- Home Row modifiers: putting Shift, Ctrl, Gui, Alt behind tap-hold functionality on the home row keys. (Now you don't need to strain your pinky finger with these, and can stay on the home row more).
- More thumb keys, with layering using tap-hold. This brings Backspace, Enter, Esc, Tab to within reach of the thumb, and provides a bunch of layers.
- Patterns on the LHS: Use of numpad idiom instead of number row (covering symbols, and function keys); symmetrical brackets, paretheses, and curly braces.
- Use of the HJKL idiom for stuff like arrow keys, volume control, home/end. etc.
Ah, cheers. This is very close to what I have actually, using a custom mapping heavily inspired by miryoku on a 3x6+3.
The reason I feel limited regardless is partly that even after giving it some time, it drove me nuts to have asymmetric layer keys (that is, I want to be able to activate the nav layer from either thumb), and some of the movements (notably pinky as a common modifier) ended up causing pain after a while. Plus I have need for at least another one due to often switching between a handful of languages and scripts (this would normally be addressed by AltGr - which would collide if at any a-z - plus an additional key only present on some standard layouts). So I feel a serious need for more thumb keys. And you somehow manage to get by with only two per side!
Maybe I'll take another attempt at getting used to deduplicating the thumbs before I start looking at printing custom PCBs... At least Ergogen mentioned above should make that a lot easier if I go there.
Ah, I use 3+2 thumbkeys. (Tab, Esc, Space; Backspace, Enter). If I did have to go down to 2+2, I'd put Tab on an easy to access layer.
That said, I think 2-3 is the number of thumb keys that are easy to reach. More than that, and it's harder for the thumb to reach, although allows access to more layers. -- Might as well put tap-hold modifiers on other keys, imo. (e.g. the outer column, or the lower row).
Also.. yeah, Miryoku's layer-opposite-the-thumbkey is elegant, but if it's too restrictive for your usecase, no need to respect it. I'd think e.g. having access to navkeys on the LHS would suit both mouse+keyboard usage, as well as when you've got two hands on the keyboard.
To me the key concepts behind this are:
- Home Row modifiers: putting Shift, Ctrl, Gui, Alt behind tap-hold functionality on the home row keys. (Now you don't need to strain your pinky finger with these, and can stay on the home row more).
- More thumb keys, with layering using tap-hold. This brings Backspace, Enter, Esc, Tab to within reach of the thumb, and provides a bunch of layers.
- Patterns on the LHS: Use of numpad idiom instead of number row (covering symbols, and function keys); symmetrical brackets, paretheses, and curly braces.
- Use of the HJKL idiom for stuff like arrow keys, volume control, home/end. etc.