After 71 Pages I come to the personal conclusion that one single layout does just not satify everyone. So the logic suggests to make various layouts to cover the different regions, at least the major ones.
It really took you 71 pages? For the latter part of your statement, I don't believe making different keymats for other regions is feasible due to cost.
I don't think region-specific keymats would be a good idea, because:
- Other than shuffling the letters and number row symbols around to the QWERTZ and AZERTY positions so people feel more "at home", there are not enough keys to really make it significantly more efficient than one universal layout, e.g. a German keymat cannot look like a real German keyboard with dedicated keys for ÜÄÖß, because we simply do not have room for them.
- It would add cost.
- It would make ordering and shipping more complicated.
- It would make the logistics harder (how to estimate how many of each regional keymat to order? there will be more "wasted" / unsold keymats)
- It would make software support harder, because Pyra devs cannot count on one single default layout
In other words, relatively little gain, big loss.
I do think that it is possible to make one single layout that satisfies everyone. Not everyone will love it, obviously, and there are lots of things that are mostly a matter of taste, even stupid things like the color for the auxiliary labels. But I do think that it's possible to have one single layout that works 'well enough' for everyone*.
* where "everyone" is defined as Europeans, Americans (North/Center/South), and Australians, to the extent that they use Latin-script based languages, and they are not comradekingu.
_wb_,
ghostpatch,
Sepulep,
comradekingu,
Ziz,
EvilDragon,
FIQ,
Lykurgos,
LEOXD,
hns,
Mute,
WizardStan,
rygD,
Pritchy,
Kiga,
Ryo Hazuki,
_jr_,
Levi,
Burb,
N3Cr0,
khalismur,
nobgu,
3xcl4m4t10n,
xiongxioi,
Fahrstuhl,
pndrsky,
Djhg2000,
Ligachamp,
F_Slim,
Lafazar,
gardrek,
Majin Wamu,
laserbeams,
mzw,
ible,
Lennaick,
Løra (Lolla)
Those are the people that voted for having a wider keyboard. Including you, in your vote. The majority actually. Thats all they asked for. Otherwise top notch attempt to marginalise me.
In my vote, the winner was
Fullest possible english layout by default against
Reduced english layout by 25-7.
You can have a look at the
map, or
ekis work, same story. Its all very clear when you dont lump europeans together, but instead look at what their languages are, and what their keyboards look like.
Why is it that going from azerty to qwerty has a discernible benefit, but taking away whole typewriter keys is supposedly irrelevant?
There
is room for ÜÄÖ and keyboardshift. By your own less used admission, that is a lot better than having none of them. If you are sufficiently advanced to use shouldershift, there are enough keys for all of them. AltGr+s to type ß is in terms of standards, as close as it gets.
It should come as no surprise that the same is possible for other western european nations.
Printing anything on the keymats adds cost too, and it shows how your argument doesn't account for adding value. The prospect of unsold devices (costing 500+ €) is a lot more costly than sitting on an inventory of unsold keymats. I should think the lesson has been learnt, and that overstocking will not occur.
People have already shown interest, there is no reason to doubt they will lay money on the table. Even upfront.
It doesn't have to happen right away, but making additional keymats adds little trouble if you have software issues in mind at the design stage. Designing for helping with that issue is a bonus, not a detriment.
If we go back to the ED argument, who are the «normal people» that are fine with everything mixed? Its not English people, because they are largely monolingual. And it sure isn't international people, because they have non A-Z layouts.
People that can make due with diacritics in the wrong places, with non-dedicated invokers, is not a huge market that I can see. And its very much an untested one.
) that there is no one solution that will please all.
