People expect it away from the typewriter area, top left on the keyboard. Ctrl+q is not that place, not only because of accidental Esc, but considering there is an option of doing it where it is expected, unlike the pandora.
Not only is the comparison unwarranted, its also made worse by the proposal to put Fn on shoulders to accidentally trigger it even more. Having Shift and Fn together, when esc is in the
middle of a cluster used with any of those, just takes the cake.
My rate of error with backlit keyboards is the exact same. If something+q for escape is good for anything, its to teach you how to save your stuff, the hard way.
The same anxiety I have for putting a product like that into users hands. It makes me physically unwell.
Just a quick recap of some usability errors, out of the ordinary, reported by reviewers lately:
First offender, I remember this, negative publicity galore.
Acer
following suit because if
anyone can undercut the standards of mediocrity
Apple
invents it
Google
tries not to be evil, and surely one of these solves the issue,
right ?
Apple
designs around the issue and renames backspace for good measure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To quote gizmodo from one such review "Putting the escape and power buttons so close together seems akin to placing a seat recline and cockpit eject button adjacently."
Luckily the hardware design solves this particular issue with the powerbutton residing a bit away from the rest of the columnkeys, however:
Designing the potential for alt+F4 and Ctrl+alt+F* and accidental esc is just not needed.
And IBM got it just right all those years ago with Esc on the furthest upper-left key on the system out where it's easy to get to deliberately, but hard to accidentally brush.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard#/media/File:IBM_Model_M.png
Funny - that looks kind of familiar...
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/b766912420e62d3618bb682251e50f5f
Esc where escape should be - just like a model M.
Backspace where backspace should be - just like a model M.
6 button Insert, delete, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn cluster in-tact.
Insert and Delete paired logically.
Home and End paired logically.
PgUp and PgDn paired logically.
Expected special use keys in a logical order down the right side of the machine.
Backspace is above Enter which is above Shift which is above Fn.
Super, L-shift, R-shift, L-Alt, R-Alt (AltGr), L-Ctrl, R-Ctrl, L-Fn, R-Fn all accounted for and on dedicated keys.
*Adding a 2nd Super to the lid switch is an interesting thought - but I could see it as being a simple 'key' as an event driver as well.
Tab, Space, Enter, Period, Comma and number keys all on top layer.
F1-F12 in a contiguous row.
Direct German support with 4 letters in a row on the Fn layer.
Direct Spanish support with 1 letter and 2 symbols on the Fn layer.
Symbol pairings created/maintained in a logical manner.
\ with /
. with ,
< with >
[ with ]
{ with }
( with )
| with _
+ with - with =
Single key brightness control with 'looped' settings. It does not get any simpler than 1 button, push to increase brightness.
Two menu activation keys. One is a direct shortcut to hardware. The other is currently labeled 'Help' but could just as easily be a simple shortcut to the main menu OR applied to whatever we need a direct control button for. This layout is so efficient that I actually had a button more or less left over and since ED wanted this to be great for new users - a direct keyboard link to the help and documentation might not be a bad thing.
There is no good reason why the back lights need to consume both the main and Fn layer of two physical buttons. It doesn't need separate buttons for up and down - it only needs to go up to max, then loop to off OR go down to off then loop to Max (may be better). But it does NOT need to consume 2 keys. That gives Esc back the key on the top left that it truly needs and deserves.
Super IS a modifier key and should be treated as one. We are making a general use keyboard, not a single-OS specific one. New real keyboards have 'Super' or 'Windows' keys. On Windows the capability of the key is dumbed down to just pull up the Start menu - but what did you expect from Windows? Yes, actually using 'Super' is in it's infancy on Linux. BUT - it also has huge potential to the Pyra. End users who CHOOSE to use it can tie entire functions to Super+key or Super+Fn+key or even Super+LFn+RFn+LShift+RShift+LCtrl+RCtrl+LAlt+RAlt(AltGr)+key
Heck, in theory you could even make your login password a combination of modifier keys plus any one of the main keyboard area keys and be relatively secure from the casually snoopy.
Esc on Fn+Super is an error, plain and simple. Let's not argue it any more - just fix it please?
As for utilizing the lid switch as the 2nd Super - I'm not opposed but have one concern. If we close the door and the light doesn't go out how will we know? (Insert refrigerator engineering joke here.) Seriously - that actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I'm not seeing a clear drawback to it.