Hello everyone! I'm Canyon ;)

[canyon]

Hi,

i'm a computer science student from Germany. I'm interested in keyboard improvements since years and got deeper into it in the last half year. Like the most other people in this forum, i want(ed) to buy an ergonomic keyboard or build one by my own, but unfortunately i simply can't afford this at the moment. Additionally, i'm not even sure what i would go for if i had the money. Although i'm pretty sure that i would be able to build a DIY keyboard (thanks to those who provide workshops, instructions etc.), during my studying it has become clear that i'm more the software guy than the one who likes to do all the soldering stuff and such things.

Regarding software, i've got some really interesting ideas which i want to share with you as soon as possible. I'll open another thread in the appropriate sub forum for this.

Well, that's me. I already spent much time reading through this forum and really liked the way people treated each other. That's not common on the internet and i really appreciate it.

I'm really looking forward to spread my ideas, to get feedback and maybe to help others improving their keyboard experience.

Canyon

[DrHubblePhD]

Welcome to GeekHack! Happy to see that we have another DIY member of the community! Would love to see some of your projects in the future

[Tyrosh22]

Welcome to GeekHack!

[Bsclly]

Welcome to Geekhack!!!

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

You've got me curious about the software ideas now   Is it the dual role keys (he asked, after having a quick browse through your post history)?  If so, sounds like an excellent idea for the JD40.

[canyon]

yeah the advanced dual role keys were the first of those ideas. But it seems like i'm not the first one who got this idea, there are already implementations and much knowledge in this forum. I just didn't find them...

There are two more ideas that i want to put some effort in:

1. Layout optimization for usage of one hand on mouse and one hand on the keyboard:
I often find myself switching between the keyboard and mouse at a very high frequency. Using the mouse and the arrow keys alternately keeps my right hand jumping from mouse to keyboard very often.
So the idea is to use the additional mouse buttons 4 and 5 (normally used for back/forward in the browser) as modifiers that change the keys under the left hand (that keeps in place while using the mouse). It would be possible to have a navigation cluster, a numpad or whatever under you left hand while using the mouse.

2. Creating a keyboard layout that contains two "modes":
This idea is similar to the way vim is used (i'm not a vim expert, but as far as i know...). There would be one "Text mode" that's basically what a normal keyboard layout looks like and a mode which contains navigation keys and other functions, let's call it "navigation mode". Switching between these modes (that could be visualized with one of the keyboard LEDs for caps-, scroll- and num-lock) should be done by a single keystroke. For example: if you press the caps lock key, the layout switches to the "navigation mode", if you press the right alt key, the layout switches to "text mode".
I tried a keyboard layout that had a navigation layer some time ago, and i didn't like that you had to hold a modifier every time you wanted to use the navigation elements. Another point is that i often don't need "text keys" for a long time (e.g. while browsing on the internet or using the file explorer) and when i need text keys, i type a series of them (e.g. entering a search query). This means that you wouldn't have to switch between the two modes too often.

I haven't tried any of these ideas, but i see great possibilities (and also some problems ), so i will try them out one day.

Does anybody of you know if one of these ideas was already discussed in this forum? I tried to find some appropriate threads but actually i don't even know what to search for...

Thanks in advance

greetings,
Canyon

[rowdy]

There's a lot of people here with a surprising amount of knowledge!

Anyway ...

1. I find that too - frustrating sometimes switching my right hand between the mouse and keyboard.  But I find that using something unique like this on one keyboard would then cause problems switching to a different computer (I use up to 5 or 6 different computers every day, and not all mine so I can't install stuff onto some of them).  Also having one key permanently on the mouse would slow down typing speed.

2. Maybe a keyboard utility like AuthHotKey could make the ,say, Fn key on an HHKB act like a toggle, instead of as a modifier.  That might allow this idea to be implemented without much work involved.