Kit feedback! I'll start off by covering DrHigsby's great suggestions:
1) The R2 1u escape key in the Alts kit is yellow. I think it’s supposed to be orange to better match your gradient on a 40%.
Agree.
2) There is a purple R3 shift key in the alts kit. I don’t know if any layout which utilizes a R3 shift key. Is it supposed to be R4? (looking at my Prime_e, I’m convinced this is supposed to be R4)
Agree.
3) I recommend adding a second 2u spacebar and removing the 1.75u spacebar from the alts kit. The layouts which need a 1.75u spacebar require two (not one) and aren’t very common. Whereas double 2u spacebar is way more common on ortho layouts.
No need to add a second 2u to Alts. You'll notice that 2× 2u is already covered by getting Ortho + Alts. Something worth considering might be adding a second 2u to the Ortho kit, in which case ortho users won't need to get the Alt kit if they need two, but this isn't a must.
As for the second 1.75u, that's actually also already sort of covered by the purple 1.75u
Shift from base. JD40, JD45, Prime-L (all the keyboards that use 2× 1.75u space) all have left 1.75u Shifts, which are græy in this set, so the purple one can be used to cover the second 1.75u space.
What this set
is missing in terms of 40% support is some extra purple 1u, 1.25u and 1.5u mods. The thing is that most staggered 40% boards have small spacebars (e.g. 2.25u+2.75u), so without extra purple mods on the sides, the purple line won't make it all the way from
X to
.>. Here are some examples of what I mean:
KLENot shown: Prime_E, which also needs a second 1.25u
Alt; and Prime_L, which needs 1u
Alt and 1u
Fn/
Any.
From this I can conclude that the following purple keys should be added to the Alts kit:
- R3 1.25u Alt — so that there are two in total: one in Base, one in Alts
- R3 1.5u Alt — this key is also useful for 1800/CP/96-key, 65% boards w/o blockers, 50% boards such as TMO50, etc.
- R3 1u Alt
- R3 1u Fn or Any — ideally, both
I love to see R4
<> included, but I hate to say that, given the circumstances, it should be removed from Alts to make room for these other, more useful keys. ISO users will be able to use R4
\| in its place.
Alternatively, you can drop the ISO-UK-specific keys and keep just R3
\|, R4
<> to make room for 6u worth of extra keys in the kit. That's probably what I'd do, since, statistically, ISO-UK users only make up
around 3% of all users in the community.
Other keys to consider adding to the Alts kit, in order of priority:
- R3 1.5u Code ×2 — for Mac and OG HHKB bottom row users (second 1u Alt doesn't need to be added since there is a 1u Any), as well as for some 40% boards
- R4 2u Shift — for 60% with arrow keys
- You could also add Minivan support with two extra keys: R2 1.75u Backspace, R3 1.5u Return (also useful for Pearl), but it doesn't look too great imo.
- R3 1.25u Return or Fn — for some 40% boards (UT47.2, Dimple etc.)
- R4 1.5u Shift — for Evolv and some 40% boards (Dimple, Minivan)
Edit: more potential additions
Edit2: fix broken image link
Edit3: fix formatting
