What layout do you use?

[Mal-2]

I figured I'd follow up on my previous post, since rarely a week goes by that I don't try tweaking the keyboard layout. It's one of the reasons I went with the Cherry G86 series in the first place, alternate layouts are quite trivial to implement. In this case I was able to move everything one more column to the right by moving [ and ] out of the normal matrix ([{ and ]} are also AltGr mapped onto 9 and 0) and moving the Menu key to the left hand (I rarely use it).

I was using an X-keys 16-key strip, but I didn't like the reaching, nor the difference in feel (they're metal domes), so I went back to my Ctrl-key cluster at lower left and overlaid a number pad onto the main alpha area. Num Lock is really Caps Lock, and the overlay is done in Windows Keyboard Layout Creator. This does mean I sacrificed Caps Lock, but I personally can do this. Admittedly, not everyone can.

[uncletobai]

ISO-QWERTZ-DE but i got rid of the umlaut cluster and replaced it with arrow keys, and put the various brackets on 1-6 as Alt-Gr combo

[czarek]

I use ErgoDox and HHKB layout. Not necessarily on HHKB keyboard, since recently I use my GH60 the most, and I'm also patiently waiting for new F62 in that layout

[face]

I use 60% keyboards, formerly the Pok3r. I am from Germany and should use ISO, instead I use the ANSI-Layout. I find the left shift and the enter keys to be much more comfortable, which is the main reason. Nevertheless I use the german layout with ÄÖÜ and program some of the keys to be like ANSI.

So I keep the |/-key for example, to write more fluid in Latex. Also when using a Mac I usually change left ctrl to be "alt+return", and function+lctrl to "fn+alt+return", namely "delete the last word" and "forward delete a whole word", which I find super usefull. You rarely use ctrl anyway on OSX.
That would be better on capslock, but I need capslock as a function-key. Dunno where else to put it.

[armatus]

i use colemak on ergodox,
exactly it is colemak-thumbshift layout (shift on thumb area)
later i want to make this key dual-action (shift or space, depends of later keypresses)

[acura]

Using mostly dvorak on ISO-layout keyboard. Have been typing dvorak equally long as colemak have existed so it was not known when I made the switch.

I also use some variants of dvorak allowing me to type European chars more easily. But most of the time just plain dvorak. And this is also the reason to the ISO-layout. Might try ANSI, but also thinking of creating my own "optimal" keyboard layout.

I have also switched the position of Ctrl-keys. To the position they were intended to be.
Just switched positions of Ctrl and Alt{,gr} keys. I find this more ergonomic than swapping ctrl and caps.
Caps is mapped to return, backspace or escape. Depening on what I find most usefull for the moment.


One thing I have been thinking about is to move the right hand one row to the right. This would give my an extra column in the middle where I could put things like {}[]() for easy reach. Have not taken this step since I am not comfortable with making me incompatible with the rest of the world at the moment. Even though I almost only use my own computers.

[cookie]

HHKB with US-International Layout, works perfectly for me

[Chyros]

Zenith-type Focus layout atm.

[cookie]

Wow this Enter is surely impossible to replace

[czarek]

Zenith-type Focus layout atm.

Apart from being fullsize, it looks pretty usable actually - just a slight variation of standard ANSI layout.
Myself I'd obviously remap caps to control, made 2 alt graphs on both sides of space bar, one normal alt and one windows key (probably out of right control).

[Chyros]

Zenith-type Focus layout atm.

Apart from being fullsize, it looks pretty usable actually - just a slight variation of standard ANSI layout.
Myself I'd obviously remap caps to control, made 2 alt graphs on both sides of space bar, one normal alt and one windows key (probably out of right control).

Would be somewhat hard to make compatible — the space between the alt and ctrl buttons is only 0.5 u long so xD . It's a very nice layout though, and a great-looking keyboard overall .

Wow this Enter is surely impossible to replace

Yes, and it's made worse by the fact that the numpad 0 and .Del are both 1.5 u long (the layout pic doesn't show this, must've been overlooked xD) and of course the ctrl and alt buttons are 1.75 u which is very non-standard. I'm pretty certain the only source of ZKB-2 replacement caps is from ZKB-2s xD .

