1 cbbrowne custom keyboard
2 ==============================
4 Due to cbbrowne@acm.org
7 This was originally based on the default keyboard map, but I have been
8 doing sundry experimentation:
11 ----------------------------------------
13 * It made sense to mess around some with keyboard maps.
14 - I added a keypad, originally based on keymaps/numpad.c, but
15 mighty substantially revised, as that one seems to be rotated 90
16 degrees from usual conventions for number pads
17 * The keypad layer also includes some sample "hacks" of cool things,
18 all using actions attached in using the function action_get_macro()
19 - Key [1][2] aka "q" types out my name, cbbrowne, as a fun example
20 of a key generating a bunch of keystrokes. The keystroke is
21 sufficiently inconvenient that it isn't terribly practical for me
22 to use it, but hey, it shows how others might use this facility
23 in a more useful context.
24 - Key [2][2] aka "a" uses a random number generator to select a digit 0-9 at random
25 - Key [3][2] aka "z" uses a random number generator to select a letter a-z at random
26 - Key [1][3] aka "e" spits out the keymap version number
27 * Trying out sgoodwin's "hold Enter down to get Shift"
28 - Liking this Quite Well Enough...
29 - Applied this to both Shift and Quote
30 - It seems likely that Alt should get a right-hand-side, akin to this...
31 - Alt needs to move, and get a RHS
32 - Hence ALTRIGHT, and shifted ROT_LED over
33 - Emacs likes this!!! :-)
34 - I'm suspicious that I'll want to shift ROT_LED another location over,
35 so some modifier can replace the OS/KC_LGUI key
36 * I have added an alternate ADJUST layer that is activated via update_tri_layer()
37 - e.g. - LOWER+RAISE simultaneously
38 - This seems entirely more useful for handling my "special keys"
39 like the random numbers, user name, and such, than the keypad layer
40 * The _ADJUST layer provides a good place to have RESET
41 - But this isn't strictly enough; I want RESET somewhat accessible from
42 main layer lest an error hide that layer
43 - I never use the OS/KC_LGUI key (that's Command on MacOS, Windows
44 Key on Windows), so that's a good place to have it as a chord of
48 2. Some code structure ideas
49 ---------------------------------------------------
51 Each layer is given a name to aid in readability, which is then
52 used in the keymap matrix below. The underscores do not denote
53 anything - you can have a layer called STUFF or any other name.
55 Layer names don't all need to be of the same length, obviously, and
56 you could also skip them entirely and just use numbers, though that
57 means needing to manage the numbers.
59 It is preferable to keep the symbols short so that a line worth of
60 key mappings fits compactly onto a line of code. It might be an
61 interesting idea to express the maps rotated 90%, so that you
62 only need to fit 4 symbols onto each line, rather than 12.
64 I used enums to manage layer IDs and macro IDs so that I don't need
65 to care (beyond "start at 0", and arguably even that's not needed)
68 3. Things I did not like about the default mapping
69 ---------------------------------------------------------
71 * I found control too hard to get to. I use it more than Tab, so
73 * Having dash on [lower-j] is a bit nonintuitive, but may be OK
74 * I switched ESC/TAB/M(0) around
75 * I'm suspicious that I want to shift M(0) from [4][1] to [4][2],
76 and shift ESC off the first column so KC_LCTL and KC_LALT can
77 be on the first column.
78 * I needed to swap ' and ENTER
80 4. Unuseful experiments
81 ---------------------------------------------------------
83 I have tried some things out that didn't turn out particularly well.
84 I'll note some of these for posterity, hopefully helpful in not doing
85 unwise things again...
87 * I tried added Workman alongside Dvorak and Colemak
88 - Boy, oh boy, these don't help!!!
89 - I have done 30 years of learning of Emacs key mappings, and
90 these alternative keyboards massively mess me up
92 * Space Cadet Shift; switching L_SHIFT to KC_LSP0, so that when I
93 just hit SHIFT, I get a left parens. In principle, this is great
95 - Unfortunately, there are times when mouse interfaces use SHIFT
96 to allow selecting multiple items, and this really interferes
100 ---------------------------------------------------------
102 * I use tmux quite a lot; the mollat keymap seems to have some
103 interesting helpers. It might be interesting to add a "tmux
104 layer," or to have a few keys in a layer oriented towards that
105 * The mollat tmux layer also suggests some thoughts about Emacs
107 * I do not presently have anything that handles X11 screen
108 switching, as with Control-Alt-various
109 * I ought to probably look into KC_LEAD, to have some key combos
110 that do not need to be concurrent
111 * The jeebak keymap seems to have some neat ideas:
112 - Number layer which is aggressive about having numbers in several places
113 - Touch layer seems interesting