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
how do the clicky switches compare to actual white alps (which I love) and cherry greens?
I found that my fingers got really fatigued when I got this board with the clears. Then either I got used to them, or the keys broke in somewhat, but I can really use them now without experiencing fatigue.
It may also be that I put in clear silicone O rings which prevent the switches from dipping down into the heaviest, most fatiguing, part of the spring force curve. Now they bottom out on the O rings before they feel too heavy and fatiguing. They now feel tactile, punchy, and accurate.
Still, it's not my favorite feel, as it still feels too springy. This may be particular to clears in the V60, as clears in my two Poker 3s don't feels as objectionably springy or heavy.
I have not used Matias clicky switches in this board, but have them in a Matias Pro v2 board. I absolutely love the clicky switches in this. They are tactile, accurate, have a great feel, and a deep sounding click that's not as irritating as the higher pitched clicks on Cherry MX blues for example (which I don't actually find that irritating, myself. But the Matias clicks are still much better in that regard.)
I would jump on this with the Matias clicky switches, but I consider a 60% board a portable board, and the clicky switches may yet be too disturbing to use in a library or quiet cafe, let's say. So the two ideas are working at cross purposes. I'd more likely get quiet clicks in a V60 for that reason.
Now I do have Matias quiet switches in a V80, and those are good, but more loose and rattley feeling than quiet clicks in Matias's own compact board.
In the V80, the quiet clicks come off as kind of light and cheap feeling. The same switches in Matias's feel notably more solid and sure. So I hope the quiet clicks in the V60 don't exhibit that same losseness and rattley quality that I have in my V80.