“Have you shown the keyboard to a normal non-techncical user, what did they say, did it work?”
I have only shown this layout to a family member and to the forum. I was given a smile from my relative.
“Why is it balanced between text input, and coding? What efforts have you made to facilitate this.”
I arranged the symbols in my layout in an order I thought appropriate for both. The efforts are shown through my results.
“Why have you chosen to omit the keys all normal keyboards have, in favour of left shift, left ctrl and caps lock? (only the english alphabet fits)”
I don’t believe I favored Left Shift, Left Control, and CAPS Lock nor do I think any keys from normal keyboards have been omitted.
“Can you take me through the process of how left shift, ctrl, and caps lock do anything meaningful?”
A google.com search will define this question with greater detail than I could.
“What have you done to support the english and German as best as possible, in relation to every change made different to their respective local layouts?”
I included the alphabet that English and German people have, in my layout.
“What about french?”
There is an Acute dead key and a method described with my layouts current description on how Grave and Circumflex accents can be applied. Cedilla can be generated with said method or by Compose. A list of Compose key sequences is here:
http://www.topology.org/soft/linuxcomposekey.html
“I don't want to hear about how the French (or the Slavics) are misrepresented”
The French and Slavs are good people too and they should have a keyboard layout that functions as well as it can for them. It’s the Irish we should ignore.
“Why do you think its ok to call a key AltGr when it doesn’t do what AltGr does? (ED may be the correct person to answer this)”
AltGr doesn’t do the same thing on every keyboard in the wild. The symbols and accents vary depending on the keyboard’s origin. Our AltGr will follow this pattern and the set of characters an AltGr + key that’ll be produced will be exclusive to the Pyra. Also, ED wants to use AltGr.
“Why are two of the most used keys , and . in the least central positions?”
We are keeping the inverted pyramid shape of the letters and numbers. Those two keys must therefore be placed at the left corner.
“What does Br+ and Br- do? Do you expect people to guess that its brightness if they havent ever seen a pyra before?”
I have written what Br- and Br+ do in my layouts. Please examine them more closely. They will not be called “Br” though on the Pyra.
“Why continue BXYA when its now nearing extinction? Are you aware that the people who made it dropped it later?”
We are keeping ABXY because the Pandora had ABXY. It’s irrelevant what others are doing with there action buttons, even if the trends were to put smilies on those buttons.
“Why are the most typed sequences not closer together. Are you aware that this is one of the most important factors in making a keyboard efficient? (Dot isnt close to enter, comma isnt close to space. Enter isnt close to dot)
Is there a logic as to where the symbol is printed on the key, and what modifier it is. Is there a further connection to where those modifiers are to be found?”
I’ve answered above about Period and Comma. The symbol keys I thought important are on the opposite side from keyboard AltGr because I wanted the layout to fully function without any shoulder modifiers(and just in case there couldn’t be an AltGr on L2).
“Do you intend to put the symbols above eachother on a 3mmx7mm key?”
The key’s labels will probably be printed how they look on the number keys on the Pandora. They’re about that size anyways.
“Why dont you have any combos going from bottom of column-row onto 5 6 and 7?”
I don’t know of any combos that should be placed there.
“Why do you call AltGr+space to bring up the menu "ideal", when there is a button in your layout called menu? Did i understand that correctly?”
For a dedicated Escape, in my earlier alternative proposal, I thought AltGr + Spacebar would be the best place for Menu. Escape would replace the Menu key near Start and Select. Please view my latest post or my signature for my current layouts to see how it’s done now.
“Why does + and - mean insert and delete? Isnt > and x better? Is it not a problem that + and - is also on the keyboard?”
On some keyboards Insert is above Delete. Some people wanted dedicated Insert and Delete keys and I want at least the Delete key to be primary. ED at an earlier time talked of making those two smaller buttons nearest ABXY + and - since they are diminutive in size. Several thought they should be for plus and minus symbols for browser scaling but I think they should be Insert and Delete with Plus and Minus staying with the rest of the keyboard, as they are on the Pandora.
“Why do you have so many layouts? What is the point of each of them, (good and bad)?”
I have one original layout that ED picked for the opening post for you guys to offer opinions and suggestions to improve upon. I have another v2 showing some changes I and others wanted/asked for. Then there is a third which is basically v2 with remapped Escape and Menu keys. I offered two separate viewpoints called consolidated and unconsolidated of v1 and v2. You can interpret the differences between each of them in my latest update.
“Why do they keep changing?”
People advised some changes and I had my own gradual input I wanted added to them.
“Why is F11 behind F10?”
F10 is AltGr + number 0 and F11 is AltGr + vowel o.
“Which button does third level modifier on the key that says , < ; and . >
”
It’s identical to how it is on the Pandora. The unconsolidated drawings separate values into three visual planes: unmodified, shifted, and AltGr. Again, you’ll find your answer in my latest update in one of the unconsolidated illustrations.
“What happens when you press the button that says USB/4G?”
My latest update has changed this. Pressing just the WiFi button will turn WiFi on while holding Shift + WiFi will turn 4G on.
“What happens when you sell a keymat that says 4G with a device that doesnt have 4G? (all devices may not have this)”
I proposed the Shifted values for Screen Brightness, Bluetooth, and WiFi which are Keyboard Backlight, USB, and 4G be unlabeled. The purchaser will be instructed how to turn 4G on. Conceivably, the WiFi button also could be named something ambiguous like “Radio” or use a generic symbol for Wireless.
“What are your thoughts on :”
"Select being first on game-controllers, shouldnt it be first on the column row?"
DOSBox’s behavior with Colon and Underscore will need to be fixed to get it to work right with this layout. No different from before. On the Pandora, Start was the topmost button in the center hierarchy. I don’t think this should change with the Pyra.
“Visual clutter? Would you buy a keyboard that had symbols all over the letters?”
There will be only one symbol with each letter. I don’t see this as cluttered and, yes, I would buy a keyboard with multiple symbols surrounding letters if I needed to.
“Printing the number keys in the f-key modifier colour (except for F11 and F12) to save on visual screen estate?”
Number keys and letters should be white like they were on the Pandora. My opinion is the AltGr key and the AltGr values, including the F1-12 keys, should all be the neon blueish color they were on the Pandora. I liked how they looked.
