DreymaR's Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks - PKL/Windows Edition!

DreymaR · 03-Aug-2012 12:48:56

DREYMAR'S (PKL Win): DreymaR's Extensive Yet Modular AR'Senal (for Portable Keyboard Layout on Windows)

WARNING - Some Assembly Required (if you want a locale variant that suits you for instance)

This is the sister topic to my main Big Bag Of Tricks topic where I discuss the modifications below in detail along with their implementation into Linux (XKB for the X.Org server). In this topic the focus is on PKL implementations of the same "tricks". For a more detailed presentation of any of the topics below, go to the main Big Bag topic, okay? And bear with me for making the Linux topic more fleshed out than the Windows one - it's really not about turf wars but about what I'm using most these days! (Also, I'm not using Mac at all - sorry.)

My personal Colemak arsenal includes several other enhancements (again, see the main topic linked to above):
• My AltGr mappings (lv 3-4; "Colemak[eD]") putting dead keys on AltGr+symbol keys and reworking other mappings
• An Angle/Wide modification ("AWide-35") to improve wrist angles, hand spacing and right pinky stretch/load effort
• An Extend layer using Caps Lock for its modifier (lv 5-8; "Extend") for navigation from the home position and more
• For several locales, a 'Unified Symbols' layout with only a few necessary locale changes from the standard Colemak[eD]
• Access to a mirrored Colemak that allows one-handed typing
• Access to an enhanced set of useful characters via dead key additions
• The 4 Tarmak transitional Colemak layouts for learning Colemak in smaller steps if desired

I use Farkas Máté's excellent Portable Keyboard Layout ('PKL') to achieve most of the above for Windows.

COLEMAK - EDITION DREYMAR

I've updated my PKL layout.ini file (see links to downloads below) to largely correspond to its XKB counterpart when it comes to the lv3-4(AltGr) mappings. Note that since the Angle/Wide mods aren't modular in PKL what I'm delivering is what I use - that is, both the Colemak[eD] mappings and the AngleWide-Slash/35 mod rolled into one layout definition. Feel free to mod your own, or ask if you need help...

The Colemak [edition DreymaR] layout, using different lv3-4 mappings from the standard Colemak.
Shown with the 'AngleWide-Slash/35' ergonomic mod (see below), dead key emphasis and color-coded proposed fingering.

Sorry, but the help images (state6.png and state7.png) aren't updated. :(
PKL has a perl script you could use to make new state images, but I haven't used that (yet).

THE ANGLE/WIDE KEYBOARD MODEL MODS

The Angle/Wide ergonomic mods have to be shoehorned into PKL, I'm afraid, as it has no modularity separating key codes from symbols. So I've made edits in the layout.ini file for my Wide mod and also had to make corresponding edits in the pkl.ini [extend] section to make it come together. You could then install both Wide and nonWide layouts and switch between them, but the Extend mappings would only be right for one or the other. And changing stuff is a bit hard. Maybe that's okay with you though.

In the pkl.ini file I have some snippets at the bottom which may be pasted into the [extend] section to implement a wide or non-wide Extend layer. It should be self-explanatory. There are also two template pkl.ini files for wide or non-wide which you could copy and rename to pkl.ini to easily get what suits you.

EXTEND LAYERS AND THE CAPS SWITCH

The Extend mappings using CapsLock (or another key of your choice, set in pkl.ini) as a modifier for all sorts of cool moving-keys-around, originated with autohotkey and PKL. I'm very happy with it and consider it a Life Hack on par with Colemak itself! This is one heavy reason I want a PKL implementation of my layout on any Windows PC I work on instead of settling for just a Windows install.

