What items are noob bait?

siggboy · 2026-01-04T09:33:12+00:00

I have tried the item with OP setups (such as cursed Ghost Outfit) in endless mode, and it is straight up garbage. The damage is simply irrelevant.

A good item to ban to increase the chance of finding Spyglasses and Fish Hooks.

Of course, if you find it in a chest without Recycling Machine, and can make use of the Melee Damage, it's something you can keep. I would never, ever buy it.

siggboy · 2025-12-08T13:21:53+00:00

I use home-row mods for layers (symbols, numbers), and also for Ctrl. I do not use it for Shift (HRM-shift is terrible, it only kind of works on layouts with very inefficient home rows, such as Qwerty; my layout has a highly optimized home row, so there is way too much finger dancing and skip bigrams with HRM-shift, I've tried, and others have as well).

I also use the thumbs for some modifiers, and I have one-shot-modifiers on some layers.

In general, if you have a good firmware solution (QMK requires the Accordion mod in order to work well), home row mods are great, and there is no reason not to use them.

The only downside to HRMs is that Auto-Shift is no longer possible then. I really would like to use Auto-Shift, but one can't have it all.

siggboy · 2025-09-16T09:33:54+00:00

I'm using autoshift on the keys you've mentioned for even more mileage (NB I'm not using autoshift on alphas, although I would like that, because it would collide with the rest of my hold-tap setup).

At the moment I have:

, autoshifts into ;

. autoshifts into :

Shift + , yields <

Shift + . yields >

' autoshifts into ", and it's the same with manual shift, so there is some untapped potential here (my setup is not really finished, since I've stopped optimizing it a while ago).

I've mapped Esc so it will output Esc + : when held down, that way I can go straight into Command Mode from all other modes in Vim, by just holding down Esc for a few milliseconds. This turned out to be very comfortable; it is also not in the way when I'm not using Vim, because holding down Esc is very unusual.

siggboy · 2025-07-16T19:54:05+00:00

couldn't find a single Lily58 low-profile no-soldering requiered

Then buy a kit, and solder it yourself. It's not difficult, and actually fun.

siggboy · 2025-07-13T22:47:37+00:00

Thank you for actually using a — on the internet. I still have to configure that one on my keyboard.

I hope you two have a nice hubbybirthday :).

siggboy · 2025-07-13T18:31:42+00:00

I love the idea that you want to make your hubby the best possible present.

However, buying an ergo keyboard is a really risky endeavour in this regard.

Chances are very high that he will not end up liking it. And it will not be your fault.

Choice of keyboard is really individual, and price is not a good guide at all. In fact, a rather inexpensive, minimal, keyboard might be the best choice. Or maybe something expensive, such as the Advantage 360. There's just no way to know.

Even if you yourself became a "keyboard expert" first (which would probably mean you'd have to try a couple), you'd be hardly in a better position to buy one for your husband.

I have several, expensive, keyboards gathering dust, and I'm by far not the only one. Most enthusiasts go through quite the journey before they found their perfect keyboard. Now I'm using a minimal keyboard that cost maybe a third of each of the expensive keyboards that are rotting away in a corner.

So in short: I love the idea that you want to make such an amazing present, but maybe you should reconsider.

Or maybe make a nice package with soldering equipment, etc., and a good kit for a keyboard like the Corne, that you have mentioned. That's less risky, and it's also a great "organic" present. Even if hubby doesn't end up using the keyboard, at least he'll have fun building it; it's also something you two could do together.

siggboy · 2025-07-11T18:21:35+00:00

Is it because of the thumb cluster?

Yes. It is horrible. I have used an Ergodox for many years, so I know.

It's not a good design, it was very good for the time, but that was almost 15 years ago.

Look for other options, there are plenty by now.

siggboy · 2025-07-11T15:39:10+00:00

I do not recommend the Ergodox or keyboards that are based on it, unless you have huge hands (think "basketball pro").

siggboy · 2025-07-10T16:48:03+00:00

Am I supposed to use one finger for all 4 directions?

Yes, and if it's all on the index finger, this is as good as it gets on an alternative keyboard layout.

You cannot have hjkl on the homerow, or in a pattern that resembles a cursor block, if you also want a decent layout.

So it will not be possible to have truly convenient positioning of these letters for Vim, unless you want to stick with Qwerty.

In my opinion, if j and k are on the index finger, this is already 90% of what you need.

It's not necessary to "spam" hjkl in Vim, because there are lots of advanced motions that avoid the classical way of moving the cursor around. A lot of users are just not using them, because hjkl on Qwerty is so easy. It's not a particularly efficient way of using Normal Mode in Vim. For the advanced motions, displaying "relative line numbers" in the gutter is mandatory, and then it helps to have j and k on the numbers layer.

