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Author Topic: Alternative Keyboard Layout  (Read 1613 times)

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Offline Chris_F

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Alternative Keyboard Layout
« on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 18:42:47 »
I've been working on my own keyboard layout and am interested to hear what you think, especially if you have experience with alternate layouts.

Edit: Seems people were getting confused by some of the non-relevant details of my first image so I have uploaded a better image.
« Last Edit: Sun, 05 August 2012, 21:24:54 by Chris_F »
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Offline microsoft windows

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:15:27 »
Well, it's got a Windows key, so it looks good to me!
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Offline Chris_F

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:20:14 »
Quote from: microsoft windows on Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:15:27
Well, it's got a Windows key, so it looks good to me!

Actually, that is just the Windows on-screen keyboard. I'm using that to display the layout of the letter keys.
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Offline 1391401

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:29:28 »
Oh I see, is this new layout based on any research, or common mistakes, or anything else? 

I know you're just looking at key layout but IMO fn and right shift could use better placement :P
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Offline Chris_F

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:46:42 »
Quote from: 1391401 on Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:29:28
Oh I see, is this new layout based on any research, or common mistakes, or anything else? 

I sort of based it off of other alternate layouts, specifically, mirrored Dvorak, Colemak and QGMLWY. I sort of mixed them a bit and made some modifications.

Quote from: 1391401 on Sun, 05 August 2012, 20:29:28
I know you're just looking at key layout but IMO fn and right shift could use better placement :P

Again, I only used the Windows on-screen keyboard for an easy illustration. The placement of special keys in this particular
 program is unchangeable and completely irrelevant to my layout. I have uploaded a less confusing image.

« Last Edit: Sun, 05 August 2012, 21:13:35 by Chris_F »
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Q: The best keyboards ever made are from the early '80s and have buckling springs.
A: True

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 22:22:18 »
I really like it! I see the Dvorak influence on the home row, but the RL placements are better. U doesn't really "need" to be on the homerow, etc.

Things I don't like: Stupid punctuation placement. That was one of the best features of Dvorak, and one of the most overlooked layout changes. Punctuation is used a lot, it has no purpose on the bottom row (All except for the semicolon; no-one uses that anymore anyway.)

Normally I'd also complain about the close-to-qwerty ZXCV placement (Being "like" a flawed layout is one of the main reasons I didn't do colemak), but it's a real balance between utility with stupid-windows-shortcuts, and utility of actually having well placed keys.

(I put cut/copy/paste/etc. on programmable keys above the function row)

So, it's rather good overall. I haven't looked into what digraphs are easy/hard with it, but overall it shows a much better design than some I've seen.

Have you run it through a layout tester?
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Offline Chris_F

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 05 August 2012, 23:25:13 »
I originally had punctuation on the top right, but I actually got worse results, so I put them back on the bottom. I may try moving them again. As for any other QWERTY similarities, they are not on purpose. The placement of Z, V, C, X only seemed natural. It's a happy coincidence that they remain close enough to be used for common shortcuts.

http://www.andong.co.uk/dvorak/

This is the site I used to test my layout. It seems to score higher than Dvorak, Colemak and QGMLWY.
« Last Edit: Sun, 05 August 2012, 23:32:51 by Chris_F »
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Q: The best keyboards ever made are from the early '80s and have buckling springs.
A: True

Offline Chris_F

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Re: Alternative Keyboard Layout
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 07 August 2012, 20:53:00 »
Anyone happen to know of some good software for testing out keyboard layouts? Preferably something with source and written in C or C++.
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Q: The best keyboards ever made are from the early '80s and have buckling springs.
A: True
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