Good news, everyone! After so many of you have expressed your desire for an ISO version, we finally decided to make it along with the ANSI version.
As for the Enter key, we will only provide bar-shaped Enter which might beg for some explanation.
The main reason is that bar-shaped Enter is more ergonomical. This layout also allows us to make the rightmost UHK keys shorter by half unit than on most keyboards, which makes the UHK more compact, and the keyboard halves more symmetric.
According to our experience, it's very easy to get used used to the bar-shaped Enter key. You can even swap the functionality of the bar-shaped Enter key and the "\" key above it on your UHK, making the "\" key send Enter.
Feel free to read why the bar-shaped Enter key is more ergonomical.
16 Comments
I was surprised to learn people actually use the L shape. It never made sense to me and while those are the norm where I live, I prefer the US layout.
Quite surprising, isn't it?! As a Hungarian, I should also be using a keyboard featuring an L shaped Enter but I prefer ANSI Enter. Given how often we hit Enter, the L shaped Enter is really a terrible choice ergonomically because it's farther away.
Is there some time estimation for the start of the crowdfounding and for the delivery?
We plan to launch our campaign around mid-year and delivery is planned about half a year after successful crowdfunding.
Thanks for info.
[…] Posted by László Monda on March 19, 2015 56 Comments Update 1: We're evaluating the possibility of providing a version with the extra ISO key and another version without it based on Tömer's bridged keycap idea. Update 2: The bridged keycap idea doesn't seem to be feasible but we're planning to make two versions, namely 1) ANSI and 2) half-ISO featuring an ISO key and an ANSI Enter. We plan to implement this by using a single, multi-purpose PCB and two different kinds of metal plates for the left keyboard half. Update 3: The ISO version is going to happen. […]
As a programmer, I prefer the ANSI layout because I use the return key quite a lot. For those in the UK, using an ANSI board usually means losing the \, so seeing the split ISO layout is a nice touch.
Yeah, Apple had a good idea reducing the keyboard by half a key by reducing the (barely used) \ key to normal length (I've always wondered why the rest of keyboards have this stupid design)... but definitely did wrong with the ISO layout. This is the right design.
Personally I've never understood the point of the ISO layout; it makes enter and left shift harder to reach, and on most layouts that extra key was completely unnecessary (see for example the Spanish layout where they moved to an extra key instead of just moving them from Shift-comma/period to AltGr-comma/period; or the French one, where they add this extra key too but then waste a whole key on a single ²).
Great points, Cousteau!
[…] différence, la touche située à droite du shift (la touche ISO) qui est « avalée » par celui-ci (le shift est du coup plus long et plus […]
Great keyboard, but not perfect _for me_.
Firstly, please do not reffer it as ISO keyboard. It is a proprietary key layout.
If I was a coder I would preffer your layout. However, since i use that key quite a lot (\ ž) it is simply too far for me. Two key slides right and up right (at least three moves for one letter. In my case this is a reason for typing errors.
I like that part of the production is done in Serbia. :)
Good point Radomir, and thanks for describing your perferences. Maybe we should call our layout "half-ISO", or something like that. We're happy to work with our Serbian contractor! :)
L-shaped (e.g. "vertical") is the only king of tolerable Enter key... I always hit the key behind the ansi (e.g. horizontal) enter key whenever I have to use such a layout.
Yes, the L shaped enter key is the best. It's actually easier to reach than the ANSI key if you keep your fingers on the home row and move only the pinky finger to press enter. It naturally ends up right and up.
Note that the reason of the Frech [²] key being there can be explained: this optional key may be replaced by a [Esc] key located there on compact keyboards. Historic typewriters (without an Esc key) had other symbols (such as digrams "N°" or "Fr" for Franc, they were very frequent).
This first position of the top row should have better been used for the zero "0à@" (this is not so strange, there are existing national layouts placing 0 there, it forms a logical continuous range from 0 to 9, and the "à@" are logically near the "A" key).
And then shifting one position to the left the two other keys ")°]" and "=+}", in order place at end of the top row (just before the Backspace) one of:
- the "" ISO key (With that, the left shift would have remained long)
- an "acute/cedilla" deadkey for French capitals (place the "" ISO key to the right of the Right shift)
- the "$£¤" key, so that the "acute/cedilla" deadkey would just be beside the existing "^¨" deadkey. (place the "" ISO key to the right of the Right shift)
- the "*µ" key, so that the Enter key would be long (the "acute/cedilla" dead key would still be beside the "circumflex/dieresis" deadkey, but the "$£¤" would be at end above the long Enter (also place the "" ISO key to the right of the Right shift)
In fact I would have even seen the British pound replaced by the Euro, placing the British pound as an AltGr-mapping on the "*µ" key, where ever this key is...
There are various options possible, including lowering the position of Backspace just above the long US version of the Enter key: the Backspace key in the top corner is replaced by two standard keys, including the "*µ" whose position is taken by the long-shaped US Enter key...
I believe everyone would benefit greatly adopting single style - and that is ANSI. And I say this as European. Having different standards makes not only supply chain and designing keyboards more difficult but also makes it more difficult to write software that makes use of keyboard shortcuts. Though to be fair I never seen software that would care about ISO layout and all shortcuts are always designed having ANSI in mind. As for that on extra key - it is key mapping problem not a physical keyboard problem. Key \ is rarely used and that's why it's in top right corner. If someone figured to remap it to whatever commonly used letter like ž then it was a mistake of keymap design not the keyboard. Having single layout like ANSI accepted globally makes it easier to make software level keymaps and composition strategies that can work for everyone.
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