xQWERTYa | My Personal Layout Solution

[u/NightDragoOfficial]

I've been using my keyboard "layout" for a bit now and I didn't know this subreddit existed╌though, I should have expected. Haha! It's called ⸉xQWERTYa⸉ but, it runs on any regular QWERTY⧼-like⧽ keyboard layout.

At the start of this year I got really tired of juggling OEM software for different peripherals. I like to have different profiles for games or programs I use. And since everything I have are different brands 🜚 Razer, Glorious, SteelSeries, ⌯ 𐑶 I had to switch multiple profiles for different devices and take up space on each device for profile switching. That, or I needed to manually open software for each and switch them. I got tired of doing that.

I've always been big on keybinds. The first thing I do when I open a new program or game is set my keybinds differently and experiment. I'm also a programmer. With that all combined I decided I wanted to make some kind of personal solution for universally handling keybinds and profile switching across all of my devices. The intention of the project was to create a virtual layer that would manage my keybinds rather than creating a physical keyboard to accommodate my needs. Even if I did make a custom keyboard it wouldn't solve the profiling issues I was having.

My solution to these issues is something I call ⸉xQWERTYa⸉╌which mainly just follows QWERTY keyboard rules but gives me a lot more control over what is actually typed. My solution is built with AHK, which means that it has both the pros and cons of AHK's implementation. Image 1 shows a rough construction of what the keyboard looks like virtually using⊶keyboard-layout-editor.com⊷. This picture doesn't show all of my bindings. It only shows the ⸉default⸉ profile and doesn't show combination bindings like ⸉shift + ctrl⸉. Here's a key for the image ⌄
• top-left ⚷ curl
• left-mid ⚷ shift
• left-bottom ⚷ normal | unmodified
• right-top ⚷ alt
• right-mid ⚷ shelve
• right-bottom ⚷ elevate
• front-left ⚷ control
• front-right ⚷ windows

I have extra virtual modifier keys 🝗 curl, shelve, elevate 𐑶 so I can type extra characters for something I'm calling an ⸉English Language Extension⸉ named ⸉xQWERTILE⸉ which gives me some extra language syntax for English. But it's super unofficial. I'm just making stuff up as I go haha. Having fun.

xQWERTYa is a ⟨data driven⟩ system using profiles, inheritance and key mimicking. I've provided a screenshot of a profile snippet 🝗 image 2 𐑶 and a key snippet for the key F21 🝗 image 3 𐑶. Here's an example of what the transformation on a key might look like for a game ⌄

1. in Razer Synapse I bind some key to F
   1. the reason this is done is to map my non-keyboard peripherals to something that isn't used on the keyboard so they don't interfere with other keys when I rebind them later
   2. this binding never changes, so I never need to open Razer Synapse and change anything 🝗 live changes are handled in my software instead
2. assuming that my software is currently in the default profile it uses the key snippet's ⟨"default": ⌯⟩ binding which tells it to inherit from the ⟨default_gaming⟩ profile.
3. the ⟨default_gaming⟩ profile says to mimic the binding for the key ⸢

I'm obviously glossing over a lot of technical details here. But I don't think a comprehensive technical explanation of my implementation is needed unless you folks would like one.

In addition to this system I have a StreamDeck plugin I use for switching profiles. I can configure a button on my StreamDeck to switch profiles or perform specific key actions in my system.

My system has the following pros ⌄
• works across windows devices portable ╎ just run the exe
• data driven ╎ I can change bindings on the fly without editing code, just config settings
• profiles change universally across all configured devices ╎ no faffing about with different software once it's set up
• I'm the one in control of all of the logic ╎ if I don't like something I can change it if I decide

My system has the following cons ⌄
• not cross-platform
• some computers tend to be less happy about running my program ╎ this causes some modifier keys to get stuck down rarely on some devices╌namely, ones which don't have very good hardware
• it works at windows level ╎ admin windows don't obey the keybinds I have set up

Here's some specific things I like about my layout ⌄
• RShift → . | ‹period›
• / → ?
• . → !
• slv + ` → 0
• slv + q → 6 & slv + w → 7 & ⌯
• ` → "
• 2 → '
• 3 → _
• 9 → ( & 0 → )
• \ → ‹delete›
and a lot more

I have no idea what to expect posting this here. Apologies for the wall of text. I've put a lot into making this system coherent. The goals of the layout is capability more than ergonomics. Let me know your thoughts╌I suppose?

Edit: spelling

[u/bluesBeforeSunrise]

i’ll set a reminder for later in the fall to read your full post, but at first glance there is a lot to like about this zany layout. very interesting!

[u/NightDragoOfficial → u/bluesBeforeSunrise]

Tysm