I am switching to a m01 from an original ergodox, where i had four large vertical bars in the thumb cluster. Left side is space, backspace, and the right side is enter, space. So, i am doing the space and backspace thing quite well, but find myself hitting shift instead of enter a lot (the first thing i did was invert shift and alt/cmd on the thumb rows as I apparently have short thumbs or something).
Anyway, I need to train a new reflex. I feel like the enter key is kind of misplaced where it is (as a programmer, i hit enter a lot more than a text writer, probably). So, what do y’all think? Train myself to do the index reach to enter as shipping, use function space (the default mapping), or do something funky?
I could, for example, move alt to only on the left cluster, and shoehorn enter in at the far left of the right cluster. I don’t really need two alt keys, i just use it as my i3 system key, so it doesn’t need to be on both sides, and i don’t use emacs so i don’t find myself in need of meta/super keys (or i could map them into the function layer if needed).
Anyone have a layout they really like on that front?
I’ve kept the enter in the original location, but I use my thumb to hit it instead of my index finger. I’ve found it feels much more comfortable that way.
I use it on the right thumb cluster, as a qukey with Left_Gui. If you’re not familiar with qukeys (or spacecadet/dualuse which do a similar function), they let you have keys where if you press them quickly, they have one function (enter, in this case) and if you hold them down, they have another function (alt, in this case). I have several similar combinations on thumb keys of often used keys and modifiers that are rarely used together.
On left half, I have fn + v = enter, since ctrl + v = paste, this makes it easy to remember. I’ve also mapped a space on the left to be fn + b, right next to the enter.
On the right, I have enter (above butterfly) and fn + space = enter. I also have butterfly remapped to delete, fn + butterfly = backspace.
I find that having space, enter, backspace, and delete useful to be on both boards; especially when I trackball (right hand) + left hand typing.
I was using Fn + Space, but I’ve found that after a while, hitting the default-positioned Enter key with my right index finger actually feels more natural, so I do that.
The butterfly key triggers Alfred (my app launcher), Cmd + Butterfly brings up my terminal, while Led and Any are mapped to Alt + Shift and Ctrl + Alt + Shift respectively, which are the modifier chords used by my tiling window manager (Amethyst)