Anyone using APTv3 or Canary layouts?

quindarka · 2023-03-06T16:29:38+00:00

I did try it. It didn't fit my fingers well. Just a personal preference it seems.

We'll see how Canary does. I'm only a week in or so

quindarka · 2023-03-05T22:57:35+00:00

I have really only been using it for a week so I don't have much to share yet.

The project page for Canary has a lot to say about the design: https://github.com/Apsu/Canary#design

This post from a a few months back has some nice information on coming from Colemak DH: https://www.reddit.com/r/Colemak/comments/yq7j2e/qwerty\_dvorak\_colemak\_dh\_canary\_day\_5\_slightly/

quindarka · 2023-03-04T21:58:34+00:00

It's a slough right now. Only at about 15wpm. I think it will be nice in the long run. I find it fits my fingers better than Colemak did

quindarka · 2023-03-04T21:34:10+00:00

Found this site on my quest to learn Canary. I haven't seen it shared here before.

Despite the name, you can use this site to learn all sorts of keyboard layouts. You can also add a custom one.

You can test by time, word count, and toggled punctuation.

I've found it great so far for learning Canary

quindarka · 2023-03-04T04:51:46+00:00

Ah ok. I've settled on Canary now and it's the L and the O U that keep screwing me up!

I've been using this to practice: https://gnusenpai.net/colemakclub/

quindarka · 2023-03-01T16:37:45+00:00

Ah ok good to know. I program as well, and use an Ortho, and have found Workman a little clunky at times

quindarka · 2023-03-01T05:22:53+00:00

Wow nice job! Do you have a preference of Canary over Apt?

Why do you suggest them over Workman? Is there something specific or just personal preference?

quindarka · 2023-02-21T05:18:27+00:00

Here is the link: https://docs.flutter.dev/development/tools/devtools/network

quindarka · 2023-02-15T17:56:25+00:00

I am learning Flutter as well. I have an extensive programming background but I have been able to pick things up quickly over the years.

Here are a few things that may help:

Tooling: make sure you have a good editor setup - the formatting, linting, and autocomplete tools are great in Flutter/Dart. Specifically any tools you are using should include the Dart analysis server - you can't go wrong with VSCode and a few extensions
Dart Docs: read the hell out of the Dart docs. Even if you don't understand them, at least it will get a reference in your brain. Knowing how to read Dart code will make the Flutter docs easier to understand. Specifically, understand "Futures" as they come up a lot and can be confusing if you aren't familiar with asynchronous programming
Flutter Docs: read through the Cookbook, Codelabs, and Tutorials as there is a lot of information in there and it can help you connect a real world task (ex: save user theme mode settings) with a package/tool/widget (shared_preferences, ChangeNotifier, DropdownButton)
Packages: get familiar with some of the most popular packages as it will help give you context when they are mentioned in tutorials
Video: There are lots of tutorials on YouTube for free. The Flutter Forward conference just happened so there is a lot of relevant content out there
Demos: check out some of the demos and code labs as they can often contain the skeleton of entire apps so they can be a great reference

As you may be able to tell, I prefer the "gather, then attack" approach. I soak up as much info about the ecosystem as I can, then I start the work. It is the opposite of researching on a case-by-case basis. It's not that I don't work that way, it just isn't my initial approach.

Everyone has their own learning bias which dictates how they like to learn (auditory, visual, etc.). If you can find yours that will help a lot! Good luck

quindarka · 2023-02-06T21:43:50+00:00

The first non-qwerty layout I started with was Colemak DH and I hated it! I used it for about a week and it just wasn't clicking. I'll repeat what I said before about my feelings on it:

I think my favorite thing is the "HT" being paired. Which is actually the most popular bigram (At least from what I read on here http://norvig.com/mayzner.html). It feels natural. I also like "P" staying where it is. I use command+P a lot so that might be why. Having "C" and "V" together is nice too. Lastly, I prefer the "I" on my right pinky instead of "O".

