Blog Update 2/15/09

[Monk]

Thanks for listening and thinking Monk
ED's reply put me back in the right mood, he is a man of his word
{snip}
A custom layout will come and so this case is closed for me

No problem. As I see it, we're meant to be a community? That means trying to help and understand each other IMHO. Every now and then there might be a spat, but the overall tone is peers helping each other out.

First, Monk your long post was great.
Not that it shows you can come up with nice pictures (speak-wise) it further shows that yu really put some effort in investigating stuff about a languge you probbably don't even care about. WELL DONE.

It's what we're all here for innit - cammeraderie

I have another idea (derived from my Sony-ericsson cell phone) where you hold the keys for a second to get the digits, else you get teh T9 chars.
I can imagine that it is hard to implement in the driver but I think it would be Ok for me when I have to press A, O, U and S for 1 second to get Ä, Ü, Ö ans ß.

Hmmm, by biggest fear with something like that would be some stupid game like Elite or Exil or Wing Commander or X-Wing or..., well one of those games that requires 5 hamds to play would end up firing the wrong key because you held one down for too long - but I am ALL for a consistent way of doing things.

In addition to Mali and other Germans, and other nationalities, I am aware that people from multiple countries sometimes do far more than tolerate their foreign counterparts. Some of us even quite like them (I am told), and so would appreciate the ability to communicate as equally as possible. Now, English speakers are NOT, generally speaking, as good (either in skill or in manners) at taking up additional languages, but to me it seems a good universal solution, where someone who deals with America and Germany and Finland and France and Spain etc. all in one day (as some of my clients do) could access their relevant special keys equally easily would be better than having several keypads and switching them several times a day... or having to remember that "When I chat to THIS country, that key means... but when I chat to THAT country then...). Any kind of universal and above all easy to use (not 4 keypresses for a common key) technique would be an advantage.

 

[peca]

However, most had the problem that important keys were in very uncomfy-to-press places.
(i.e. the Fn Key on the right side and something like / also on the right side, which is terrible for internet browsing).

Sticky keys doesn't work? I think that sticky keys is something obvious for thumb keypad. In discussion it is many times mentioned and nobody knowing doesn't decline it. So, please, clear this, if I may ask.

 

[cools]

Another idea! (I miss photoshop )

Pandora NEEDS a penis key.

 

[RavenX]

It looks to me like Shift-Insert will be very hard to press or even impossible due to the 2 simultaneous keypresses limitation and this is pretty important combination as it serves as "Paste" in many shell terminals. I know that I use it far more than Ctrl-V for pasting, and I do a lot of copy-pasting when programming, lol.
Am I wrong?

 

[(naw)mcx]

Another idea! (I miss photoshop )

Pandora NEEDS a penis key.

That would be how you activate sticky keys!

(heh)

 

[WizardStan]

That would be how you activate sticky keys!

(heh)

CODE
http://instantrimshot.com/

 

[mali]

Another idea! (I miss photoshop )

Pandora NEEDS a penis key.

That would be how you activate sticky keys!

(heh)

Epic!

 

[Olexxy]

Also it seems like a shame that every keyboard suggestion made in the past has been completely disregarded.

+1, I think some were well thought and didn't have problems mentionned by ED.

But quite happy with this new proposed default layout

Also my comments on this wip layout:
- I guess all functions keys (ctrl, alt, shift, altgr, fn) will be sticky type, otherwise quite a number of standard combinations will be hard to get (and anyway there is this limitation of max 2 keys at a time if I remember correctly)
- I think that the symbols on the top keys would be better placed on the qwerty line, as would be easier to reach. Effectively, the numbered keys line of classic keyboard disappears, and numbers / Fnumbers are gathered together at the top, which is ok, but it seems odd to separate some symbols compared to others ; for instance the * button is probably something quite used, yet at the top buttons it may not be that convenient
- Why not shuffling around some symbols if it does help, but I am not convinced the current wip layout is the most convenient one; for instance, I would try to keep + - * / ^ = closer together.
- I still think that uppercase letters should be placed top left on the keys, as normal keyboards (at least my logitech one, and microsoft ones from pictures I see on the net), as it's a representation of the shifted state ; same comment for the top keys, seems odd to me to have the shifted state shown on a lower right position of the key (especially for the DEL)
- Is 1 Fn key a limitation you have or would 2 Fn keys be a possibility ? ([edit] I mean in terms of printed symbols / colours available)
- What are L / R buttons used for and are they mappable as well ?

 

[Phawx]

When is the deadline for a completed keymat?

 

[TaG]

To quote the usual response:

"When it's done. Give them chance"

 

[Lorkile]

I should also start noting in my complaints that until I get my Pandora all I have is visuals, which is enough to get at least some people thinking twice about borrowing my Pandora. But I do feel that it would be nice to have the ctrl and alt keys on the bottom left, and would really prefer them there.

Still, thanks EvilDragon and all for spending so much time and energy on this since it is clearly so close to the hearts of many in this community.

 

[DasFool]

One quick thing I noticed. I think the general layout on laptops is to have the brightness increase on the right and decrease on the left (reverse what you have).

 

[lulzfish]

Mine's actually up and down, and I don't really care. I suppose <- decrease | increase -> would make sense, but as long as it works.

 

[DasFool]

Mine's actually up and down, and I don't really care. I suppose <- decrease | increase -> would make sense, but as long as it works.

To clarify, I guess I mean if we are going for an American standard then maybe we should continue that with the other parts as well, like brightness. It's really not that big a deal in any case