OK – no scattered cursor labels on printed keysets. I somewhat expected this answer. I can accept that.
With that in mind, I’d put forward my arguments again regarding the inline layout of cursors for the default mapping versus a diamond or inverted-T shape – in particular, that no non-qwerty users (as far as I’m aware) would prefer them in a line since they don’t already use them that way.
My suggestion, then, would be that for any engraved layouts which don’t have hjkl in the qwerty positions, the guideline is that the cursor arrows are in an inverted-T in the right hand home position.
Advantages:
- This is the same shape as standard cursor keys, and so intuitive for everyone
- It means no hand movement and so everything is in its standard position for chording with the palm and thumb keys
- If you take my suggestion for the mouse movement keys on board, it would mean the cursors are a mirror of the mouse movements on the other hand
[edit] As I pointed out in a comment later, this does cause a clash. So:
Disadvantages:
- This causes a clash with the currently-planned position of the } key, which means braces would have to move for layouts which adhere to this inverted-T convention. I suggested (below) that braces each move one space to the left for both the default qwerty layouts and as a convention for others to mitigate this.