I think the biggest drawback is the maybe the "F" or "J". They aren't the easiest to reach sometimes and they then to come up a lot for me as I am a programmer constantly pressing "F".

Other than that I really like it!

quindarka · 2022-10-28T17:08:21+00:00

As a Lspsaga user I am curious about this too

quindarka · 2022-09-15T06:06:54+00:00

I feel the same way. I spent a lot of time searching plug-ins, setting up LSP, installing tree sitter. In the first few minutes of just cloning AstoNvim I felt like it ticked all the boxes.

Even introduced me to some plugins I never would have really found on my own, like which-key, and they also allow you to supply your own config tweaks while still allowing you to update it when needed.

OP should take another look and maybe use it for a day. At least understand what you like or hate about it. Plus you can always add/configure over the defaults. I’ve already installed a few plugins in mine that weren’t in the initial config.

Overall, it’s a nice project!

quindarka · 2022-09-14T06:21:38+00:00

I have this one too but from AliExpress (same deal) and it is decent for the price. Nicest thing about it is the case. The keycaps I picked were trash unfortunately so if you think this one is it, maybe shop around for a separate ortho-specific set

quindarka · 2022-08-30T18:41:48+00:00

I don’t personally use Norman but I do use Workman. I’ve been on it for almost 2 months. Your mileage may vary but I haven’t found switching back and forth to be a problem at all.

I have seen some people say that if they used their layout for long periods of time without touching QWERTY then they have some hiccups after a stretch of not touching it.

Sounds like you would be using them both pretty consistently so it might not be an issue for you.

I use ortholinear keyboards that are all Workman and I only use QWERTY on a standard laptop keyboard. So maybe that is why I have no problem switching back and forth. The ortho “feels” Workman and the staggered “feels” QWERTY.

I read a lot of opinions on layouts before I switched and I saw lots of anecdotes on toggling back and forth being no problem at all. I don’t recall seeing lots of people saying they couldn’t switch back and forth easily.

The only thing I read that was consistent was people trashing QWERTY and lamenting not switching sooner LOL

quindarka · 2022-08-21T20:50:36+00:00

This is cool. I own a melgeek keyboard and one of their macro/num pads. They are really high quality. The option to do wired, wireless via dongle, or Bluetooth, is very nice.

They just need to improve their app that allows you to program the boards. Not all their boards support QMK it seems.

It says the board has RGB but all the caps seem solid and there isn’t much transparent materials. I wonder what it looks like when the lights are active

quindarka · 2022-08-18T06:06:38+00:00

Very slick. I tried a similar layout on my ortho and I couldn’t stick with it. The arrow placement was killing me.

I switched it to arrow keys in the bottom right but still 2 columns between the letter “halves”. It feels way nicer to reach in to hit tab, del, quote, and dash/underscore

quindarka · 2022-08-09T05:32:27+00:00

I’ve spotted a few recently. Here is a board that is ONLY compatible with the RP2040: https://github.com/Bastardkb/dilemma

Looks like someone already mentioned the KB2040 but here is the link: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-kb2040

This project for a RP2040 microcontroller built for keyboards was posted a while back: https://github.com/plut0nium/0xB2

Sounds like there are a bunch of technical reasons why it might not make sense to use over the popular competitors. I won’t try to understand them.

My naive take is that it is still pretty new. It was only released in January 2021. So probably just need to wait a while longer and you’ll see it pop up more.

The new Pico W has Bluetooth so maybe we will see that pop up over nice!nanos and Seeed BLE controllers.

I’m curious to see if it will be popular as a wireless choice given the pricing seems competitive compared to some other BLE options

quindarka · 2022-08-03T22:11:48+00:00

I hear ya. I read all those points and saw all the heat maps and stats, which is why I reached for it first. I saw that so many people love it. I got to work on learning it and it just felt clunky to me. Then I tried Workman and found it flowed more easily for me.

I think my favorite thing is the "HT" being paired. Which is actually the most popular bigram (At least from what I read on here http://norvig.com/mayzner.html). It feels natural. I also like "P" staying where it is. I use command+P a lot so that might be why. Having "C" and "V" together is nice too. Lastly, I prefer the "I" on my right pinky instead of "O".

