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YamiFrankc
6
Mar 26, 2016
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Thanks for your answers guys, I will look into that.
I have another question... is it possible to configure what key will be input when pushing a key along the shift key?
Yesterday I was messing around with the configurator in input.club, but it doesn't seem that I am able to configure that.
For example, having the letter ñ on a key of layer 2, and have Ñ when using shift with it.
Or having both parentheses in the same key, and choosing between them with the shift key.
PaulElliott
40
Mar 27, 2016
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YamiFrankcIt *might* be. But I'm really not sure. The Configurator assumes you're using a US ANSI keyboard, because most of the USB HID spec is written that way. So whatever a US keyboard plugged into your computer while your computer is set to your local layout in the keyboard settings can do, the configurator can do, it's just way more roundabout to do it.
Iaeen
277
Mar 27, 2016
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YamiFrankcThe shift key is just like any other key on a normal keyboard; it sends a USB code to the computer. How it is interpreted is up to the computer's OS, not the keyboard firmware.
For example, on a US keyboard, "(" is "shift" + "9". That means when your computer receives a "9" at the same time it is receiving a "Shift" it knows to enter a "(". There is no USB code for "(", so you can't (directly) configure this at the keyboard level.
You can create macro keys, which can get you close to what you want. For example, I have my ErgoDox configure to send "Shift" along with the numbers on the top row of my keyboard. This means that I get whatever symbol my OS associates with "Shift" + number. I also have parentheses, brackets, and braces configured as: Open whatever, close whatever, and "left arrow". This both opens and closes whichever one I choose and puts the cursor in between so that I can type. You will want to think through your use cases, because if you have parentheses in passwords that you type in manually (for example) this might be more trouble than it's worth. I do like it for coding though.
It is certainly possible to create whatever layout you want using macro keys and functional layers, but it would be extremely tedious to code. First of all, the configurator doesn't support anything other than a few specific macro keys, so you will be stuck creating your layouts by hand with a text editor. This isn't too big of a deal, but then you would have to create layouts that allow you to replace the shift key with a function key. To do this and get "standard" results, that would require you to create a normal layout and replace the shift key with a layer function key, then on the layer that you call you would have to copy your base layer then add a shift macro to every key to get them to behave as if the function key is shift. This is obviously a lot more work than using a standard shift and living with the results.
TL;DR: it's possible to do what you want, but probably not worth it. I would recommend coming up with an OS level solution to change the behavior of "Shift" instead.
For example, on a US keyboard, "(" is "shift" + "9". That means when your computer receives a "9" at the same time it is receiving a "Shift" it knows to enter a "(". There is no USB code for "(", so you can't (directly) configure this at the keyboard level.
You can create macro keys, which can get you close to what you want. For example, I have my ErgoDox configure to send "Shift" along with the numbers on the top row of my keyboard. This means that I get whatever symbol my OS associates with "Shift" + number. I also have parentheses, brackets, and braces configured as: Open whatever, close whatever, and "left arrow". This both opens and closes whichever one I choose and puts the cursor in between so that I can type. You will want to think through your use cases, because if you have parentheses in passwords that you type in manually (for example) this might be more trouble than it's worth. I do like it for coding though.
It is certainly possible to create whatever layout you want using macro keys and functional layers, but it would be extremely tedious to code. First of all, the configurator doesn't support anything other than a few specific macro keys, so you will be stuck creating your layouts by hand with a text editor. This isn't too big of a deal, but then you would have to create layouts that allow you to replace the shift key with a function key. To do this and get "standard" results, that would require you to create a normal layout and replace the shift key with a layer function key, then on the layer that you call you would have to copy your base layer then add a shift macro to every key to get them to behave as if the function key is shift. This is obviously a lot more work than using a standard shift and living with the results.
TL;DR: it's possible to do what you want, but probably not worth it. I would recommend coming up with an OS level solution to change the behavior of "Shift" instead.
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