Symbols all over the letters looks unprofessional and cluttered. The opposite to this is clean. Done right it can be pleasing.
That is not a suggestion.
You just tell me that you don't want symbols on the letter keys. Where else would you out them?
On the numbers and right side of the keyboard, a position it has in common with standalone keyboards, which is the benchmark, and laptops, which is something to aim for.
We know laptops work, so that is not dangerous, making a category of its own by doing strange things because and as a result of being different may be "retro computing handheld" but that is as awkward as it is to explain.
, and . on the left is inefficient. The opposite to this is the default for 10finger board, with some tweaks its most efficient for 2 thumbs.
As mentioned in my first post: Let me know where you would like to put them or with what keys you would swap them.
They've been on the Pandora on the left side for ages and I haven't heard that anyone disliked that yet.
On the right side of m, where they are expected. This has been a gripe in the keyboard-threads, if you havent heard of it, that serves as no reason to do it differently just because no voice of concern has been heard.
Going one farther, they can be positioned around space so that you have a quickest route of sequence for the most often used combos. (see explanation at bottom of post)
backspace on buttoncluster. Thematically inconsistent. Putting it where it is expected is also more efficient since its closer.
It SHOULD go where the ? is right now, yes. But I have no idea where to put the ? in that case.
It would be even weirder putting them on the action buttons, and since the lower action button is NEAR where you'd expect the backspace, I used that.
Any suggestions where to put it?
Backspace on top right part of keyboard is where its expected. Taking the shortcut and beginning with a design that isn't reasoned down to the details,
and possibly by someone else, like pandoralayout, means you end up with many pieces of a puzzle you then have to draw something on later. There are no shortcuts.
Fn does AltGr. Will, and is tested to fail for novices, also confusing. If you do thirdlevelshift, you are doing AltGr, ISO-style, unless you have more buttons, and we don't.
I don't really understand what you mean with that. Could you give me an example?
So if we start with a regular keyboard, it has 104 or 105 keys, that is too many. Meaning putting the regular symbols at 2 symbols per key doesnt work in the same way.
However adopting the convention of how for example a German keyboard works, is fine, and infinitely more familiar to people who use these types of keyboards. Arguably it looks
more like a keyboard to those who dont too.
Fn never fails to fail with novices, on its own. If you add a function its not supposed to/never has, then you are only left with "ill just try this, because i know something should do it-people"
Try showing all layout to novices and seasoned neckbeards, communicating things that aren't extremely stock, and obvious, fails fast.
Keys on other keys Compose and ins has all drawbacks of the above. The opposite has no obvious ((shift+fn)+insert) is awkward and unforeseen (who knows, never seen it) traps to fall into.
When would you need Shift + Ins?
I can't think of any case - most of the time, INSERT toggles between insert and replace mode. I don't see why you need to press it together with Shift at some time.
The issue is: We can't put all the keys that are on the keyboard without a modifier on the Pyra, as we don't have that many keys. So we need to put some using Fn, and hopefully, you won't ever need them together with Shift.
shift+insert pastes in terminal, because ctrl+v doesn't work. Even if not common or obvious, there will always be someone who has implemented something out of the ordinary with what they expected to be the default, and someone who will do so down the road.
Straying away from defaults should be kept to a minimum for this reason.
You are very right in saying it cant all be defaults, so its important to keep the line crystal clear.
I tested compose to work on select, and if select is a button of its own, then no problems. Fn is a button for hacks, as is and should be, and must not be relied upon for normal operation. Because that puts any operation, and purchase out of the hands of most people, for no good reason.
All of the issues in bold are fixed by sticking to the default. Keep it simple.
With default you mean which one?
The back to basics of what a keyboard is, not legacy solutions for the pandora, that just answers the question "is the pyra keyboard on par with the pandora one?"
I think it should be much better, given it has more keys. So you have to ask yourself what you want answered, and then juggle it up against what is possible to balance out.
A more in-depth of something I think, and have tested to work for most people, in an efficient manner, flexible, with considerations for all of the above, can be found
here.
The drawbacks are out in the open too, rather than being left to hope.
Its made instead of you having to go through the backlog, to get up to speed as fast as possible.
If you want to take the view of a newcomer, introduced to the pyra as per learning about it, it is
this easy to explain. Its the best I(←we) can do, and it has stood the test of time.