Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
This requires the touch-typist to not only reach at an angle (which is different on every row) when leaving the home row. There have been keyboards which corrected this mistake since at least 1990, and I've enjoyed one (The TypeMatrix 2030) since 2006. I don't understand why manufacturers continue to copy the antiquated design. At some point "that's what people are used to" has to stop being mindlessly followed.
In fact, look at this example from this very site (it was visible on this page as I typed this comment).
I didn't choose this drop to come complain about keyboards in general -- I chose this drop to ask my question because it otherwise looks like a really awesome keyboard and it's not produced yet, so I was hoping there's a chance they'd make it better, or at least make that an option. And I'm still hoping there's a chance.
Regarding your latter analogy using windshields, that’s not even close to the situation. Consider that numerous people had learned how to type on the standard layout and it remains dominant. Ortholinear, while it may be more ergonomic / effective (which I have one myself but don’t have any particular preference or opinion, if you insist this to be a fact then citation is needed), remains a minor option because changing the paradigm is not going to happen overnight disregarding compatibility issues (in this case, muscle memory).
Perhaps comments would’ve been more favourable if you did not insist that ortholinear is an objectively “better” layout and dismiss the current one as a “mistake”, “antiquated“ or “mindlessly followed”. Especially so, considering an ortholinear layout would require a different design of PCB — and you are asking for something that has to be accounted for from the very early stages of development.
It won’t happen with (at least this version of) CTRL. I’d suggest carry on and find other options. I have an ErgoDox EZ for example and am quite happy with it myself, although I frequently switch boards / switches.