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
… but that research unfortunately stopped short of discovering that people outside of ANSI land have computers, too.
I’d wager that three out of four computer keyboards in existence are ISO keyboards.
Four out of five PCs worldwide are sold outside the US. (Source: https://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-personal-computers-users-map.html)
I’ve also read that only few countries use ANSI, including the US. Can’t remember the source though. I’m not afraid to be wrong though :)
> If ISO was more used, why would manufacturers offer ANSI as the standard?
Both ANSI and ISO are standards. Manufacturers across the world offer both models, obviously. (Googling `ISO keyboard` yields over ten million results.)
Which brings me back to my original question: what is it that keeps manufacturers *in the mech scene* (and, by extension, mass-droppers) from offering both?
Total personal computer sales worldwide does not actually factor in all PCs, as I don't know a single person who has purchased a pre-built PC in the last 5 years. At best, retailers are selling laptops and portables anyway. This all ignoring the fact that other countries outside the US also use ANSI, as WindowsIME is making it a lot simpler to use PCs in other languages.
For you to have actual data, you'd first have to figure out what countries use (and purchase) ISO keyboards, and PCs that include ISO keyboards, and how many sold in those countries. And while I'm not entirely familiar with those countries, I recall there are also variants of the ISO layout which are used in different regions.
Do you have any source on that?
> Total personal computer sales worldwide does not actually factor in all PCs
Could be – but would you realistically expect that factoring in all PCs would change the 20% ratio by more than a few percentage points?
> there are also variants of the ISO layout which are used in different regions.
That’s a good point, and actually the most convincing argument I’ve read so far! All those ISO variants do share the same physical layout but there are still so many options for legends.
This fragmentation could very well explain why mech manufacturers would choose not to include ISO in small runs most of the time.
The burden of proof still remains on you, as I pointed out what was clearly necessary if you think ISO is as widespread as you think it is. I'll await your answer: "For you to have actual data, you'd first have to figure out what countries use (and purchase) ISO keyboards, and PCs that include ISO keyboards, and how many sold in those countries." Anything other than that is purely anecdotal.
2. Regardless, I have already disclosed to you what my sources are, which pieces of data I have and which I don’t. I have also acknowledged already that my guesswork might be wrong.
3. “This is not only due to the general scarcity of boards, but use of alternate formats like HHKB, 40%, etc. Has absolutely nothing to do with sales figures you think you might have.” Sorry but this looks like a complete non sequitur to me. It’s a bit like asking “why are polar bears white” and then getting as a reply: “because polar bears are generally scarce, and because they have alternative temperatures like 40 °F. Has absolutely nothing to do with colors of most other animals you think you might have.”