From my pkl.ini file:

; These keys are modified/transposed by holding down the 'extend key' (CapsLock by default):
;+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
;|Esc + |F1 <> |F2 << |F3 >> |F4 <> |F5 <> |F6 << |F7 >> |F8 <> |F9 <> |F10<> |F11<> |F12<> |
;| Caps | Play | Prev | Next | Stop | Mute | Vol- | Vol+ | Media| BrHom| Mail | App1 | App2 |
;+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+======+
;|` ¤¤¤ |1     |2     |3     |4     |5     |6     |7     |8     |9     |0     |-     |=     |
;| Del  | F1   | F2   | F3   | F4   | F5   | F6   | F7   | F8   | F9   | F10  | F11  | F12  |
;+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
;|Tab   |Q ¤¤¤ |W *** |F <<> |P <>> |G *** |J ### |L ### |U ### |Y ### |; ¤¤¤ |[ ¤¤¤ |] ¤¤¤ |
;|      | Esc  | *WhUp| BrBck| BrFwd| *Up17| PgUp | Home | Up   | End  | Del  | Esc  | Ins  |
;+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
;|Caps+ |A +++ |R *** |S +++ |T +++ |D *** |H ### |N ### |E ### |I ### |O ¤¤¤ |' ¤¤¤ |\ ><> |
;| ++++ | Alt  | *WhDn| Shift| Ctrl | *Dn17| PgDn | Left | Down | Right| Back | Apps | BrFav|
;+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
;|< *** |Z ¤¤¤ |X === |C === |V === |B *** |K *** |M *** |, *** |. *** |/ *** |Spc ¤ |Entr¤ |
;| *WhLe| Undo | Cut  | Copy | Paste| *BtnL| BtnM | *BtnR| *Le17| *Ri17| *WhRi| Enter| Break|
;+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-------------+
;Legend: # Movement; + Modifiers; = GUI edit; * Mouse; <> MultiMedia; ¤ Various commands.

PKL has one-up on the XKB implementation when it comes to the Extend layer itself: Modifiers on AST are working, as is the keymousing mode (on GD ,. BKM) and the multimedia keys on the F keys.

A symbolic chart of my Extend mappings. Green, navigation; blue, mousing; orange, multimedia; gray, system/misc.

LOCALE COLEMAK[eD] VARIANTS AND PHONETIC COLEMAK LAYOUTS [TODO]

See my Locale Variants forum topic for the various locale solutions!
(But you'll have to change the PKL files yourself, or ask for help...)

The layouts I've provided (see below) are for the most part only the Norwegian setup. I hope they work for a US keyboard too, but there could be snags with some OEM_ keys (semicolon, slash, tilde, that sort of key) on ISO versus ANSI boards. To make your own locale variant you'll want to copy the layout folder for my eD layout over to a new one, renaming it (and putting that new name into your pkl.ini file so the program can choose it!) and then editing the layout.ini file in there.

Examples from my layout file:

SC010 = Q    5    q    Q    --    ‚    „    ; QWERTY qQ
SC011 = W    5    w    W    --    ‘    “    ; QWERTY wW
SC012 = F    5    f    F    --    ’    ”    ; QWERTY eE
SC013 = P    5    p    P    --    π    ¶    ; QWERTY rR
SC014 = G    1    g    G    --    ŋ    Ŋ    ; QWERTY tT
SC015 = OEM_4    4    å    Å    *{Esc}    [    {    ; QWERTY [{
SC016 = J    5    j    J    --    ʃ    Ʃ    ; QWERTY yY
SC017 = L    5    l    L    --    ł    Ł    ; QWERTY uU
SC018 = U    5    u    U    --    ‹    «    ; QWERTY iI
SC019 = Y    5    y    Y    --    ›    »    ; QWERTY oO
SC01a = OEM_1    0    ;    :    --    dk1    …    ; QWERTY pP - dk_umlaut

Here's my upper row; note the following:
• The OEM_4 (Left Bracket) key has scan code SC015 so it's in the middle now; this is the Wide(35/Slash) ergonomic mod in action
• The Norwegian Åå letter on LBr is on lv1-2 mappings due to this being my Norwegian locale layout;
the only keys that deviate from the standard setup are LBr(OEM_4), RBr(OEM_6) and LSGT(OEM_102).
(Oh, and the lv3-4 of A because I moved the Ææ to RBr, but that's no biggie)
• On your keyboard these OEM_# numbers might just be different (although they have tested out fine for others); try it out... :o

Again, the help images aren't updated I'm afraid.

