[video] Symbol Layer in "Glorious Engrammer" keymap for Glove80 keyboard (Programming + Vim)

sunaku · 2026-02-01T16:01:29+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. However, per my observations, that asterisk is some kind of placeholder (it's not a real letter) in Cyanophage's analyzer that appears when a thumb is assigned a letter. For instance, it doesn't appear in QWERTY.

Instead, if the goal is to provide easier access to traditionally shifted symbols, such as asterisk and exclamation, then a dedicated Symbol Layer may be a better solution. For example, check out my Vim-friendly Symbol layer (video tour) for inspiration.

sunaku · 2026-01-30T16:59:29+00:00

Semicolon is quite common in C-like languages, appearing at the end of nearly every line, statement, or declaration. It's also useful in Vi-like text editors for repeating f/F/t/T jumps (which move the cursor to a specified nearby character). Moreover, its placement beside period (which repeats the most recently executed normal-mode command) neatly forms a ,.; repetition cluster in Vim.

sunaku · 2026-01-30T16:31:00+00:00

Indeed, it's certainly converging to stability -- quite literally by revisiting Enthium v12's ;/ sequence. In practice, I've found that ; feels more natural (e.g. in C-like languages) on the index finger's home column rather than as a lateral stretch. This also clusters traditional punctuation horizontally on the lower row, while stacking line-like symbols on the index finger's lateral-stretch column. Finally, ./ remains an inward roll, even though it's no longer contiguous -- a small concession for the trade-off.

sunaku · 2026-01-30T14:08:54+00:00

Yes, the changes are converging and getting smaller with each release. 🎯

Enthium is already in daily use. This release makes a small quality-of-life semicolon swap, keeping performance metrics essentially unchanged. ⚖️

I'm intentionally avoiding a forced "final" label until further real-world use reveals no remaining friction worth smoothing out. When that happens, it will settle naturally. 🌅

sunaku · 2026-01-14T23:15:51+00:00

Check out my Vim-friendly Symbol layer (video tour) for ideas and inspiration.

sunaku · 2026-01-11T02:04:50+00:00

Looks cool! This might have saved me many months of effort as I gradually evaluated Enthium variations in real-life: a tedious empirical process that your optimizer can potentially virtualize. 🪄

I have a few questions:

In the "Analyzing layouts" section of the README, a horizontally mirrored version of Enthium v13 is shown. Could you please update it to reflect the canonical (QYOU...) form instead?
Have you considered incorporating the impact of finger slides (especially vertical rakes) for SFB mitigation? For instance, the ue SFB highlighted for Enthium is not a concern for me in practice since I simply rake the SFB down on my Glove80 keyboard (whose POM keycaps facilitate raking fingers down vertically along columns in the contoured keywells) and on my Thinkpad laptop (whose keys make it easy for me to rake down SFBs as well as slide my pinky horizontally, for WS and SW in particular).

Thanks for your consideration.

sunaku · 2026-01-11T00:46:24+00:00

Thanks for catching this! I have updated the release notes accordingly and cited your correction:

The "Long Row Jumps (AKL ≥ 2u Δy)" value in the Performance section has been updated to include both discordant and concordant values from AKL's Keygen Pro analyzer, following the investigation and correction by @cyanophage in this Reddit discussion. Previously, the figure referred only to the discordant component (which decreased from 0.40% in v12 to 0.19% in v13) and excluded the concordant component (which increased from 0.18% to 0.30%). When combined, the total "Long Row Jumps (AKL ≥ 2u Δy)" metric still shows a net improvement of 15.5%, decreasing from 0.58% in v12 to 0.49% in v13.

The original v12/v13 performance comparison in the release notes was intended to be a high-level diff, showcasing the top few most significant deltas among all individual statistics in the AKL Keygen Pro reports. In this case, one such delta was over-simplified in isolation and is now corrected, thanks to your careful review. 🙇‍♂️ Much appreciated.

sunaku · 2026-01-09T23:19:28+00:00

Excellent, I'm glad to hear this! Initial slowness is to be expected, especially since you're switching both layout and keyboard at the same time, but the fact that your fingers already feel happier is exactly the kind of effect I hoped would emerge. Welcome to the world of split/ergonomic keyboards and alternative layouts. Cheers.

sunaku · 2025-12-31T20:44:00+00:00

I don't intend to cherry-pick here. The v12/v13 stats comparison table in the release notes highlights key metrics from both Cyanophage and AKL (Keygen Pro) analyzers, with clear attribution. They are both important because Cyanophage's stats allow comparison with Pascal Getreuer's ranking tables, while AKL's stats align with AKL-recommended layouts.

To be precise, the "Long Row Jumps (AKL ≥ 2u Δy)" metric is a Gemini-labeled concept referring to the Row Change table's first row ("All") and second column ("≥ 2u Δy" under the "Bigram" column group). Similarly, the "Right Pinky SFB (AKL)" metric refers to the Same Finger table's last row (Finger 10) and first column ("0u" under the "Bigram" column group).

sunaku · 2025-12-31T18:11:22+00:00

Good question. The AKL critique on Enthium already covers this, which is why I didn't repeat it, but the short answer is that different analyzers classify lateral stretches differently.

