This post makes some good points about the hiragana sublegends used on the ISO keys in GMK Sumi, as well as this one for GMK Oni, and I think they're applicable here as well. The following changes would make the set more accommodating for both JIS and regular ISO users, as well as making the hiragana coverage more “accurate” (in terms of correspondence to actual kana layouts), by reducing legend duplication and using the appropriate rows for the sublegends.
Thanks konstantin, for bringing up this issue and for linking to my previous comments. I should note that both of those comments were in response to designs featuring kana
monolegends, where I believe I have found a reasonable compromise that suits JIS, ISO, and ANSI users alike; that is, as you mention, the replacement of R1 [ろ] or [む] with [ー], inclusion of R3 1U [む] as is already fairly standard for ISO, and replacement of R4 [む] with [ろ]. I feel on pretty solid ground recommending these changes to anyone who is considering kana monolegends for their set.
sublegends are more complicated, because the punctuation options are so many and varied. The
/dev/tty set on Drop at the moment has an incredibly full-featured "Japan Set" that, in combination with the base set, allows someone to create a fully compliant ANSI, UK, or JIS layout, complete with correct punctuation characters and Japanese modifier keys! But this requires adding a large number of extra keys.
For this reason, I've generally refrained from commenting on kana sublegend designs so far, however, looking at your suggestions:
- R1 \|む → R1 \|ー
- R3 #~ → R3 \|む
- R4 \|ろ → R4 <>ろ
Reasoning: ANSI users get all of the usual keys. ISO users get \| and <>, avoiding duplicate legends. Finally, JIS users get all of the correct hiragana legends on the correct rows (R4 ろ, R3 む, R1 ー). All in all, you get some benefits and no drawbacks.
The following sublegends should also be changed:
- R2 [{べ → R2 [{゛ or [{ ゙⬚
- R2 ]}ぺ → R2 ]}゜ or [{ ゚⬚
Reasoning: These sublegends are supposed to represent the (han)dakuten combining diacritics, which can be applied to several different kana, but the current legend shows them applied only to the specific kana へ, which doesn't make sense.
I think I agree with everything you've said. I wasn't sure about your recommendation to use \| on the R3 む key and <> on the R4 ろ since none of the layouts that I'm familiar with (UK, Japan, USA) feature this exact combination, but following the reasoning in
your link I can see why it makes sense and avoids duplication.
In summary: I agree with konstantin regarding the movement of the kana keys and would like to lend my voice to that suggestion. When it comes to the punctuation that goes along with those keys, I don't feel as strongly (I'd be happy enough with #~ on the R3 む and \| on the R4 ろ, for example, possibly with ¥| on the R1 ー if you really want to be true to the Japanese and avoid duplication!), but I do think he raises some interesting points that are worthy of consideration.
This page, linked to in the thread konstantin linked to, goes into a lot more detail about choices of symbol keys, and I would definitely like to take the time to read through it properly before deciding which side of that fence I sit on.
EDIT: Spelling/grammar; s/thread/comment/
