This is a thread about optimum 60% keyboard/keycap layouts. For those who don't know, a "60%" keyboard has no 10-key pad, no function keys, no arrow keys, and no home/end/pageup keybock. All it has are the core alpha keys, the spacebar, and the smattering of modifier keys that touch the alphas. The 60% keyboards are as small as you can reasonably get with standard keycaps.
Examples are the Pure and the Poker. And soon the GH60.
There are a number of OEM versions, none of which have universally-acclaimed layouts. All of them have some sort of "Function" layer (or multiple layers) that you reach by pressing an "Fn" key or some such. Many of the 60% keyboards have some amount of programmability, often through DIP switch settings or special keys.
This thread is to explore the various existing and desired keycap layouts. One of the possible outcomes is a group buy for a keycap set for 60% keyboards.
A likely sidebar that may appear in this thread is the layout of the bottom row of modifiers. It approaches a religious belief system in some, so hopefully it will only be a sidebar in this thread. Perhaps we could encourage a broader perspective by asking for entire layouts rather than just the bottom row.
Similarly the Dvorak, Colemak, and other alternative layouts may pop up. Luckily, there is an entire thread where that discussion can and does occur.
Proposals in other forums for even tinier keyboards. Those are not the focus of this thread, although there may be some useful overlap when and if such keyboards come into existence.
Full disclosure here: my interest is in finding a layout I can use for both 60% MX-based keyboards
and the theoretical 60% "Mini Model M" buckling spring keyboards. As such, my contributions will use ANSI keycap layouts so they can swing both ways.
Hopefully this is an interesting topic for more than me.
I'll lead off in the next post.
- Ron | samwisekoi
p.s. Here is the SVG mockup file I use with Inkscape to make layouts:
60% Keyboard 121216a.svg (250.27 kB - downloaded 332 times.)