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
I don't know what's possible and what isn't. But I believe that the more nostalgia that we can cram into this set, the more popular it will be.
One idea: The Space Shuttle, which even exists as a FontAwesome icon (in case that has any influence as to what's possible) ... http://fontawesome.io/icon/space-shuttle/
Other ideas and influences worth considering: The Cold War, mullets, (mentioned previously) cassette tapes, keytars, ONE glove, Ghostbusters, the Atari joystick, big hair, Ronald Reagan, Rambo, boomboxes, 1984 LA Olympics, ET, any of the MTV logos from the decade, War Games, Prince, Rubik's Cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, Mr. T, a mushroom cloud (The Day After), anything Patrick Nagel, the A-Team van, Top Gun, Sony Walkmans, leg warmers, 80s David Bowie, birthmarked Gorbachev, The Breakfast Club, Alf, Ivan Drago, big brick mobile phones, The Goonies, Andy Warhol, a control knob that goes to 11, arcades, Chucky ... There are probably a lot of people here who can add to and improve this list.
But what if these keys were also novelties? Maybe additional novelties beyond the novelty set? To me, it seems like a great way to boost the Ergodox kit sales and, considering that the 1965 group buy just had to cancel their Ergodox kit, boosting Ergodox kit sales with novelties seems prudent. And, of course, we could include MORE 80s references in this set.