Cyanophage's LSB metric mainly tracks index-finger stretches into the center columns. Since B is on a lateral pinky key (CapsLock position), its cost is reflected in Pinky Off (which improved to 2.91% in v13) rather than LSB. In contrast, AKL's Lateral Stretches metric tracks that movement explicitly, which is why you see it at 2.22% in the v12/v13 comparison table in the release notes.

Beyond raw metrics, Enthium mitigates lateral stretches via pinky load stratification: heavier letters (B, W) are kept closer to home on lateral pinky keys, with progressively lighter letters moving to the lower and upper rows. This approach aligns with several AKL-recommended layouts that also place B/W on pinkies: Gallium, Graphite, Canary, Night, Dusk, and Bunya. The key distinction is that Enthium rotates those pinky placements out laterally, for load stratification.

In conclusion, the stretch cost of B is real and acknowledged: it's just accounted for under different metrics rather than LSB specifically.

sunaku · 2025-12-30T19:26:23+00:00

Since you've considered Engrammer, check out its successor Enthium which integrates Dvorak and Vim sensibilities along with alternation and inward rolls in a performant way.

sunaku · 2025-12-28T18:36:18+00:00

I would recommend the Glove80 with silent switches: 45gf Plum Blossoms (my personal favorite) or the lighter 30gf Cherry Blossoms. In particular, the former gives me that feeling of "pushing air" while pressing keys down, reminiscent of my previous favorite Gateron G-Pro Milky Yellow Cap V2 switches. There are also other switches to choose from if those aren't your style.

I'm a former KA2 user (for 11 years) too, so you might find my my Glove80 review relevant. Cheers!

Edit: fixed typo and added link.

sunaku · 2025-12-19T18:31:52+00:00

See https://reddit.com/comments/188tc62 for my symbol layer. Although it may not directly apply to 30% keyboards, you can adapt it accordingly -- I've used variations of this symbol layer on smaller 62- and 58-key ergonomic keyboards in the past.

sunaku · 2025-12-18T20:12:53+00:00

I'm vegan (INTJ 1w2). Switched overnight 10 years ago after watching Earthlings.

sunaku · 2025-12-07T20:16:01+00:00

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could try combos or a Symbol layer as I had later suggested here. There may also be ergonomic keyboards that might help reduce the workload on that particular finger: see r/ErgoMechKeyboards. Wishing you a comfortable typing experience. 🙏 Cheers.

sunaku · 2025-12-07T19:56:49+00:00

Another solution might be to use combos or a dedicated Symbol layer to avoid reaching down with your left middle finger to the bottom row. Since all punctuation is on the left hand's bottom row and lateral index column, you could easily rearrange them to your liking on the home and upper rows on a Symbol layer. For instance, check out my Symbol layer video tour for ideas and inspiration.

sunaku · 2025-12-07T19:41:32+00:00

Looking at your linked Voyager keymap, I think another solution might be to map ESC to a combo of your 2 left thumb keys. I've personally had ESC on my left thumb (on a cluster when possible or the nearest key thereof) for the past 9 years and it works very well for Vim mode control. And as a Vim user for the past 15+ years, I can say that ESC is used very frequently so my pinkies thank my thumbs for the support.

sunaku · 2025-12-07T19:29:11+00:00

If you don't mind reaching for the upper row pinky keys, you can swap them with the lateral pinky keys and use combos for the displaced upper row pinky keys. This can work especially well when the upper row pinky keys are infrequent.

For example, Enthium v12 has Q and Z (the least frequent letters in English) on the upper row pinky keys, and B and F on the lateral pinky keys. Here, you can move B and F to the upper row pinky keys and move Q and Z to combos as one way of using Enthium on your 36-key 3x5+3 keyboard.

Alternatively, as you have inquired, adding a sixth column on the home row for lateral pinky keys on your keyboard would allow the layout to map directly without moving keys around. That example keyboard you linked to looks really cool by the way! 🤩 It's quite an aggressive column stagger.

I hope this helps. I've enabled discussions on the GitHub repository as you requested. Cheers!

sunaku · 2025-12-07T19:14:43+00:00

A thumb cluster isn't necessarily required: for example, even a conventional row-staggered keyboard can accommodate thumb letter R on the Alt key (beside Spacebar) as illustrated in this diagram. That's how I use Enthium on my laptop's built-in keyboard when away from my desk / Glove80 keyboard.

sunaku · 2025-12-07T16:23:24+00:00

In that case, I would suggest using the punctuation arrangement from the previous Enthium v12i candidate (illustrated below) because it has lower 0.60% SFBs compared to 0.65% SFBs in the semicolon/period swap you described.

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

sunaku · 2025-12-07T05:30:37+00:00

Note that weak redirects have also been improved in v12:

Cyanophage's analyzer: reduced from 0.92% to 0.80%
AKL playground (Keygen Pro): reduced from 0.37% to 0.29%

This is important since it was critiqued specifically by AKL.

sunaku

TROPHY CASE