Oh totally that's the best thing about this level of customisability - you can take it to the exact level you need. For me ease of use is the same thing as bring blindingly simple. I may compromise a little when it comes to merging firmware combos with Vim commands, though.
Yes that is a big factor that would sway me towards six columns. But I figured there is a difference between asking my index finger to do an extra bit of work to reach for column one and asking my pinky - my smallest and weakest finger - to reach for column six.
I do have doubts about having ESC and TAB on column five for that same reason. My pinky should be doing as little work as possible. I like the consistency of having SPACE and ENTER across all layers but maybe there is an argument for having ESC on a thumb key on layer 2, so at least it's just a kind of rat-a-tat-tat (well more of a ba-dap) of two thumb keys to get into normal mode in Vim? That would allow me to put backtick in layer one where ESC is too...
Yeah I may tackle the symmetry of the braces. I work in IT so I use curly braces a lot followed by square brackets a fair amount. I'm left handed so that has influenced e.g. where the WASD cursor keys have added up and it gives the braces and brackets a bit more prominence, and also I'm UK ISO. But yeah I might end up choosing to be influenced by the right side of the QWERTY keyboard where the symbols are bunched up.
What I mean by avoiding press-and-hold is tapping L2 to get into layer 2 then staying in there until I tap L1 again. Athough, L2 might be instant return after one keypress and L3 might be "sticky" and require an L1 key press to return - I need to actually compile some alternatives and actually try it out in hand.
So basically I am avoiding chording unless I need to do the rare Ctrl-Win-RightArrow (which will require an instant return to L1 .. boy the coding in QMK is going to be a doozy and I don't even know if QMK is capable of it yet)
Thanks for all of the amazing advice! I have decided to go five column with two modifier keys. The suggestions about getting six columns and not programming the sixth were good in theory but I know what I'm like - I would end up using them. Same with the third modifier key that would end up making me twist my thumb too far inward. It's too tempting - all those lovely layers.
So Ferris Sweep it is. No fancy-shmancy stuff just USB and blank keycaps, and I'll see how I get on. I'm excited to see what I can do with combining layers with Vim keybindings. I may even learn Colemak-DH.
Yeah I think I am more comfortable with the idea of homerow mods than I am with having mods stuck put beyond my pinky. If I end up combining common clusters of keypresses (like ctrl-c and ctrl-v) as well as my Vim leader stuff in an easy-to-access layer then the homerow mods will only really be for edge cases.
Just set this up. 30g coffee, course ground, 50g boiling water poured onto the grounds then a pre-wetted aeropress filter placed on top to help with dispersal. Dripper set up on top with 180g ice (i.e. the ice that I had ready) and 220g cold water set to one drip ever 2 seconds. All put in the fridge. I'll see how it turns out and whether the pre-bloom adds anything.
All of this has made me wonder about doing a hot bloom on my cold brew kit. In other words, pour a small amount of hot water onto the grounds to start with to get some aromatics and nice characteristics, which will filter down quite quickly given the coarse grind, as well as serving to wet the grounds, then set up the cold drip and put it in the fridge. Hmm.......
I use my aeropress to make fairly tea-like coffee so not so many beans (about 13g), medium grind, not inverted, minimal agitation - just a quick swirl - and brew for about two minutes, and enough water to make the whole cup (about 250ml). I make sure the water is boiling though so I still get a decent extraction.
I know I like tactile already and this will be a work-from-home keyboard so lots of use. Plasticy sounding doesn't sound too promising tbh. I'm basically looking for a high quality tactile switch and the minimal post wobble of the Kiwis appealed since that's the one thing you can't really mod and apparently the Kangaroos suffered a bit from it. I could just be splitting hairs though.
Oh totally that's the best thing about this level of customisability - you can take it to the exact level you need. For me ease of use is the same thing as bring blindingly simple. I may compromise a little when it comes to merging firmware combos with Vim commands, though.