Keyboard layout different than QWERTY, possibly with better key placements. Note that the layout's name is "Power" for no particular reason. An acronym to refer to it is "PKL".
To train your skills, you can use the CLI tool Keyboard Warrior!
Keys in the QWERTY keyboard layout are apparently not placed ideally. Some letters are used more frequently than others. For instance, in English, the frequencies of the letters 'E' and 'Z' are 12.702% and 0.074%1. Many keyboard layouts, such as Dvorak and Colemak have been made to address that. What I do not like about these is that the location of so many keys are changed from their location in QWERTY that it is very burdensome to learn these layouts. The goal of the Power keyboard layout is to change some important letters, but as few as possible, in order to have a strong ratio of positive impact of the change vs the time to adapt to the changes.
See how PKL positions the keys and their frequencies:
The layout also advocates for a new position of the right hand. Instead of holding the fingers at the "Home Row" (on "JKL;"/"EUL;" in QWERTY/PKL setups), you put them in a kind of circle such that the right thumb presses on the N key, so you have 5 fingers on letters instead of having the thumb on the space bar: "NJIOP"/"NEIOP" in QWERTY/PKL setups.
To change a new layout or change an existing one, in Linux and Mac, you can modify text files. In Windows 7, you have to use a tool provided my Microsoft. For the moment, this repository concentrates on Linux.
Only 6 keys change location: E, T, U, F, J and K. The following list shows where a letter will go using the destination as the position of a letter in the QWERTY layout. To change your keyboard, you can first remove the E key, then move the following keys in order (where they'd be in a QWERTY layout):
- F → E
- T → F
- K → T
- U → K
- J → U
- E → J
Note that your keyboard might have ridges or shapes in the keys that prevent them from being moved adequately. If so, you can try removing/modifying the ridges/shapes. Otherwise, it's better to keep the keys in their original positions; then, you'll just have to remember what the keys actually stand for (not much of a problem if you already can touch type).
The left Alt key is changed so keys at the right of the right hand are moved underneath it, allowing to reach them with less movement. For instance, to press on the Enter/Return key, instead of extending a finger, you can hold on the left Alt, and then press on the L key (which would now register as Enter/Return).
Furthermore, the left Alt is moved to the far left of the keyboard (replacing the Ctrl key), and the Menu key is replaced with a Shift key. This allows a technique where these meta keys can be selected using the palm of the hands.
The Alt key is also configured to give access to many other useful keys. See the
new positions of the meta keys, along with the Alt-key layout:
An implementation was only done for the X Window System.
Before attempting this, you should try it in a virtual machine in case problems occur. If there are problems, the system might not be able to load correctly, and you'll have to log into recovery mode, which can be annoying.
The file install.sh automates the installation. It calls
generate_install.py, which generates the installation steps, and then it
executes the steps. The direction data contains the content added to each
respective file in /usr/share/X11/xkb/.
After the files are updated, the changes need be registered. This can possibly be done by unplugging your keyboard and back in. Otherwise, you can log out and back in.
Finally, change the keyboard layout. In Debian, you can go to: Settings -> Region & Language. The layout should appear under English, as "English (PKL)".
The Menu key being used as a meta key might not work as expected (keeping its right-click default behavior). One solution is to have PKL as the sole layout.
Reboot, and chose the recovery mode from the GRUB menu (if it does not
appear, pressing the ESC key might make it appear on the next reboot). This
should log you in as root. Then, put back your backup files appropriately (so
remember /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/, us and level5).
You can use the tool Ukelele to create custom keyboard layouts.
I've not yet the files for the updated version of PKL, so more needs to done here eventually...
To be written...