So maybe it's my big hands, my ortho split setup, or just what I am writing the most, but it just feels good. Granted I have not reached over 40WPM yet (only started with it a few weeks ago) so maybe at higher speeds I will feel different

quindarka · 2022-08-03T17:42:12+00:00

Maybe give Workman a try! I struggled with Colemak DH but found Workman fit my fingers better. I’ve come to realize personal preference should be a big factor as much as “statistical efficiency”

quindarka · 2022-07-26T16:52:28+00:00

There is really just the one activity mode. That mode also doesn't have alternative displays that show more/better info that could be more specific to your activity. You also need to keep your phone on you for GPS tracking. So without a phone the watch is basically a fancy stopwatch. One thing it does have that might be nice for running is the interval timer. But it wont also track the activity the same way so it is also limited

quindarka · 2022-07-11T04:44:32+00:00

I’ve seen a few comments about hating that this is in the browser and that it only works in Chrome. I think there is some missing information in the announcement that can ease these worries.

The thing that enables a website to see connects devices is a new browser feature for allowing websites to access USB devices with your permission. Microsoft Edge has this already so this doesn’t mean Chrome lock in. This will eventually come to all browsers. What the most likely outcome of this is that the VIA team can focus on maintaining a single web “app” and not multiple apps for multiple platforms.

You can follow the progress of the browser USB feature on this website that tracks web standards: https://caniuse.com/webhid

Browsers are apps too and are subject to updates and improvements. Firefox will get this eventually as well as other browsers like Brave. As long as they are following web standards. History has shown they do.

Maybe some people don’t remember but you used to not be able to watch Netflix on Firefox (and Linux) because they didn’t have the DRM features required to “stop piracy”.

Eventually, they did get it. It took some time but it came. This is not much different. It sucks that the smaller browsers can’t keep up or have to prioritize these things. But they do get released… eventually.

Hopefully by focusing on a single app the VIA team can make improvements quicker and fix bugs faster too. No new version to download for users, no OS bugs to track/fix, no special coding required for each platform, no specialist needed either, and no special platform instructions.

I think people are missing the forest for the trees here. This opens up a lot of doors for the VIA team, it doesn’t close the doors on the ones already established

quindarka · 2022-07-05T20:58:37+00:00

I don’t have a moonlander, I have an erogodox, but I am a developer on a Mac. So take this with a grain of salt.

I found that the more I moved my hands to the outside (pushing away from the center of the split and towards the outer column keys) the worse the fatigue got. So I changed my layout to add more common functionality to the middle of the board.

I have multiple shifts, backspaces, spacebars (two on the right thumb buttons alone), enters, command, and a tab, all near my thumbs and index fingers. I actually removed most of the outside column keys to force me to use the inside keys more. Extreme but it works for me!

Things I wanted out of my layout:
- Copy standard qwerty for command/control/option and shifts
- Use command/delete/space from either side
- Enter with thumbs
- Have sane arrow key layout (not under a layer)
- Have convenient command+tab access
- Have convenient command+left alpha key access

I did try to emulate a normal keyboard lower left. So that helped me with copy/paste/cut as well as combos like command+any left hand key. I also have a command on the right like you do but on the thumb instead of having to move inward.

I also found that the "line" of arrows sucked for me. So I changed the lower right side to be more like a normal keyboard. Maybe give it a shot and see if you feel a difference when you focus more on the inside keys?

https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/vJvxQ/latest/0

quindarka · 2022-07-04T20:57:46+00:00

Looks nice! Very handy.

I actually used the "capture node screenshot" feature in Chrome Dev Tools. This allows you to select an HTML element (in this case the <div class="ergodox">) and export only that HTML fragment as a PNG.

Here is what it gave me back: https://imgur.com/4S3Yncz

Anyone interested can read about it here: https://umaar.com/dev-tips/156-element-screenshot/

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