Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
this might be helpful:
https://www.massdrop.com/ext/ergodox/?referer=QWFQXZ&hash=a3a33bc0a270c17a7144d34d7d965358
Be sure to click on the "show more layers" button to reveal all my layers.
The layout is primary Dvorak based. Layer 0 is my primary typing layer when the OS is set to Qwerty/EN-US. Layer 1 is for the times that the OS is set to US-Dvorak (such as on a laptop, or a computer with a "regular" keyboard connected). This is not Programmer's Dvorak-based, just the standard Dvorak Simplified. Layers 2 and 3 are my "programming" layers for access to various symbols on the right hand, and various ways to move the text cursor around on the left hand.
My general concept was to minimize the amount of stretching away from home row, and to minimize the usage of my pinky fingers. The "programming" layers are designed to be easily accessed by holding the layer toggle keys with my thumbs and then hitting various keys with fingers on the same hand.
I like the sequential number row of Dvorak Simplified because that's what I learned years ago, and with the columnular layout of the ErgoDox (and other matrix-like layouts), I can easily touch type the number row.