I had the left pinky problem initially as well I got used to it and now it never happens anymore. I had to move enter to the thumb cluster (cmd) and moved tab to pgup.
Tab and enter are on the thumbs on a Maltron. Are there any modifiers you can swap them with?
Also, when I rebrained my Maltron to a 64 key layout, I stuck tab on the backtick key and pushed backtick itself down to the function layer. Seemed to work quite well.
I’m using the keyboard in dvorak layout and have now just about got back up to speed with typing on it.
I’m using it in tented mode with the bar but will pull that out today and see what its like with the halves separated a bit further apart.
My biggest gripe at the moment is that I keep hitting enter when going for a ‘d’ and its driving me crazy. I’ve moved the esc key to be where ~ was (just swapped them) and am still having problems finding some of the punctuation (especially when I’m tired).
I also find myself hitting esc a lot when I’m going for tab which is a real pain in a zsh shell with vim mappings because instead of tab completion you end up chopping off the command.
But, these are getting less as time goes on and speed is improving markedly.
I find I hardly ever use the right hand fn key though so am thingking about making it something else. Does anyone else find that?
Peter
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I find I use it for chords involving the modifier that’s only on the right side and symbols on the function layer, and sometimes for fn+space to get enter.
I know some folks have got a second function layer that’s triggered by the right-hand palm key, and I’ve considered doing that but haven’t gone there yet. My Atreus (42-key) layout does use distinct function keys on the right and left sides to give me 3 layers, but the Model 01 has a lot more keys to work with.
I’m using the right-palm key for a numpad/unicode typing layer (right side is a numpad, left side is Greek characters & emoji)
I think the palm key FN is my most favorite key hands down.
It’s an incredibly useful key in a very convenient position. I use it so much I’ve started to split FN in two different layers so I can move more shortcuts (mostly emacs’ CTRL-based shortcuts) over to the FN layers. I love it.
This is such a great keyboard. So very comfortable. And I’m not only talking about the FN keys. The difference in comfyness is most noticeable when I’m forced to use a standard keyboard and it feels so cramped and narrow and generally awkward. Yuck!
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i had this same problem but i have gotten used to it lately. you’ve learned dvorak so just remember your body will get used to anything, it’s just time.
i have also stuck to using the stock locations for keys (i.e., escape) and i’m getting used to it even in vi. i am really appreciating taking some of the work away from my pinky whenever possible. but i think that i maybe his escape with my thumb. anyways, good luck.
ps, i do think that enter is in the correct spot. because you don’t actually hit enter that much and if you do it’s some n times in a row; so when you move your hand you can get one or more taps out of it before moving all the way back.
James, how are you getting the unicode characters? can I see your code?
Sure! I’m using macros & the Unicode plugin to type them.
Thing to be aware of for the Unicode plugin is that it requires you to set the host OS properly (and, on macOS, you need to set the keyboard layout to Unicode Hex Input).
I suppose I can update my typing experience.
I finally finished the novel I was working on, 95% of it typed on the Keyboardio, which comes out to 80k words, plus other various things I’ve written on the keyboard.
By now, I’ve grown fully accustomed to the stock layout, with the only substantial modification I’ve made being the use of DualUse to set the Alt key to Enter on tap. Other than that, I’ve set up a few macros: Butterfly is em-dash, LED is cmd+delete (delete everything on the current line to the left of the cursor), and fn+6 inserts a heading at the current line.
I can reliably invoke volume and cursor keys without looking, as well as all modifier keys and special keys (including uncommonly used ones that are assigned to the function layer). I also no longer accidentally tap multiple keys, like I did when I first got the keyboard. I still have the habit of not efficiently using modifiers that are on both sides, such as control and shift, so if I want to hit ctrl+tab, I contort my left hand a bit.
I have it tented to the maximum angle the included stands will allow, though I plan on getting camera clamp mounts to give it a more extreme (>45°) angle. I float my hands anyway, so I shouldn’t have any issues with fatigue from that setup. My keyboard is split to the point that my forearms are parallel with each other and the floor, and I use a standing desk.
My WPM tops out at around 115, but my average is far lower—the bottleneck isn’t the speed of my fingers, but the speed of my mind as it comes up with the proper words to use 
. Accuracy is about the same as it was on my Kinesis, which is to say >95%. Most of my backspace use is from deciding to change a word, not fixing a typo.
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