[cookie]

Replacement caps are only relevant if you see yourself using this board in 10 years from now

[Khers]

HHKB with US-International Layout, works perfectly for me

I use the same and feel the same way about it

[Chyros]

Replacement caps are only relevant if you see yourself using this board in 10 years from now

10, 20, 40, 60!

[czarek]

I'm mostly using blanks, unless I really like the labels which was only a case in some IBM keyboards so far, and my short venture with backlit keyboards. That means I pretty much never wear out the keys as I actually quite enjoy shiny tops. In my case they become shiny within a week if I use ABS or 2-3 months when I use high quality PBT (Topre or IBM).

[cookie]

You must produce acid in your fingertips if you manage to get Topre caps shiny within 3 months.... Actually hard to believe.

I have my Pro2 almost 4 years and the caps are still fine, just a little bit shine there.
My Pro1 which is 11 years old has a lot more though but still not comparable to the shine on my Cheery DS caps.

[Halvar]

Not to go into too much detail but I think that's the kind of shine that you can remove with a rubber/eraser.

[cookie]

I've heard of sandblasting but rubber/eraser?
Do you have a link to a tutorial or something, I am quite interested.

[mmaruda]

I've heard of sandblasting but rubber/eraser?
Do you have a link to a tutorial or something, I am quite interested.

First post... Here goes.

The rubber/eraser thing with dealing with shine is something that popped up a long time ago I think wither on reddit or GH. There is no explanation on how it works, but I did test it and it works. You just take an ordinary pencil eraser and rub the key with it where it is shiny. Provided that the key still has some texture to it and is note polished like a Venetian mirror, the shine will go away (at least for some time).

My guess is either the oils from your fingers get absorbed by the rubber or, particles of the rubber get into the keycap making it matte again.

[czarek]

Nope, it's mechanical wear, not chemical.
I have rather dry hands, not even leaving any marks on my Mionix Castor and also I'm very clean person, washing hands as often as I can. I do type a lot though. Spending my life in Vim/Tmux and Skype/Gmail basically typing 12-14 hours a day by average.
That's why 55G RF board caused RSI in my right hand after 1.5 year of using it daily, and that's why I settled down with silenced HHKB. I tried using 62G Vintage Blacks in GH60 for a while but for some reason my fingers hurt when using them. Possibly because I can't rest them on keycaps when idle (accidental keypresses).
When there will be better daylight I have to make photos of my Realforce (used 1.5 years) and HHKB (this one used only about half year) so you can see the wear.

[Samraku]

Right now I use Qwerty (with keyboard shortcuts to switch to US-international when I need something like é or è or Esperanto when I want to type "Ĉu vi ŝatas ĝin?" (Do you like it?, aka., a sentence that uses several Esperanto specific characters)), but I'm planning to switch layouts when the Keyboardio ships. It's still up in the air, but I'm currently planning on using Arensito for the letter keys, but then using the number bar and (aside from the ones that conflict with Arensito letter keys) punctuation from Programmer's Dvorak. I'm pretty set on Programmer's Dvorak, but only pretty sure about using Arensito for the letters.

Of course, assuming the Keyboardio ships around December 2016/January 2017, I still have to get through a semester using Qwerty on my ailing laptop. Please hang with me, laptop.

[b4d_tR1p]

HHKB with US-International Layout, works perfectly for me

I use the same and feel the same way about it

me too

[kekstee]

Since I'm from Europe I do own a couple of ISO boards, but I prefer the ANSI enter by far. ISO is just a waste of space, and further away on your home row. Also it leads to not being able to move backspace to its HHKB location. It always feels terrible to switch back to a regular board from HHKB layout due to BS being that far out of the way.

German ISO is just terrible. It's only use is producing lots of German text, but apart from that it just gets in the way of using a computer. So I set my ISO boards to be switchable between ISO-UK and -DE. UK does not offer the required German characters though, even on its 3rd layer.

