Drop Mech Keys Meetup Recap - Thanks for Visiting!
As you may have seen, we just hosted our first meetup in quite a while here at Drop HQ (Corsair HQ, but they seem to like us enough :) )! It was a blast to get to meet so many enthusiasts local to the bay area—it had been 10 years since I was last hanging out with keyboard nerds in the bay, at KeyCon 2014. We had a great time hosting everyone at the offices, checking out all the very nice boards y'all brought, and sharing some of our own projects/spaces! I knew it would be fun to host in the Game Room when I first saw it in person, but seeing it come to fruition was still so cool. Alright, I'll stop blabbering on now. xD Picture time! (Oh, real quick - there will be more of these! Stay tuned for more info and to catch the next one!)
May 15, 2024
Challenge accepted! :D
I've been working on a Nordic ANSI hybrid in KLE for a 60% layout, using the available kits with GMK Nautilus, and came up with two alternatives. These were optimized to relocate as few legends as possible to invisible AltGr combinations.
Green indicates changes to regular Nordic ISO layout. Invisible keys to the right indicate additional invisible symbols accessible with AltGr (~ with + = and ´ `with ' ").
The upper version keeps the 6.25u spacebar and moves backspace down a row, but lacks Esc key. Kits used: Base + Norde (6 keys) + Dvorak Colemak (3 keys). Optional: Novelty ANSI octopus-enter.
The lower version is for use with split spacebar, moves backspace to the extra spacebar key, keeps the ANSI \ | key and has an Esc key. Kits used: Base + Norde (6 keys) + Dvorak Colemak (3 keys) + Spacebars (2 keys). Optional: Novelty ANSI octopus-enter.
Disclaimer: I'm a beginner at this and might've overlooked a great many things. Comments, corrections and suggestions are much welcome!
Getting rid of a key because it's an 'edge case' doesn't really work as an argument, no ones gonna want to try to find a board with a \ when/if they start programming or messing about in the terminal. The same could be argued about the brackets or the tab key but they really shouldn't go anywhere either.
If you wanted more keys for gaming, JIS would be the layout to go for.
A keyboard redesign is unlikely to catch on for the same reason Dvorak and Colemak haven't, standard QWERTY is good enough and people are used to it.
For example in France, people only know that "our keyboard" are AZERTY and most of other countries uses variations of QWERTY. And I'm generous, because to be honest, most people don't know anything about keyboards, if they encounter a QWERTY, they just think that it is weird. And they type with 2 fingers...