A layered keyboard layout designed to augment your keyboard's capabilities without changing its default behaviour, so you can remain productive as you learn to use it.
Kenkyo (謙虚) is the Japanese term for humility or modesty.
The default layer of this layout makes use of Home Row Modifiers (see patterns):
- Hold
A,S,D,FandVforMeta(Win/Command),Shift,Control,AltandAltGrrespectively. - Hold
M,J,K,Land;forAltGr,Alt,Control,ShiftandMetarespectively.
It is also an entry point to the following layers.
While holding the CapsLock key, with you left hand's little finger, the navigation and editing keys will become accessible under the fingers of your right hand.
Notice your left hand will be displaced to the left by one key. Therefore, to preserve motor memory, the modifiers will shift to the left by one key as well, except for
Metawhich is re-assigned toWinstead.
To access the function/number/symbol layer, hold Space and immediately press any of the keys highlighted above.
The function and number keys have been distributed along the top and home (middle) rows so they match the positioning they would have on a physical keyboard (no cheat-sheet required, just look at your keyboard).
The bottom row contains symbols that would otherwise require you to move your hand away from the center of the keyboard to reach them. The order in which they appear on your physical keyboard has been preserved. The remaining 4 keys at the center of the bottom row are used for media playback and volume control.
While on the fumbol layer you can tap one of the shift keys to anchor the shift layer or the apostrophe (') to anchor the optional custom layer described below.
Finally, this layer is intended to provide a place for shortcuts, macros, etc., that you may find useful in your own workflow.
As an example, function keys that are rarely physically present on a keyboard but generally recognized by most operating systems were distributed along the home row. Many applications will allow you to assign particular behaviours to them which can open up opportunities to simplify and speed up repetitive or frequent tasks.
Install one of the supported keyboard customisation applications and place the corresponding configuration file provided by this repository in the recommended location.
To provide a starting point for the keyboard customization journey of those who seek to increase their productivity, and/or improve the ergonomy of their workflows, without having to spend too much money on expensive hardware or too much time doing research.
- Seamlessness: A user that is unaware of the presence of this layout should not be able to tell it is there.
- Progressiveness: A new user of the layout should be able to adopt the layout gradually and always have the option to fall back to pre-existing habits if necessary.
- Composability: The layout should be built on well known patterns that can be applied together or individually.
- Efficiency: The layout should endeavour to strike a balance between the effort required for its use (i.e. hand motion) and that required to learn it (i.e., complexity).