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
(No hurry, obviously, since it’ll be quite some time before I need to have a device upon which to attach my fancy Scrabble keycaps!)
My first mechanical keyboard was the CODE keyboard made by WASD Keyboards, and I've been really pleased with it. It uses Cherry MX switches, which are compatible with these keycaps. They also make the "Mechanical Keyboard" (creative name, huh?) that's basically the same but without backlighting. They offer a barebones version of it without keycaps: http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/mechanical-keyboard/wasd-v2-104-key-barebones-mechanical-keyboard-1251.html
You'll have to pick the type of switch, which completely changes how it feels to type on the keyboard. Since you like the Model M, you probably want either Blue or Green switches. If you want something similar but a little less noisy, maybe get Clear switches (which I've got in my CODE keyboard). It's really hard to pick a switch without being able to try them first. In an ideal world, a friend or coworker has a keyboard you can borrow for a few days. I already owned a Model M and had used a keyboard with Blue switches: I knew I didn't want one as loud as either of those. Based on that and checking out videos and forum/blog posts, I made a lucky guess that I might like Clear switches.
There are cheaper keyboards with MX-compatible switches, as well, but I'm not aware of any other barebones boards.
Watch out, though, mechanical keyboards have a nasty habit of multiplying and it can really drain the wallet.
So far the only modern mechanical keyboard I’ve tried is one they have set up at my local Target, a Razer something-or-other that I didn’t look too closely at, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as I imagined it would be. (It also had some sort of hyperactive backlighting that should probably have an epilepsy warning on it – the salesguy said you could adjust the backlighting to your pleasure, though.) I tend to spend more time on new hobbies than money, and I’ve justified this purchase by asserting that I’m never going to have to buy a keyboard again, but I can already tell this is a dangerous interest. But if you’re going to use something all day every day, shouldn’t it be the best it can be? Decisions, decisions!
If you don't have access to different mechanical keyboards to test out different switch types, I highly recommend a switch tester. While not the same as typing on a full keyboard, it does give you an opportunity to compare the feel and sound of different switch types. Various testers are available periodically on Massdrop, and you can find them elsewhere too.