So a game cannot use the nub clicks and the L1/R1 shoulder buttons for different game functions. Seems like an unnecessary limitation to me.
No more than having modifiers on the shoulders that exist on the keyboard are a 'limitation'.
Left Shift and Right Shift can be distinguished, they are different keys. Same with the other modifiers. A game or application can do different things with the Left and Right modifiers. E.g. on the Pandora, in say SDL, the SELECT button is known as SDLK_LCTRL, while the R1 shoulder button is known as SDLK_RCTRL. Both behave as Ctrl, but they can be distinguished.
I wouldn't know how to easily distinguish two left mouse buttons. Most software assumes the mouse has one left button and one right button, not a pair of each.
Where the Fn+space=tab on the Pandora is awkward due to the required buttons being next to each other, my keyboard gives two comfortable ways to get the result quickly.
That's one position to take, but then I don't see how you can also say that Shift+Fn+something and similar double modifier combos is somehow easy to do and not awkward. Pressing them in the wrong order is not really an issue, since you do an inward roll anyway.
Let's pretend you want to press tab. On the Pandora you have two real choices.
1. Roll the right thumb over the Fn key onto the space key - Fn key must be pressed first.
2. Hold the Fn key with the right thumb, move your left hand up and over the keyboard to press space with the left thumb or forefinger.
On my keyboard there are two choices.
1. Press and hold left Fn with the left thumb and then touch the space bar with the right thumb.
2. Press and hold right Fn with the right thumb and then touch the space bar with the left thumb.
The difference between the two keyboards is the timing. On my keyboard the user is expected to chord-key. Think 16th notes in 4/4 time 'da-da'. It should be possible for someone to establish a keying rythm without being interrupted by the modifier keys.
I see no difference. If you want to do Fn+Space, in both cases you need to press Fn first and then Space. The main difference is that on the Pandora, you can produce Tab using just your right thumb, while in your layout both thumbs are needed.
So for producing one Tab, your layout is actually worse than the Pandora layout.
For producing more than one Tab, your layout is better since you can hold Fn with one thumb while repeatedly pressing Space/Tab with the other one.
Of course a dedicated primary Tab key is still better. Having Fn at a shoulder button would also help.
It has to be P+1 and L+2, at those locations. Take a look at a German or Scandinavian keyboard layout to see why.
Alternatively, you could put things at Fn+letter, but then e.g. Fn+U=Ü, Fn+A=Ä, Fn+O=Ö, Fn+S=ß would make more sense than something like Fn+G=Ü, Fn+H=Ä, and Ö/ß missing (or no capital versions of the letters available).
I looked up a German keyboard. My plain simple response to having P+1 and L+2 keys like that is, "Hell no." That would require the loss and relocation of delete, .,:; and Enter. There are simply not enough keys on the top 2 rows of this keypad layout to do it without completely ruining the keyboard.
German users can map the additional letters to the 4 empty Fn+key and Fn+shift+key spots left open and use compose AND even map letters to mouse 3&4 (shift & Fn included) (secondary shoulder buttons).
So you propose something like Fn+G for ü/Ü, Fn+H for ä/Ä, L1(Mouse3) for ö/Ö, and R2(Mouse4) for ß?
I don't think German users would be happy with that solution.
How would you feel when you would be given a QWERTY keyboard where the I,O,P keys are missing? No worries, you can map those to Fn+G, Fn+H and Mouse3!
There's a reason why in both
my and
comradekingu's layout proposals, the P+1 and L+2 keys are either non-essential or can be mapped behind Meta to make room for international keyboard layouts.
There's also a reason why I didn't put any Meta labels at the vowels: in many languages, the additional letters are vowels, so I left those free for custom Meta keys.
e.g. Ü Ö Ä ß € on Meta + U O A S E makes sense for German,
Norwegians could have Ø Å Æ on Meta + O A E,
for Icelandic you could have Þ Ð Á É Í Ó Ú Ý Æ Ö on Meta + T D A E I O U Y W P,
for French you could do à è é ù œ ç on Meta + A E R U O S (or ç at Meta+Shift+C, but then you can't do Ç), and use dead circumflex and tréma for â ê î ô û ë ï ü,
and so on. Those all make some kind of sense. At least much more sense than having to put things at Fn+G, Fn+H, Mouse3 and Mouse4.
I'm not sure where the hostility towards collecting symbols by their mathematical use comes from. Computers are math - they're just overgrown calculators after all.
I see one use of the Pyra as an Engineering student's secret weapon. Numeric and math/calculator functionality should not be overlooked or glossed over, but embraced as a device feature.
Where do you see hostility? I was just pointing out that the main uses of / and - are probably not mathematics for most users. They are of course symbols for division and subtraction, and thus related to multiplication and addition. But they're mostly just slash and dash, used for lots of different things. According to the
statistics, dash is the most important punctuation symbol in English text after comma and period (and perhaps apostrophe and quote, depending on the kind of text). On the command line, / and - are pretty much essential. Putting / and - on Shift+Fn+something makes them not very convenient to use. Comradekingu's proposal puts them behind only one modifier, and in my proposal they're dedicated primary keys.
Note that on a standard US-QWERTY keyboard (without a numpad, e.g. on a laptop), / and - are primary keys while * and + are shifted keys. That's not a coincidence. Although if I would have designed it, I would have swapped + and = because the asymmetry between - and + is kind of strange.
Yeah, = being the primary character of the key catches me off guard too often when I am not thinking or paying attention.
