Since a thread here on laptop layouts deals with conventional QWERTY layouts, maybe this isn't off-topic for this forum.
I'm continuing to fiddle around with establishing what I would consider to be the "ideal" keyboard layout. Here's something I just came up with recently:
My last idea for a perfect keyboard was to put the {[ and }] keys next to each other starting from where the ~` key is and going left. But that prevents that position from being used as the traditional ESC key position, and it makes the keyboard wider.
So, I was going to put those two keys to the left of the left Alt key. The idea was to shorten the spacebar a bit. But I still wanted space to the right of the left Ctrl key. As the end result would have been to shorten the spacebar too much, I ended up adopting a suggestion someone else had made in these forums - to which I was resistant, because it seemed too unconventional - putting those two keys in the Caps Lock key area.
So the keyboard is widened by only 3/16 of an inch. It's shown in a universal form, with keys from the Sun keyboard as well as from the 122-key keyboard.
Note that to keep from widening the keyboard too much, while the Backspace key is 1 1/4 keys wide, the Enter key is kept narrow - it's the ISO Enter key, but in the ANSI position. Thus, the keyboard is not widened on the left by putting in the Caps Lock and ~` keys to the right of it.
And what's that picture of another keyboard below it?
That shows why I've moved the two Ctrl keys in a bit. Instead of having them where they were on the original Model M, or where the Reset and Enter keys are on a 122-key keyboard... they are in the positions of the Reset and Enter keys on a Model 3277 Display Station.
Yes, in a reachable location where people expect to find them!
People who have been frozen in suspended animation since the 1970s, that is...
Note that since the Escape key is moved to its traditional location, I still use its old spot next to the function keys... for the Windows Menu key.
Incidentally, I had another crazy idea. At one point, I jestingly suggested that keyboards should come with four extra lights, not dedicated, like the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock lights, and six big rocker switches on the top of the keyboard. Sense Lights and Sense Switches, so that the computer could properly and compatibly run IBM 704 FORTRAN programs!
A vestigial remnant of the computer front panel, truly retro and geeky.
Well, I thought of a practical use for sense switches on the keyboard of a modern computer!
Have sense switch 1 on while your computer is booting. Go to the BIOS screen.
Have sense switch 2 on while your computer is booting. Boot up in Safe Mode.
None of this having to be quick to hit some obscure key at the right moment!
Also, note that while a second ESC key is shown on the numeric keypad because of the 122-key compatible layout, I'm not sure that there's an appropriate way to have a second ESC key without causing incompatibilities. But then there would have to be an Fn key for switching modes... and I didn't see a good place to put one on this keyboard, already filled with too many keys. Above the Windows Menu key?
