Rethinking Layouts - 76 Keys Later

[csmith]

I had a few ideas floating around, so put them together, and thought someone here might find it interesting.

The example would be for OS X, but you could easily adapt it to whatever you wanted.



A couple of the punctuation keys have been moved, which isn't immediately obvious.

Backspace and Delete are now next to each other, just because it always bothered me that they weren't.

Page Up, Page Down, Home and End have been shuffled into an inverted-T, so you can use them for navigating text more intuitively (Top of Doc, Bottom of Doc, Start of Line, End of Line).

I added a Shift Lock key, just because I always wanted one for working with code, and moved CapsLock to make way for a decent sized Function key. The lowest two rows have symmetrical modifiers now too.

Media controls are along the bottom, mostly because function keys are along the top. Screen and Keyboard brightness are in the new inverted-T.

It's pretty unlikely this will ever be built, but maybe some of the ideas will be influence someone.

Thanks for looking.

[Scarpia]

Good job on that layout csmith! I like your somewhat bold choices, and as a Mac user I think you've made some really good use of the bottom row. The ISO enter would be a dealbreaker for some, but that's no big deal for me.

Have you thought about dropping the scroll lock key though? And perhaps the pause key as well? I never had any real use for either one.

The only other issue with it for me personally is the function key. As a vim user, I remap that key to Esc for easier mode switching, which would be a problem on this board. Of course, that's a problem specific to vim users, so not really a critique of the layout as such.

Anyway, I hope you build it for yourself - it should be doable with a bit of soldering

[jacobolus]

I think you should split the spacebar in half and center the split between GH. You might consider making each half 2–2.5u wide. (On a standard-layout keyboard, I press the spacebar below the F key, right near the edge between Alt/Space on your diagram.)

In general you shouldn’t make the bottom row symmetrical like that unless you plan to move a column of keys from the right edge into the middle and shift the whole right hand letter key section over one key to the right. If you are keeping the letters in standard arrangement, you should try to make your bottom row symmetrical about the actual hand positions when someone is typing.

[csmith]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Dropping Scroll Lock is an option, and the Pause key could be moved to the function layer, just so it's there if it's ever needed.

Better support for Vim users would be nice. Good point, Scarpia.

Jacobolus, you make some really good points too. Thing is, I have a really weird typing style. Some fingers just lay across the keys randomly, while others feel along the edge of the main block, using the gaps between the keys to orientate my hands while I'm typing. It does not work very well, but I've always been too lazy to learn to type properly. Anyway, the point is that the extra punctuation keys on the right would draw my hands about 0.5u to the right of their normal position, so the modifiers would be perfect for me. For most people, what you said about aligning the spacebar with the home keys, not the whole block, is really important.

The design has some serious flaws, but then I'm the last person that should be designing keyboards. Still, there're some ideas that I reckon people could take advantage of, like moving Delete to be next to Backspace, and arranging Page Up, Page Down, Home and End in an inverted T shape, directly above the arrow keys.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[jacobolus]

Thing is, I have a really weird typing style. Some fingers just lay across the keys randomly, while others feel along the edge of the main block, using the gaps between the keys to orientate my hands while I'm typing. It does not work very well, but I've always been too lazy to learn to type properly. Anyway, the point is that the extra punctuation keys on the right would draw my hands about 0.5u to the right of their normal position, so the modifiers would be perfect for me. For most people, what you said about aligning the spacebar with the home keys, not the whole block, is really important.

Fair enough. I was going to add “assuming you use a somewhat standard typing technique” disclaimer to my comment, but decided it was extra fluff.

If it works for you, it works for you!

[csmith]

Thanks man.

Still, I should really learn to type properly. It's kind of embarrassing. I'm a software developer, and people doubt your credentials if you can't churn out code like in movies.