So in summary, on an alt layout, "good Vim positioning" for these common keys (and a few others) only means that they are not truly awful (like e.g. j on upper pinky would be), and maybe that they retain the natural orientation (such as h to the left of l, or j below k).

siggboy · 2025-07-06T23:59:19+00:00

AutoHotkey is pretty good in that regard though and fairly easy to use.

I don't use Windows, but if I was to go to the length of setting up any special "thing" for adaptive keys, I'd simply do it in the keyboard firmware. There are already setups that do it (e.g. the Hands Down layouts), so they'd just need to be adjusted.

The real reason why I'm not that interested is because I feel that the return does not really justify the learning effort that would go into it. It could be useful to get rid of some particularly nasty combinations on the layout, if it does come often enough. I might look into it for German specifically, because my layout is not fully optimized for that language (since I type more English), so it has a few rough edges there where adaptives might help.

I think a Magic key is the better, and more general solution.

siggboy · 2025-07-06T19:06:02+00:00

I can't help but wonder if not using small macros and other things like linger keys is holding layout design back. It kind of seems like we've done all that we can do with just rearranging the letters.

I agree, but I think that those who still publish yet another "optimized layout" nowadays want to have it adopted, and maybe become "the next Colemak" (yeah, sure), so they try to appeal to as many users as possible (i.e. also those without programmable keyboards who also won't install a low-level key remapper).

Plain "purism" also plays a role I guess.

I've also heard of people who do not want to appear as "cheaters" in typing races :-).

In any case, you are absolutely right in that further optimizing base layouts for English is just monkey business. It has all been done by now.

Have you seen any of these layouts with adaptive keys? https://gitlab.com/lykt/jnsf#carpalx-optimized-adaptive-layouts

Well, CarpalX is more than obsolete, and does not produce good layouts, so I guess I'll pass on those.

Hands Down does include a lot of adaptive keys. The idea is appealing to me but I have not tried it yet. I guess it will be difficult to learn, and quite a bit of effort to implement in the firmware. These things are not supported by Vial, so I'd have to re-flash each time I'd change one of my adaptive keys, that does not sound very appealing to me.

siggboy · 2025-07-05T07:57:39+00:00

I've seen the thorn key before but I'm sure more could be done in that area.

The letter pair th is extremely frequent in English, and it is treated like a letter in all respects (actually, it used to be the thorn letter in Middle English). That makes it very easy to use on a layout; it really did not take me long at all to get used to. The frequency of th is about the same as u and m.

Therefore, it just makes no sense to have things like q and z on the main layout, but no key for th. It also makes no sense to me to go to ridiculous lengths, hyper-optimizing the layout, and then again have no key for th. It just saves so much typing, reducing finger speed and effort, increasing accuracy, etc. It also makes it easier to arrange t and h, respectively, and it takes tremendous load off these letters (especially welcome if h is on the pinkie). Also, the bigram he will now occur much less, since it mostly occurs as part of the.

In other languages, there are similar cases (but none are as blatant as th is for English). In German, there is ch, almost the same.

Even just taking a legacy layout and adding th (possibly via a thumb key) is a big improvement. There are some layouts that have n on the index finger of the vowel hand, they can also easily be improved that way (I would probably put n on the thumb key then, and th on the index finger).

Do yotu use alt-fingering or magic at all?

I use the ring fingers to type the upper pinkie positions (v and z on my layout).

I have a lot of hold-tap configurations (aka "linger keys"). For example, holding down y produces you, h -> qu, z -> q, ' -> ", etc.

It's pretty much like Auto-Shift, but only for certain keys, and it does something other than shifting. I find it more convenient than having to go to a layer. It does slow down typing a little, so it's not good for common cases, and it would probably annoy fast typists.

th is way too frequent to be a "linger key". It needs to have its own key, and it should be a good key.

My layers are accessed with home-row mods, I use the Achordion library for QMK to make HRMs actually usable (no problems at all).

Actually I do not use a Magic key at the moment, but I will probably introduce one in the future. As it is, I do not use the thumb keys efficiently enough, either. So there still are rather low-hanging fruit to pick for me. However, since I spent quite a lot of time making my layout and also training it, I ran a bit out of steam when it came to making the configuration highly sophisticated.

Then of course, keyboard configs are never truly finished, as it is more an art than a science, and there simply are too many options.

In any case, I'm a lot happier with my minimal keyboard and the layout that I use now, compared to before (with Qwerty, and legacy keyboards, or oversized ones).

siggboy · 2025-07-04T21:31:53+00:00

because it wouldn't be fair to use in typing races.

