You’ve put `~ in the top left – I like that. It’s the same as the default qwerty layout, which is probably a good thing, and is in a similar position to where probably all keyboard users expect it to be.
You’ve put =+ left of A, but it looks like you have + as the un-shifted one and = as the shifted one. Was that on purpose? I’m assuming this was a slip and you meant to have = unshifted and + shifted. With that assumption, I like this placement too. It’s far away from where the key usually is on an old Dvorak board, but it very nicely mirrors the -_ key – minus on one side, plus on the other. I think this would be easyish to get used to.
You have | in the bottom right. This is the same hand as US Dvorak on a 104-key keyboard, which is probably good, though below the home row rather than above. I type on UK Dvorak on a 105-key keyboard and for me | is in the bottom left. That means your proposal is the same row and finger as I’m used to (though on the other hand), which for me is a positive. So I think it seems reasonable for both 104-key and 105-key keyboard users, and so it seems reasonable.
You have page up/down in the bottom left. Were you imagining one would be on the function layer, or shifted, or what? I wonder if shift-(pgup/pgdn) is ever needed for anything? If so, shifted would be no good. I suspect you meant it to be on the function layer, though. It seems reasonable. How would we decide which one out of pgup and pgdn is on the base layer and which isn’t? I’d suggest leaving pgdn on the base layer. My reasons are twofold: in normal usage (think browsing the web) pgdn is probably used slightly more than pgup, and this would make pgdn in the same position and layer as on the default qwerty layout.
What do you think of switching pgup/pgdn and |? This would put | exactly where 105-key keyboard users like me are used to it being, but moves pgup/pgdn to the opposite side from the Model 01 qwerty layout. Given that your proposed position changes the pgup/pgdn from qwerty in putting them both on the same key anyway, I’m not sure how big of a deal that is. But the argument against my suggested swap would be the mouse-in-right-hand, paging-with-left-hand argument. So I think it’s likely best as you’ve put it.
You have the square brackets on function-R/L, and braces on shift-function-R/L. I suggest instead doing the same thing as the currently published default qwerty layout and having the braces instead on function-G/C. This would mean less chording, and also more things in common between the layouts.
As I’ve said before I’d personally like the cursors engraved on the J, K, H, and L keys, but this is an unpopular opinion so I’ll drop it. Instead, cursors, for layouts without HJKL in a row, as I’ve been suggesting in the default qwerty layout thread, should be on CHTN (Dvorak right-hand home-position inverted-T). Ahhh, but this clashes with where I just suggested we put the right brace. And so I suggest instead that the braces are on F and G. (I would suggest having the braces on the left side to mirror the square brackets, but this is where it looks like the convention is suggesting the mouse movement keys are, and so I doubt it’d fly.) I’ve gone and suggested in the qwerty thread that this is the convention for all layouts which don’t have bigger ideas (including qwerty), but I’ve no idea if anyone will like that idea.
I think it’s reasonable to put F11 and F12 in the same spots as in the qwerty layout, which is on the rightmost two home row keys.
After all this I have something like the following (editable):
Any strong opinions here? Who’s on board, who isn’t?
Still missing:
- Home
- End
- Insert
- Delete
I have some ideas for these, but before that I would like to see if we can again come to a consensus. One step at a time!