ENHANCED DEAD KEY MAPPINGS

There are some 17-odd dead keys in my pkl layout right now. Some are still placeholders I'm afraid, but the common accents should all be there and even the currency dead key on AltGr+4 should be working. The help images that pop up when a dead key is hit should be fairly accurate even if the main help images aren't (but the currency one is wrongly sorted as I borrowed it from another layout!).

MIRRORED COLEMAK

I wish for PKL to support multiple Extend modes at some point in the future. For now, I made Mirrored Colemak by replacing the Extend mappings so you can't have both at the same time unfortunately. And that's too bad since it'd be a damn handy thing for one-handed typers!

If you look into the 'Other' folder of my full PKL folder (see link below), there's a partial pkl.ini file there named pkl_mirror.ini; you'll need to copy over the [extend] part of that to your pkl.ini file's corresponding [extend] section. I'm not sure whether the pkl_mirror.ini file is properly updated - let me know if you encounter something odd.

THE TARMAK TRANSITIONAL COLEMAK LAYOUTS

See below for a download of all four steps plus "Tarmak0" (a.k.a. QWERTY) and "Tarmak5" (a.k.a. Colemak).

The 4 Tarmak (transitional Colemak) layouts, spectrally color-coded from red (Tarmak#1) to violet (Colemak).

These transitional layouts were implemented as VirtualKey ones, so the lv3-4 (AltGr) and dead key mappings you'll get will be the same as on your installed keyboard layout in Windows. The layouts should support Extend mode fully. If you define several of them in your pkl.ini file, you can swiftly change between them should you wish to.

Help images aren't available now/yet, but you could scale the enclosed .png image like you want to and use that: Rename it to state0.png (maybe copy it to state1.png as well so it doesn't go away when you hit Shift!) and put it in the layout folder(s) of choice! If you produce something good, let us know! ;)

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

Files for Portable Keyboard Layout (PKL) by Farkas Máté can be found here:
My whole PKL install with all layouts and stuff
Just the Colemak[eD] layout
The Tarmak transitional layouts as VirtualKey layouts

I usually just plop the PortableKeyboardLayout folder into a C:\PortableApps folder (but it could go anywhere really, including USB or cloud drives). Then I put a shortcut (Alt-drag the icon) in the All Programs -> Startup menu folder and I'm good to go. It won't be running at first logon but will be if you lock your machine, so I do recommend getting a layout-independent password or learning your password on all layouts you're using!

There are a couple of pkl.ini files in there, for Wide/nonWide setups and suchlike. Have a look at them, and rename the one you like best to 'pkl.ini' to use it.

TODO:

• Whatever I want to do with the layouts and stuff themselves, I'll discuss it in the main topic (link above)
• There's quite a lot that could be done with these files. New help images, more locales, both wide and nonwide file sets...
• However, I'll only do any of that if someone really needs it and asks nicely. ;)
• The main problem is that since PKL definitions aren't as modular as the XKB ones I'd have to make any changes in multiple file sets at once. Ugh.

Happy tapping!
2012-08, Øystein Bech "DreymaR" Gadmar

Last edited by DreymaR (19-May-2013 14:52:27)

DreymaR · 10-Sep-2012 18:31:29

User Vaskozl wants to know how to make mappings for a non-Angle/Wide Extend mode and AltGr mappings:

You can use my pkl.ini file and remodel its [extend] section for your needs. It actually has some "storage" sections below the [extend] one where I keep mappings for wide/non-wide and angle/non-angle extend mappings since these can't be done modularly like I wanted to.

[update 2012-09-11:]
Okay, I've edited together and uploaded to the main download above a PKL both with and without Angle/Wide modifications in the [extend] sections of the pkl.ini files, and a non-Wide Colemak[eD] layout. Yay!

