Layout optimization best practices: sources of your personal corpus (part 2)
Welcome back to our series on designing custom keymaps! After looking into how good/bad QWERTY is, the power of layers, and the potential of custom keymaps, last time we took the first real step by examining your options for compiling a corpus. As a recap: The corpus is simply a big chunk of text. We use this collection of textual data, often a single text file, to characterize your typing habits (calculating various language statistics), and feed it directly or indirectly as an input into layout optimization algorithms – to find the optimal keymap for you! Today we’ll expand on this idea by exploring your options if, like me, you prefer a personalized corpus rather than grabbing some general (and mostly irrelevant) data available online. Image 1: Letter frequencies – the most basic use of corpora – in this very post We've seen that a well-crafted, personalized corpus plays a key role in determining the outcome of the optimization process. We've also explored...
Sep 4, 2024
The following image is my default layout, the layout of the keys without holding down any function keys.
The following image depicts Function Layer 1 which is activated by the red keys on the default layer.
"I still don't see any numbers!"
The following image is my Function 2 layer
My layout has changed significantly from the very first iteration. As I have moved things around and tried out different ideas, I have honed in on what I like and what works well for me. Your optimal layout might be drastically different. I encourage you to explore different layouts and to try different configurations.
Oh I almost forgot. I have a lock layer setup for gaming. This allows me to lock in something that doesn't really work for typing, but allows me the ability to play my favorite games.
I hope this post was informative for you and helped give you some ideas for what your optimal layout might be. As always, you're welcome to post questions and I'll answer to the best of my ability!