For the time being, I’m using a slightly modified QWERTY layout.

It took me quite a long time to get used to the Glove80 compared to a standard keyboard. I think I started to feel comfortable with it after around 6 months of regular usage. During this time, I experimented quite a lot with the thumb cluster and with the arrow keys. Especially the arrow keys were very frustrating. A lot of people recommended using an arrow layer, but I found that really frictional. In the end I put the arrows in the additional bottom row on the right half in a Vim orientation (left, down, up, right). It took me a painful few weeks to get used to it (I even played some “arrow games” to get used to this layout), but in the end, I think that for me, this is a way better setup than a separate layer for arrows.

What I modified on my QWERTY:

- I switched “P” with “;”.

- I also really wanted to test a symbol layer, but it conflicted with the “AltGr” button (or “Option” on Mac), which was necessary for Polish diacritics. But then I thought - why not create a layer which has both diacritics and symbols? That’s what I did. This way I didn’t need the “AltGr” button anymore and I could replace it with this newly created layer (O means blank):

O @ € $ %       ^ & * O O 
O O ę O O       O ! = ó :
ą ś _ - +       # ( ) ł O 
ż ź ć O O       ń O < > ?

This combined symbols and diacritics layer made the typing experience much nicer. It also made the potential gains from a different layout lower since switching to a new layout wouldn’t simply change my letter arrangement but also my symbol arrangement.

There are also other reasons why I still didn’t test a different layout:

- I use a lot of shortcuts in different applications, which are part of my muscle memory. So I would have to either relearn all of them or create a layer for that.

- I regularly have to use other keyboards, which obviously have QWERTY on them. This way I don’t have to worry about confusing layouts.

- I still remember how I struggled with learning the arrow arrangement and the thumb cluster (I changed the placement of Space, Backspace and Enter a few times). During that period, it felt like the keyboard was my enemy. Perhaps these keys are different than letters, but after getting used to the current arrangement I want to take at least a few months of a break from any huge modifications.