This isn’t relevant. If you’re using a Model 01 those modifiers are on the thumb arc whether you’re using WASD or ESDF.
I’ve never found it annoying. It takes less than a minute, which is a vanishingly small percentage of the time actually playing the game. YMMV.
Yes, it does.
Let me step back a bit and say that I don’t really care about gaming. I wouldn’t want a gaming layer either. It seems to me that would just make things more confusing.
These keys on the left aren’t cursor keys, as antevens points out; those are on the right half. People can remap controls in games to whatever they want. That wasn’t the argument I was really trying to make or the discussion I was trying to start. I’ll try to rephrase and be much more specific:
Starting over
At present
The default qwerty mapping of the Model 01 has a mouse movement layer on the left hand, as shown on the website in these diagrams:
As you can see, the mouse movements correspond to W, A, S, D.
As far as I can imagine, the only reason WASD was chosen for these is that those are commonly used for movement in games. But let’s ignore games now.
I don’t know if these movements will be etched onto the keycaps (they’re not in any renders or photos I’ve seen so far, but I don’t know what the intention is), but whether or not they are I wanted to start this discussion questioning the decision of placing the mouse movement keys here.
- I’m assuming that the idea was to use the middle finger on W, and ring, middle, index on ASD. This means moving the hand one space to the left. This seems an unnecessary extra movement, given that the idea of the mouse movements is to keep things fluent and to be able to move the mouse pointer without moving your hands.
- I argue that moving the hand one space to the left is undesirable since on the Model 01 the keycaps are all moulded for specific fingers and their relative positions are designed for the home position.
- On top of that, the positioning and reach to the other keys (such as the centre keys and thumb arc) are based on the idea that the hands are in that same home position.
Proposals
I propose that instead of having the default mouse movement keys here, they are instead one position to the right. The warp keys and middle mouse click key can easily move to make way.
Proposal 1
ESDF, with the warp keys in the four corners WRXV, and middle click below on the C key:
Proposal 2
ESCF (diamond shape), with the warp keys in the four corners WRXV, and middle click in the centre on the D key:
I don’t really care about the position of middle click in either case – it could be over on Q or A, or to the right on G or T or B with something more useful in the centre like perhaps another left click.
Advantages
The hand doesn’t need to move from the home position when the function layer is activated in order to use the mouse movements, and so
- Less hand movement is required
- The keys being used by each finger are the ones moulded for those fingers
- The thumb arc keys, centre keys, and palm key remain in the optimal relative positions to the hand while using the mouse movements
- The warp keys are in more intuitive positions
Disadvantages
- Some people are used to the concept of left-hand movement being on WASD, from games. I personally don’t think this is important.
In the discussion above I was attempting to question whether users would still use WASD for game movements on the Model 01 or not (if not, that would be one less barrier to this proposal, in my mind). My arguments against still using WASD on the Model 01 (for anything which involves moving the hand one space to the left – gaming, mouse movements, anything) are mainly that the keys may feel “wrong” to the fingers in that position. Whether other users agree with me or not on the games front, I don’t think it’s actually relevant to this discussion of mouse movement keys.