So, with ANSI being physically more sensible in my eyes and US-International providing me with all required AltGr mappings this is what I use most of the time. Preferably in its HHKB variant to further optimize the layout.

I did use a Linux compose key for a while to type all my special characters, but this solution is so terribly unportable that I rather not rely on it and moved away again.

I dislike using a layout which is different from my keycaps, at least as default. Usually my boards are set up with their printed layout first.
Learning something more optimised than QWERTY would be interesting, and I do own a blank ANSI board I could use, but it really bothers me that I would put a lot of work into learning something like Colemark, which is so closely optimized around english.

I recently discovered the Keyboard Layout Project page, which is trying to offer a solution for weighting and solving the ideal layout based on words used. People have already tried to compose ideal layouts for mixtures of languages here as well. Still, special characters are a bit of a hassle.

So, for now I am down with US-International ANSI. It offers me what I need while being less of a hassle than the ISO-UK or ISO-DE layouts I could use. If I decided to learn an optimized layout it would probably have to be Colemark, despite its flaws. Compatibility and availability trumps the most optimal mathematical solution to the issue, I guess.

[scottc]

If you type a lot of German, check out the Neo layout: http://www.neo-layout.org/

I just use ANSI, though. It works fine for English, it works fine for Irish, it works fine for Polish. One day I will finish learning Colemak, but by that stage I'm sure a better replacement will be about.

[Phenix]

alternative to Neo is AdNW.

But I also need printings, and learning it is hard. so I stick with ISO-DE

[Chyros]

Since I'm from Europe I do own a couple of ISO boards, but I prefer the ANSI enter by far. ISO is just a waste of space[...]

See, I've seen that argument a couple of times, but to me it's the exact opposite way around. The way I see it, ANSI has 101 keys, while ISO has 102 in the same space. So to me that says ISO gets more keys out of the same space than ANSI does.

That said, I'm a shit typist, and can't even touch type :p .

[Phenix]

The iso button right of lshift is awesome as layer1 imo

[emdude]

Zenith-type Focus layout atm.

I used to dislike Big-Ass Enter layouts, not too long ago either, but these days I find them kinda charming, the ones that don't have a 1u backspace at least. The Focus layout is pretty nice in that respect.

That 1.5u right bracket key is just weird though.

[scottc]

Since I'm from Europe I do own a couple of ISO boards, but I prefer the ANSI enter by far. ISO is just a waste of space[...]

See, I've seen that argument a couple of times, but to me it's the exact opposite way around. The way I see it, ANSI has 101 keys, while ISO has 102 in the same space. So to me that says ISO gets more keys out of the same space than ANSI does.

That said, I'm a shit typist, and can't even touch type :p .

The size and type of the enter has nothing to do with the number of keys, though. The "extra" key in ISO is gained by shortening the ANSI left shift by 1 unit. So in ANSI you could easily just have a shorter left shift and still have as many keys as ISO, it just doesn't make sense for English-speaking Americans (at least, that's what they must've thought when designing the layout).

[Chyros]

Since I'm from Europe I do own a couple of ISO boards, but I prefer the ANSI enter by far. ISO is just a waste of space[...]

See, I've seen that argument a couple of times, but to me it's the exact opposite way around. The way I see it, ANSI has 101 keys, while ISO has 102 in the same space. So to me that says ISO gets more keys out of the same space than ANSI does.

That said, I'm a shit typist, and can't even touch type :p .

The size and type of the enter has nothing to do with the number of keys, though. The "extra" key in ISO is gained by shortening the ANSI left shift by 1 unit. So in ANSI you could easily just have a shorter left shift and still have as many keys as ISO, it just doesn't make sense for English-speaking Americans (at least, that's what they must've thought when designing the layout).

That's true, but by that logic the ISO and ANSI enters are equivalent in how many keys they take up. A Bigass enter is ANSI + \| or ISO + #~. The question is, would you rather donate the 0.5 units to the \| key or the enter key? Personally I find the enter key much more worth the extra size than \|. That, and I fan right for enter, which puts my pinky at the Q row, not the A row — though that's obviously a personal preference.

I also don't see the point in the large left shift. I only use it during gaming anyway :p .