one of which is also required for correct kana layout for non-Mac ANSI machines as well -- and makes all the difference when it comes to usability for JIS users, who are, after all, the people most likely to actually make use of kana input.
Please, do consider it. Thank you.
I'll add — 1u R1 key.
The RO legend is in the ISO UK kit.
There is no other missing key since these characters are katakana and the layout is based on AEKII
I'd like to weigh in on this issue. I'll be using standard row numbering (R1 = number row) like you guys did.
In this case, adding a R1 1u ー wouldn't help since some of the other characters would be in the wrong position. That's because, as you said, this kit is based on Apple's ANSI JP layout. You would have to add all of the following keys to make it compatible with JIS (see
this link for a visual comparison of the layouts):
- R1 1u ー
- R1 1u ヘ
- R2 1u ゜
- R3 1u ム (different from the one in ISO UK)
- R4 1u ロ
It may or may not be worth it to add these keys to the ISO Intl kit (separate from the two keys in the ISO UK kit, since they are different).
But adding just ー on its own won't help.
However, there is another issue with the current katakana kit: the Japanese AEKII layout doesn't have a kana legend on the `~ key. This makes the inclusion of a R1 ロ key inaccurate. At the moment, the kit is essentially a hybrid between the Apple ANSI JP layout and the standard ANSI JP layout. But removing this key would leave users without a much-needed top-left R1 key.
I have a different suggestion, which solves the above issues and covers all of the use cases, including JIS, but requires changing the katakana kit from the Apple layout to the standard one. Now, I know that doesn't sound like it would make sense at first (seeing as this whole set is inspired by Apple keyboards), but hear me out — you are already using non-Apple layouts everywhere else in the kit. The UK keys, the international keys, even some of the modifiers: all use standard positions rather than Apple's. So this option may be worth considering.
If you change the katakana kit to match
this layout (see my
visual guide), you can fully cover ISO and JIS with just three extra keys on top of the ANSI keys in the kit:
R3 and R4 keys are already in the ISO UK kit, so you would just need to add a R1 ー key to it to cover everything, in case you go with the standard layout.
If you stay with the Apple layout, I'm afraid adding JIS support is more complicated (see the first list) and might not be worth doing at all.
In case you decide to stay with the AEKII layout, I recommend changing the R4 ロ key in the current ISO UK kit to R4 ー, otherwise ISO users are going to have a duplicate ロ legend on the `~ and <> keys