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
Anyway, because I was only testing the waters in the beginning I didn't buy all the sets I wanted. For instance, on MT3, I should have bought the CMY kit. Luckily, Round 2 came around fairly quickly and I was able to add that in. For SA Oblivion, I don't have a keyboard ready to go for it yet. So rather than regret not buying the correct kits, as I see so many people posting having done that (and me making that mistake in the past, as well), I went all out on the kits this time. I figured for a few extra dollars here and there I should get the maximum versatility for my next build. Furthermore, if I absolutely have to sell something for all of $30 on Mech Market then it is likely, as is often the case with these keycap sets, that I'd get more for it than I paid for it.
My list of kits for SA Oblivion: - Oblivion Alphas - Git Modifiers - Oblivion Numpad - Arrows - Oblivion LED (yes, I paid $40 for like 3 keys, and very few others will have them) - Git Extension
Was $225 excessive when I may very well end up with a standard 100% layout? Absolutely (despite mega-enthusiasts spending even more by purchasing 1-2 of every kit). But do I regret it? Hell no. It was all of an extra $100. Now I have all the modifiers I could want so that when I see a keyboard kit come out that I must have I can transfer my SA Oblivions over to that kit and something else on whatever I put the caps on first. :D
I absolutely can't wait to get all the kits in front of me so I can start brainstorming what I should build!