August 22nd 2004 #
random, August 22nd 2004
I just played at remapping the keyboard for the first time really; before I've just used some Debian configuration to get a Meta somewhere and give some life to the windows-keys.
Irritation has been mounting quite a while: Finnish keyboards suck for hacking. Parens are shifted, and braces and brackets are behind awkward one-handed chords. Here's the beast:
½ | ! | " | # | % | ¤ | & | / | ( | ) | = | ? | ` |
§ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | + | ' | Backspace
| | @ | £ | $ | | | { | [ | ] | } | \ | |
===========================================================================================
| | | | | | | | | | | | ^ |
Tab | Q | W | E | R | T | Y | U | I | O | P | Å | ¨ | Return
| | | | | | | | | | | | ~ |
==================================================================================\
| | | | | | | | | | | | * |
CapsLock | A | S | D | F | G | H | J | K | L | Ö | Ä | ' |
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
===========================================================================================
| > | | | | | | | | ; | : | _ |
Shift | < | Z | X | C | V | B | N | M | , | . | - | Shift
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
===========================================================================================
| | | | | | |
Control | Win | Alt | Space bar | AltGr | Win | Menu | Control
| | | | | | |
To add insult to the injury: tilde, circumflex and backquote are all dead keys, requiring two strokes. Gah.
Here's what I ended up for now — remains to be seen how it works, and how confused I get. I tried to be pretty conservative, moving only what I felt I had to move, and tried to make the new locations both comfortable and easy to remember: only letter key moved was aring, which I almost never need anyways. Since dead tildes, circumflexes, and backquotes come handy sometimes (mainly with people's names), they are mode-shifted on the same keys where non-dead versions are just shifted. Right-hand side is a bit busy with all the triple-keys, but it also means that no one-handed chords are needed anymore. ...at least as long as I pick bindings for Hyper with care. Here's the new layout:
½ | ! | " | # | % | ¤ | & | / | ~ | ^ | = | ? | ` |
§ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | + | ' | Backspace
| | | | | | | £ | ~ | ^ | $ | \ | ` |
===========================================================================================
| | | | | | | | | | | { | } |
Tab | Q | W | E | R | T | Y | U | I | O | P | ( | ) | Return
| | | | | | | | | | | [ | ] |
==================================================================================\
| | | | | | | | | | | | * |
ModeShift | A | S | D | F | G | H | J | K | L | Ö | Ä | ' |
| | | | | | | | | | ¨ | Å | @ |
===========================================================================================
| > | | | | | | | | ; | : | _ |
Shift | < | Z | X | C | V | B | N | M | , | . | - | Shift
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
===========================================================================================
| | | | | | |
Control | Super | Meta | Space bar | Hyper | Meta | Super | Control
| | | | | | |
Seems nice so far. Next I should wean myself from using single-handed chords — unsurprisingly mainly C-x, C-c, and M-x.