For me, the dislike of ANSI mainly has two reasons:
- The layout has one less key, i.e. the key right next to an ISO left Shift
- The ‘pipe key’ (‘\|’) is just butt-ugly, in my opinion. Normal alpha-numeric keys, which includes ‘\|’, should not be anything else than 1u keys (IMO), unless we're talking about ergonomic layouts.
Furthermore, the ISO Enter key doesn't
consume any key at all. What it does is it allows for one 1u key and takes up the awkward space that, in ANSI, is used by ‘\|’. I don't have a problem with the ANSI Enter key itself (although whenever I have to use an ANSI keyboard, I tend to miss the Enter key occasionally and hit ‘\|’ instead), but, as I already mentioned, I hate the awkward space it leaves above it.
I think something like splitting the Backspace key into two 1u keys, and putting Backspace where ‘\|’ is would make sense to me. You'd lose the fugly ‘\|’, have a ‘small Enter’, and have as many keys as ISO.
The following code for keyboard-layout-editor.com kind of illustrates what I mean:
Code: Select all
["Esc",{x:1},"F1","F2","F3","F4",{x:0.5},"F5","F6","F7","F8",{x:0.5},"F9","F10","F11","F12",{x:0.25},"PrtSc","Scroll Lock","Pause\nBreak"],
[{y:0.5},"~\n`","!\n1","@\n2","#\n3","$\n4","%\n5","^\n6","&\n7","*\n8","(\n9",")\n0","_\n-","+\n=","|\n\\",{a:7},"?",{x:0.25,a:4},"Insert","Home","PgUp",{x:0.25},"Num Lock","/","*","-"],
[{w:1.5},"Tab","Q","W","E","R","T","Y","U","I","O","P","{\n[","}\n]",{w:1.5},"Backspace",{x:0.25},"Delete","End","PgDn",{x:0.25},"7\nHome","8\n↑","9\nPgUp",{h:2},"+"],
[{w:1.75},"Caps Lock","A","S","D","F","G","H","J","K","L",":\n;","\"\n'",{w:2.25},"Enter",{x:3.5},"4\n←","5","6\n→"],
[{w:2.25},"Shift","Z","X","C","V","B","N","M","<\n,",">\n.","?\n/",{w:2.75},"Shift",{x:1.25},"↑",{x:1.25},"1\nEnd","2\n↓","3\nPgDn",{h:2},"Enter"],
[{w:1.25},"Ctrl",{w:1.25},"Win",{w:1.25},"Alt",{a:7,w:6.25},"",{a:4,w:1.25},"Alt",{w:1.25},"Win",{w:1.25},"Menu",{w:1.25},"Ctrl",{x:0.25},"←","↓","→",{x:0.25,w:2},"0\nIns",".\nDel"]
Maybe you could even split the right Shift key to make space for an Fn key, as with the HHKB layout (but that's beside the point):
Code: Select all
["Esc",{x:1},"F1","F2","F3","F4",{x:0.5},"F5","F6","F7","F8",{x:0.5},"F9","F10","F11","F12",{x:0.25},"PrtSc","Scroll Lock","Pause\nBreak"],
[{y:0.5},"~\n`","!\n1","@\n2","#\n3","$\n4","%\n5","^\n6","&\n7","*\n8","(\n9",")\n0","_\n-","+\n=","|\n\\",{a:7},"?",{x:0.25,a:4},"Insert","Home","PgUp",{x:0.25},"Num Lock","/","*","-"],
[{w:1.5},"Tab","Q","W","E","R","T","Y","U","I","O","P","{\n[","}\n]",{w:1.5},"Backspace",{x:0.25},"Delete","End","PgDn",{x:0.25},"7\nHome","8\n↑","9\nPgUp",{h:2},"+"],
[{w:1.75},"Caps Lock","A","S","D","F","G","H","J","K","L",":\n;","\"\n'",{w:2.25},"Enter",{x:3.5},"4\n←","5","6\n→"],
[{w:2.25},"Shift","Z","X","C","V","B","N","M","<\n,",">\n.","?\n/",{w:1.75},"Shift","Fn",{x:1.25},"↑",{x:1.25},"1\nEnd","2\n↓","3\nPgDn",{h:2},"Enter"],
[{w:1.25},"Ctrl",{w:1.25},"Win",{w:1.25},"Alt",{a:7,w:6.25},"",{a:4,w:1.25},"Alt",{w:1.25},"Win",{w:1.25},"Menu",{w:1.25},"Ctrl",{x:0.25},"←","↓","→",{x:0.25,w:2},"0\nIns",".\nDel"]
And another minor (and kind of duplicate) point: Should I ever be inclined to try out the
Neo2 layout, I'd need the key right next to a short left Shift, because in Neo2, this key is a modifier key.