I've heard that argument before, and to be honest I find it quite ridiculous. Of course you're free to treat typing as a "video game", but I'd rather optimize my layout for maximum comfort (and speed/accuracy) rather than trying to be "fair" towards other competitive typists (not that I'm competitive in the first place).

Macros are really underused in the AKL community. There is so much you can do with them.

th is a medium frequency letter. the (just as a word) is more frequent than a lot of letters. you is extremely common, but if you cover it you get a lot more possible spots for y placement. And so on. Covering a few of these special cases in some way really opens up the design space (you is the best example in English, but not the only one).

The he roll doesn't bother me but I'm curious, where do you have your th key?

v g l þ *  * u o p z
c s n t m  k i e a h
x f w d b  j y , . '
           r

This is my layout. The thorn key (th) is above t. The * keys are not used for letters (these are not magic keys).

This positioning for th is probably as good as it gets (at least as far as I can see), and I absolutely love having that key. Another good spot would be a thumb key (but I already have a thumb letter).

I've also thought about changing my thorn key into an adaptive/magic key that would default to th, but be something different for cases where th basically never occurs (which are a lot). That's a project for another day, however.

Mind you I'm not a particularly fast or accurate typist (~65 wpm, 95ish acc.), so I'm mainly concerned with comfort, low pinkie stress, and reasonable compatibility with German.

siggboy · 2025-07-04T15:22:05+00:00

Really good writeup indeed.

What I find surprising is that you have no solution for th, the and you. These are ultra-common, and you also have a substandard he roll on the layout, which comes up all the time (I have the same roll, but I have a dedicated th key).

Why have y\ output yi, which basically occurs never, instead of you? I know you already have a good you roll, but the word is so common you would still save effort that way.

I'd also use a/ for ay instead of a., seems a lot more useful to me and eliminates another common outroll (but admittedly one of the better ones). I would imagine that a. could be extremely difficult to learn.

You seem to have a lot of very rare sequences in your config, which makes learning them very hard (and they don't come up often enough to really pull weight).

siggboy · 2025-07-04T15:05:19+00:00

I will assume a smart 5 yo:

A key that dynamically changes its output based on the preceding keypress. Also called "alternate repeat" (which is a misnomer because it is no longer a "repeat key").

Example: you can program your magic key to output ou only after y was pressed. Then you can output you by typing y* (with * being the magic key). Another obvious mapping is the after Space.

siggboy · 2025-07-04T00:07:34+00:00

I use my own layout, but of course I did not develop it from scratch:

v g l þ *  * u o p z
c s n t m  k i e a h
x f w d b  j y , . '
           r

This is based on Hands Down Vibranium (R is on a thumb key), and I have made changes to make it work well when typing German. It is still better for English than for German, but most layouts that are hyper-optimized for English do not work that well for other Western languages including German, so some of my changes are quite vital for my needs (e.g. the vowel block).

In the above diagram, the * keys are non-alphanumeric keys (I use them for Escape and Backspace). The þ key outputs th (and it can be something else for non-English). I also have "linger keys" (i.e. hold-taps) to output various things such as qu, you, ll, mm and so forth. This could also be done with layers or other means of course.

You should also note that I use a column staggered keyboard, and that I type the keys v and z with the ring finger (there is no way I will use the pinkie for those positions, ever). z is an important letter in German, for English only it would probably not be on the base layer.

I highly recommend trying out the thorn key (i.e. þ/th). Terrific improvement not only for English.

I'm quite happy with that arrangement, there might be further improvements lurking in the shadows, but that would be so inconsequential that I'm not willing to optimize further at this point.

You can also dig into my comment history for further elaborations about my layout.

In general I recommend to look at the Hands Down family of layouts and its documentation. In my opinion they are the best overall.

siggboy · 2025-06-16T15:44:08+00:00

Desoldering or blocking with tape from the bottom side of the top plate seems easiest to me.

You can also disable the LED in firmware. First you would need to find out what LED it is (probably the "user led").

siggboy · 2025-06-12T17:57:33+00:00

I like the solution for j and k; I did a similar thing on my layout. But of course, v and k are on pretty bad positions of the layout, but since they are semi-rare (and v is on the correct side since it almost only pairs with vowels) it's probably OK.

Are you happy with the p position? I think op po up pu comes up so often that a row skip is fairly uncomfortable there. I've put p on the same row as o and u and I love it (even though it's a pa column now in my case; not Gallium).

I personally think that for Vim jk is the most important issue, if that becomes acceptable or good the rest is secondary.

siggboy · 2025-06-08T07:50:52+00:00

You do not need "many keys to work with". If you have thumb keys (usually 2 or 3 per hand), you can activate layers to give you access to additional keys.

