The reason I went non-staggered for most of the keyboard is because I've seen a lot of talking about how it's more ergonomic and makes more sense for typingI don’t personally think straight one-piece matrix layouts are very “ergonomic”; they make a few letter keys marginally easier to reach and a few letter keys marginally harder to reach than a standard row stagger, but the hands are held in basically the same position and orientation either way, and most of the finger motions are pretty similar, causing all the same issues. In other words, I think both standard and standard-ish “matrix” boards are pretty bad. Unfortunately, learning a matrix layout (coming from past QWERTY/ANSI/IBM layout experience) is just as hard as learning some other better layout, so switching gets you the cost of a tough learning curve without much benefit in terms of typing speed, accuracy, or comfort, IMO.
I had previously imagined something similar to this, but I would definitely say there needs to be some changes and more symmetry.
- the alt / ctrl keys are reversed on left vs right side, which is weird
- shift keys are too hard to access.
- space bar should be split up. Put shift, ctrl etc where thumbs can easily reach.
- why are the number keys still staggered? Go the whole hog and have them matrix-like too.
I had previously imagined something similar to this, but I would definitely say there needs to be some changes and more symmetry.
- the alt / ctrl keys are reversed on left vs right side, which is weird
- shift keys are too hard to access.
Interesting concept.
- If you want to use those shift keys as shift, it's going to be pretty unpleasant IMO; right shift in particular is really hard to reach (there's a reason the HHKB Pro doesn't have keys in the corners)
- space bar should be split up. Put shift, ctrl etc where thumbs can easily reach.
- why are the number keys still staggered? Go the whole hog and have them matrix-like too.
Interesting concept.
- Right hand alt and ctrl are pretty hard to reach
- backslash is even slightly harder to reach than on a standard board, where it's already really far
- If you use a standard set of sculpted keycaps, backtick, enter, and alt are going to be mismatched
- Enormous 6.25u spacebar is a big waste of valuable thumb real estate
Things that would IMO be improvements:
- add a bunch of space between G and H and maybe stick some more keys there for the index fingers to press
- split the keyboard in half, rotate the halves inward and "tent" them
- split the spacebar in multiple parts and try to end up with 6-8 usable thumb keys instead of the ~3 on a standard keyboard
- eliminate harder to reach keys and move them to a different position or new layer (e.g. scrap the number row and put numbers and symbols on layers)
- switch away from QWERTY to something better
- make the keyboard a bit more symmetrical (right now you have 2 columns more on the right than on the left)
Nubbs,
If you get a plate made for that and mail me parts, I would be willing to donate enablers and assembly, minus firmware, just to see it come to life.
Nubbs,
If you get a plate made for that and mail me parts, I would be willing to donate enablers and assembly, minus firmware, just to see it come to life.
Thanks man. Once swill's plate tool is ready for use, I'm definitely going to give it a try. The more I look at it and the more input I get, the more I think that I should probably swap at least the left shift with the Win key.
The more I look at it and the more input I get, the more I think that I should probably swap at least the left shift with the Win key.Which finger would you use to shift? Do you normally use both shift keys, or mostly one side?
- Right hand alt and ctrl are pretty hard to reach
Yeah, but the left side is easy to reach and, with most people I know, the left tends to be the more heavily used side for those keys. They're more there for symmetry.In that case, just put something else there instead. There’s no point having modifier keys way over there IMO.
It's more of trying out a new layout that would be pretty easy for most people to adapt to.No offense, but I think this would be quite hard for most people to adapt to, and anyone willing to take the plunge would be better served by something more radical or something that doesn’t impose all the constraints you set for yourself.
The more I look at it and the more input I get, the more I think that I should probably swap at least the left shift with the Win key.Which finger would you use to shift? Do you normally use both shift keys, or mostly one side?
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/52d4a70e11d5f9e1b49b3dad09b27a2eShow Image(http://i.imgur.com/jfOFuxW.png)
(Works if you can find 1.5u shifts; not necessarily trivial depending on what type of keycaps you’re looking to match.)
More realistically, using keycaps from standard ANSI boards is pretty much inevitably terrible, and it would be better to rework the whole thing and not bother with that constraint.
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/52d4a70e11d5f9e1b49b3dad09b27a2eShow Image(http://i.imgur.com/jfOFuxW.png)
(Works if you can find 1.5u shifts; not necessarily trivial depending on what type of keycaps you’re looking to match.)
More realistically, using keycaps from standard ANSI boards is pretty much inevitably terrible, and it would be better to rework the whole thing and not bother with that constraint.
Honest question: Why the odd mix of 1.5, 1, and 1.25 on the bottom row? Why not just 3 1.25 on each side?,Well I was trying for the same constraint as the original, which was to use standard ANSI boards’ keycaps (though I cheated a bit maybe with the 1.5u shifts). Since we already have 1.5u Ctrl in use, then we know that the keycap set also has 1.5u Alts. Windows keycaps however only come in 1.25u, and Fn keycaps vary a lot.
Most of these we're honestly looking at needing completely custom or blank sets anywayYep, which is why I think the original constraints here should be discarded. :)