Hi there, Laurent here 
I received my Keyboardio ± a week ago, I’ve set it up like so.
I’ve been a bépo user for like 6+ years, so I wasn’t going to stop using it overnight for any one keyboard.
Just so you get an idea who you’re dealing with, I was once an English major, I’m pretty much a
grammar nazi when it comes to languages, especially English and French.
After thinking things through, I decided I was geeky enough to change careers and become a webdev. Am
currently looking for an internship btw… Anyheww I’ve been a Linux tinkerer for quite a while, and
after learning tidbits of Python of C++ I enrolled somewhere where I’ve learnt web development in PHP, because PHP is good when you’re looking at job offerings.
I’m a vim user. I like to spend whatever time it takes to learn something if the results are worth
it. It was worth it when I learnt to touch type in azerty, it was worth it when I switched over to
bépo, and it was worth it when I learnt Vim.
Today my Manjaro is vimified as can be, with an i3 configuration that just rocks and Vimium on
FF/Chromium. Now that I have my Keyboardio, I feel like I’ve reached the peak of comfort and
ergonomics.
Now lets see the pros and cons of bépo in these conditions.
Be warned, I’m biased.
Cons :
- numbers require shift. Big deal, they’re easily accessed anyway, and the integrated numpad in the
Keyboardio makes that a non-issue for long series, since you’re going to use it anyway no matter
which keyboard layout you pick. You use super+numbers to navigate through virtual desktops that
you create on the go with i3, well good news when you install i3 on a bépo configured machine it
selects things properly in the dotfile so it’s transparent for you. - semicolon is not in direct access. Well, that holds true with the Keyboardio, but the chording is
so much easier here that the thumb key + “what used to be g” is very accessible. - <> are not in direct access. Same deal, plus you can add what I did in your c/c++ specific vimrc conf
that simple cool thing to turn “«” and “»” into “<<” and “>>”. Easy to do in .spacemacs too, in
case that should be your thing. - “w” placement. Well so far I’ve been ok with it placed at the bottom right hand corner, but you
can easily get inspiration from people who have moved it in a more accessible place. - you’ll have to set up your environment wherever you go. But you’ll have to no matter what if you
decide to stray from vanilla qwerty.
Pros :
- The best thing with bépo that I can’t live without : good French typography :
- “@” direct access.
- “.” direct access.
- “é”,“è”,“à”,“ç” direct access, which means that their capital counterparts are easy as pie.
- “…” is possible.
- " " (non-breaking space). Good for typography, and excellent to fuck around with fellow coders
- signs that work in pairs are put sensibly. ()[]«»{}‘’.
- as I said in the thread I’m referring to, the placement of “$/#” is fantastic in bépo on the Keyboardio IMHO.
- It’s definitely better than qwerty for English too. It may not beat Dvorak, Workman etc., but it’s
still a very viable choice. “w” is fine where it is to me, but that’s really just me. Just
saying some people are fine with it, even though they might not be the most vocal about it.
I mean, many people still don’t complain where the return key is on traditional keyboards… - It’s “new languages ready”. There are dead keys for virtually every diacritics you can think of. I
can write PinYin with tones (hànyǔ pīnyīn), I can write Italian better than Italian people (È un pò
strano, devono scrivere “E’”), go try a German ß somewhere else etc. - It feels good. Admittedly that’s the case for any well thought-out mapping, but I’ve really
enjoyed the feeling of bépo these past few years. Whenever I have to use azerty or qwerty, with which I’m still doing fine, I feel like I’m riding a bike with flat tires. - There are some configuration files to steal from on the internet. I built my vimrc on top of some other guy’s at the beginning.
- I do like it very much for programming, and I’m not the only one.
Alright I’m very biased. And I’m not as much a programmer as you are. But I still think it was not all that irrelevant to make the case for bépo.
I will agree that designing your thing will allow you to reach maximum satisfaction. But I don’t think that you should rule out bépo as a sane basis. If it’s just the “w” bugging you, maybe this could be a decent starting place. After all, you do write a third of your work in French.