Hi all,
I've always been interested in:
a) the ergonomic benefits of split keyboards (wider hand positioning)
b) the "relegated" positioning of modifier keys (in the most inaccessible places)
c) reduced ability to train muscle memory on keys you have to "reach" for
To address those things, I started developing a keyboard layout modification which requires no new hardware (I'm using it on a laptop keyboard) and achieves the objectives.
I've been a colemak layout user for years, but in principle this approach can also be be applied to qwerty and other layouts.
I've developed a mod method for keyboard layouts dubbed splitRest, and I've now been using it in "production" as a full time data science programmer for about half a year.
The purposes and advantages of the mod are:
1. split hand positioning
(increased distance between hands of two key-widths)
2. increased "at-rest" hand positioning
(remove vast majority of contexts when hands need to move away from "home" position)
3. improved locations of modifier keys
(through key overloading, using xcape)
The mod can be found at
https://github.com/tynesjo/split-restThe current implementation works with linux and x windowing system.
Looking forward to any feedback, suggestions, thoughts &c
JT