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
Also, there's this RIDICULOUS feature where the management software actually speaks and all of the keyboard LEDs blink twice very slowly when you change layers. There's already an indicator light for this purpose! I don't need some dude telling me that I pressed a key. I'm the one who pressed it! You can turn that off, thankfully. Well, you can turn off the voice. The slow blinking nonsense is not configurable.
So, I love the build quality and feel of this keyboard. And it looks nice. But it's RIDICULOUS that you can't reassign the scroll wheel. That could have been useful for lots of things. It's completely useless as a volume wheel. Computers already have software and hardware controls for that. It's almost unbearable that I can't reassign the Windows key to actually be a Windows key without turning off the rest of the keyboard. I'm pretty bummed.
EDIT: Also, just generally you can't reassign arbitrary keys. The programmability is VERY limited. Maybe I don't want a layer switch key at all? Or maybe I want to assign that to M5? You just can't. Sorry.
But overall I'm pretty happy with this keyboard, and haven't had any real issues with it which other people seem to be having. The macro keys work fine, the cherry reds feel fantastic (to me), the build quality is great, and it's ridiculously compact.
*edit* nvm I got it, its on the first tab of the software and just click on the key to select Win-L for those wondering.