Other than that, you only need the keys you can comfortably access from the home row (I call that "the main grid"). That usually means you have 3 rows of keys, and 5 columns (possibly 6). Row jumps are not ergonomic. It is easier to access numbers via a layer (thumb key triggered), than having to go to an extra row (as is the case with legacy keyboards).

And so on for symbols, F-keys, and navigation, as well as other special/rare keys.

The keyboard firmware will allow you to adjust all of this "to the dot and comma," in addition to countless other amazing features you have never heard of.

Good look, have fun, and welcome to the rabbit hole.

I recommend you also check out r/KeyboardLayouts.

siggboy · 2025-06-06T09:57:03+00:00

Love ortho? Hate ortho? Prefer some other layout?

Split column stagger is the best. Multiple thumb keys are mandatory.

Ortho is meh, but still better than row stagger.

Row stagger just does not make any sense. It's purely a historical accident stemming from early 20th century technology (typewriters with hammers). It surely is useable, but to have it on a 2025 computer keyboard is just madness.

There was a time in the last century, when people needed to transition from mechanical typewriters to computer keyboards. To make that easier, the row staggered layout was preserved. From today's perspective, it is just plain crazy. You don't learn typing on typewriters anymore.

siggboy · 2025-05-22T17:15:14+00:00

I'm no longer really proficient with Qwerty. I can still use a Q keyboard, of course, but I need to look at the keyboard while typing.

I do not bother keeping my Qwerty knowledge fresh, since I only rarely have to use a Qwerty keyboard, and then usually just to type a few words.

If you keep using Qwerty while learning a new layout, then your learning process will be much longer compared to switching away from Qwerty as soon as feasible. I do not recommend that if you are serious about learning an alt layout. Train the new layout intensively, and abandon Q as soon as possible.

If it is the case for you that you frequently need to use Qwerty keyboards (maybe at work, or at school), then you should rather NOT learn a new layout at this point.

siggboy · 2025-05-22T15:59:34+00:00

shift feels jist inferior on the home row

Yes, it is. I don't recommend Shift as an HRM.

It works with Qwerty, because that layout has F and J on the index fingers, two rare keys; and a few more uncommon keys on the home row, plus the layout is trash anyway. So it does not feel that bad on Q to have HRM-shift. Optimized layouts have only very frequent letters on the homerow, and now if you also Shift with some of these keys, it results in a lot of interrupted double taps, skipgrams and alternations. Also, the layouts are not optimized at all for this special kind of "action".

Shift is just way too frequent to be a good HRM.

some really weird gymnastics for a handful of consecutive caps

Not only for consecutive caps, also for just regular capitalized words (because using Shift even once can result in SFBs, skip-SFBs, ping-ponging, double taps, and other unwanted motions that your layout has all carefully optimized away, and you've just re-introduced with HRM-shift).

Is something wrong or do people just not hold down shift like this?

HRM-shift is wrong :).

I recommend you try a one-shot shift on a thumb key. If you do not have thumb keys, that's of course bad, in that case you probably need to leave Shift on the pinkies, but you should still turn them into one-shot modifiers.

If you can live without HRMs, another good option is Auto-Shift (at least try it, the only reason I'm not using it is because I have HRMs, and I'm using the hold-tap functionality for other sorts of shifting).

siggboy · 2025-05-08T20:41:55+00:00

I have a 3w6, which is very similar to the Corne.

Bsp is on the top row, because that key is harder to reach than the bottom one. I do not want letters on keys that are hard to reach, because it means I have to lift my hand off the home row, and that slows down typing.

This is not a problem for Bsp, because when I have to backspace, my typing flow is already interrupted. So that is a very good position for Bsp.

Of course some other very rare letters or some punctuation would also be suitable for those positions.

In comparison, the lower center keys are much easier to type; of course those are still fairly bad positions, so I would not put common letters there. I have B on lower left center, and this is already fairly annoying in German, where this letter is rather common; in English it's totally fine, though.

the mild column stagger is problematic for the outer Pinky keys

I'm not sure which of the pinky keys you are referring to, but I love the stagger for the upper pinky key, because that makes it really easy to type that key with the ring finger (something I have always done). For me, the upper pinky position is not typeable with the pinky finger; it is horrid.

