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
So weird. Would you be able to contact Varmilo to ask them regarding why their command key cannot register? Also, does the command key map to anything or does it simply not register with the computer?
Thanks
Just tested binding another function to the Command key and didn't work. For some reason just that key doesn't want to do anything.
Varmilo's answer when I asked was that this model is still not officially Mac compatible, but they are working one that would be.
Incompatibilities with OS X usually comes from how keyboards handle NKRO, the kernel extension above overrides what the keyboards wants the computer to think.
After talking with Varmilo some more they mentioned a board that should be coming out very soon that will be officially Mac compatible. I'll keep playing around with this board for the sake of curiosity, but if you want to sit this one out and wait a little bit there will be a Varmilo coming that won't take some weird work around.
Hope this helps some of you wavering about whether this is worth the risk.
Cheers
The model name is VA88Mac and it's a dual-os keyboard which let you switch between Apple and window modes by holding down Fn-a or Fn-w For three seconds.
It it works great on macos 10.12.6. It handles filevault booting and password entry. The backlight LED is controlled the same way as on Mac with F5/F6 but it seems to be strictly firmware based. it can be turned off and have four intensity levels when turned on A 1.5 meter mini USB cable is included as well as a keycap puller.
I have posted a few photos of it on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/6r0lu1/my_varmilo_va88macn_dualos/?st=J5WOREN0&sh=9d6cbcc7