Layout Optimization Best Practices: The Corpus (Part 1)
In this series we are designing our own custom keymaps, logical layouts, you name it. We’ve laid the groundwork by looking into how good/bad QWERTY is, the power of layers (SpaceFN), and also the huge potential of alternative layouts and custom keymaps. Today, we take the first step in designing your ultimate keymap by exploring our options for compiling a corpus. What's a corpus? Essentially, it's just a fancy term for a big chunk of text. In this context it means a usually large collection of textual data used directly or indirectly as an input for our layout optimization algorithms. Often literally a single text file. Why does it matter to you? Because a well-crafted, personalized corpus is crucial for keymap wizards. If you're aiming to design your own custom logical layout, the corpus plays a key role in determining the language statistics that reflect your typing habits, thus the outcome of the optimization. These statistics, which we extract through analysis of...
Aug 19, 2024
Now that you know a little bit more about the three main different types of mechanical keyboard switches out there, you’re well on your way to narrowing down a choice for your first keyboard. If you've got some ideas in mind, let us know below what the most interesting switch you're considering is! Before you do make some purchases, though, you may want to try out a wide array of switches from each of these types first. To do that, you may want to consider checking out Drop’s various switch tester packs. Or if you want to keep doing some more reading on switches, why don’t you check out this article about the different marketing terms which you’ll often see with switches.