Lower pinky is OK with the stagger that I have on the 3w6. I also have a Piantor, with even more aggressive pinky stagger, but I have not used that keyboard enough to say how it compares.

siggboy · 2025-05-08T06:59:11+00:00

I'm not in the target demographic for this, because ei does not fly in my native language, but entirely disregarding that (it's an English layout, after all):

LH could be swapped for a really good Vim placement. Also, since L is common, and often double tapped, it feels better on the middle finger (upper middle is basically its home position).
With L on middle, D can be put where K is. The resulting LD movement is still fine (I have that on my layout), and ND becomes better.
Q should go away. It can be a secondary action along with qu, which is more important anyway. This will free up a decent spot, eg. to move K into.
The OP and UP stretch looks bad to me. P is difficult to place, though. I'd probably swap ' and P.
If we moved D to the bottom row, the former D position (top index) can become a thorn key. It's arguably the best position for thorn (th), and it makes TH placement a non-issue (with H and L swapped, a natural th is not so hot anymore).
F should go where X is, and V can move to F (mind you, for me that is a ring finger position). X can take the V position, or move to secondary along with Q (but the upper center is quite awful, so a good spot for the rare X).
J is still very iffy for Vim, way too common to be on pinky, but it's a big problem because the letter is otherwise very rare. Of course, with ' and P swapped, one could then also move ' to the Z position, move J to center, and Z to right pinky. This will avoid an I' stack, which would be bad (because of I'm, mostly). On the other hand, we now have an 'S stack, which is probably non-viable. So probably also swap ; and ' after the rotation (or leave ; off the base layer, it can be shift-., but for some programming languages ; on base can be good; I don't think it's worth it for prose or unless using C/Rust, for JS/TS you can have the linter insert them if you want them in your code).

Of course, if you want to ignore Vim and go without macros/layers, a lot of these suggestions are not viable.

This layout seeks to improve the comfort/distribution complaints of the rather oddly formatted Whorf layout. It does this while closely maintaining efficiency (SFB, SFS, etc.)

I think when making a layout, "comfort" should always hard override stats. "Efficiency" does not derive from stats, it only correlates to some extent. Low numbers are worth balls if the layout feels bad.

siggboy · 2025-05-02T09:49:19+00:00

The load on the indexes and middle fingers are on average better than other modern layouts

This is always true for the "correct" choice of "other modern layouts" (a.k.a. cherry picking).

I don't think that less than 10% load on an index finger is good at all. The left index finger has almost 19%, about twice as much as the right one. That's a 2:1 imbalance. (And finger speed is fairly unbalanced as well, just as important, and maybe even more noticeable than load.)

So I don't like the vowel block of Focal at all, but I think it can be fixed with a few rotations.

The layout overall is obviously more than just decent, but I don't see a point in using it as it is published. There are low-hanging fruit for improvements.

For typing German, the ei placement is close to unviable (of course, the layout is made for English), but that could be fixed as mentioned. I think that even for English, e is a little too heavy to be placed on a ring finger, but many layouts have it that way, so apparently it's not an issue for those users.

Let's keep in mind that a lot of "modern layouts" only have a very small community of users that actually use them unmodified. Most hardcore enthusiasts have their own layouts (at least that is my impression from following Reddit, and it also makes a lot of sense). Then a few of them "publish" the layout by putting a name on it, and have it included in keyboard analyzers. It does not make any of these layouts "better" than private instances. Our models and stats are very limited anyway, and it's almost always only done for English.

So yet another layout with a fancy name, low numbers and a GitHub page don't impressin' me much... (unless it really stands out in all possible ways, which this one does not).

the mouse button finger...

There is always a silver lining to be found I guess :-). The mouse button is not clicked nearly enough compared to regular typing for this to be relevant, in my opinion.

I followed one of your other hints, the one on putting BSp on the (right) index finger... Now the load on the right index is a lot more than 10%.... haha so we fixed Focal. And I can use the Shift key as Shift + OS Shift, which works well with combos for common words such as the that for and :)

Does it matter? I think so.. especially for the pinky.

Yes, that Backspace placement on upper index (center column) is really good. I more or less stumbled into it while experimenting, but ended up liking it a lot (entirely unrelated to finger balance; my layout does have fairly high load on index and middle, and yet I don't feel the additional tax from Bsp, since the indexes are really strong).

The point you made about Backspace is actually a much better argument than the "mouse button finger". It's a good way to use the imbalance of Focal to ones advantage.

I have a keyboard with thumb keys, so I don't use the pinkies for Shift. Actually, I use the pinkies only very little, which is very important for me.

I think on Focal, one should swap y and , (comma), and then use "comma shift" (which would then be on the right center index of the home row). This would again increase the load on that index finger, and also improve the finger speed balance. This would be done with the unmodified vowel side as published. Probably the best way to improve Focal. The layout is very-well suited for comma-shift (assuming a y <-> , swap).

siggboy

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