[inawarminister]

I like to write Clojure, and getting away from home row to write the parentheses was... annoying. I did try (and my fingers still remember!) Colemak a few years back, though.

I found Neo2, which is a German keyboard layout with 5-6 layers of keys (which is ironic since I don't actually... speak German). Tried Neo2 vanilla and Bone/other layout, but nowadays I'm just using QWERTZ + Neo2 layers, which is available for Linux and Windows/Mac with utilities.

Just look at the following layout!! https://dl.neo-layout.org/grafik/bilder-einzeln/flat/neo_qwe...

Now I'm thinking, maybe modifying Colemak with Neo2-style layer 3-6 might be perfect for me, and a few others...?

[smartmic]

I am also a Neo2 user for years and do not even think of changing back to QWERTZ. The community is quite active and spits out new, optimized layouts from time to time. They have their own tools for analyzing and optimization. Some background here (in German, use your translator): https://maximilian-schillinger.de/keyboard-layouts-neo-adnw-...

[inawarminister]

Thanks! The comparison table is really enlightening. I think I'll try hacking up Colemak first with layer 3-6, but if I can't make it I'll try habituating with KOY layout.

[tapia]

I started using noted (also a variant of neo2) [1] and I love it. I did change some things in the Layer 4 (mostly placed the numbers on the left hand and arrows arranged in-line, similar to vim). I really like how it works. I'm using a split keyboard, specifically the Lily58.

[1] https://neo-layout.org/Layouts/noted/

[bloopernova]

oh wow, I could absolutely see those home row keys being super useful if they are easy to get to.