The thing I'm still uncertain about though, is whether the OEM_# keys work as they're supposed to for you! When I made my own layout, I had to rename a few of them and I guess that might be because of differences between the ANSI and ISO layouts but I'm not quite sure. Therefore, test these out on your different keyboards and if symbols keys are jumbled we'll have to translate the OEM_# numbers to the right ones for you again. Let me know, OK? ;)

Hope that works for you!

Last edited by DreymaR (12-Sep-2012 11:06:50)

pafkata90 · 11-Sep-2012 01:51:25

Hey DreymaR, just a thought here, but have you considered mapping a Ctrl Backspace on the Capslock layer? I use it fairly often. I was even thinking of mapping Ctrl Del...

DreymaR · 11-Sep-2012 13:01:10

Nah, I'm just hitting Caps-T-O for that - much like I use Caps-A-4 (= Alt-F4) to close a program or Caps-T-Spc (= Ctrl-Enter) to send an email.

Since it's home position it's easy to hit, apart from the slight stretch on the left hand; but I don't use it often enough for that to worry me.

The Caps-A-T-; combo could in theory work as Ctrl-Alt-Del, but (fortunately?!?) it doesn't. I think there's a limitation in key event sending that precludes this event from working as expected/feared. :)

The most annoying thing for me right now is that I haven't managed to make the Extend-AST modifiers work well in XKB. The PKL version is fine.

Last edited by DreymaR (11-Sep-2012 13:05:06)

pafkata90 · 11-Sep-2012 14:33:08

Oh, of course. I didn't think of that Caps-T-O. Nice. I kinda like this whole thing more and more. Maybe I'll give it a try some times, if I can get over not having a backspace on the left side of the keyboard. I got quite used to that not only for typing but also for browsing and whenever my right hand is on the touchpad. But I guess I could get back to using left Alt + arrow left. Anyway – that's me thinking out loud. Kind of ironic to be written in a forum post, isn't it? haha

And yeah, AHK cannot send Ctrl-Alt-Del and a few others.

DreymaR · 11-Sep-2012 14:53:52

It's true that the Extend mappings are best for two-handed work. Well, not all of them: I love having scroll and Back/Forward buttons under my left hand when browsing, Esc on Q and Enter on Space when using menus and windows for instance. I've given thought to a left-hand-only Back too, but in the end I preferred a Del (on Caps-`). If you feel you have all the Esc you need already you could replace the Q mapping?

Last edited by DreymaR (11-Sep-2012 14:56:12)

pafkata90 · 11-Sep-2012 17:51:26

Yeah, good idea. The ring finger is better at quick successive presses than the pinkie anyway. I'll certainly give it a thought and maybe incorporate some of them in the AHK file I'm running. I like to keep things in the same file, and it's already more than 800 lines... just shortcuts...

I love shortcuts...

vaskozl · 11-Sep-2012 20:09:09

DreymaR wrote:

User Vaskozl wants to know how to make mappings for a non-Angle/Wide Extend mode and AltGr mappings:
You can use my pkl.ini file and remodel its [extend] section for your needs. It actually has some "storage" sections below the [extend] one where I keep mappings for wide/non-wide and angle/non-angle extend mappings since these can't be done modularly like I wanted to.
[update 2012-09-11:]
Okay, I've edited together and uploaded to the main download above a PKL both with and without Angle/Wide modifications in the [extend] sections of the pkl.ini files, and a non-Wide Colemak[eD] layout. Yay!
The thing I'm still uncertain about though, is whether the ISO_# keys work as they're supposed to for you! When I made my own layout, I had to rename a few of them and I guess that might be because of differences between the ANSI and ISO layouts but I'm not quite sure. Therefore, test these out on your different keyboards and if symbols keys are jumbled we'll have to translate the ISO_# numbers to the right ones for you again. Let me know, OK? ;)
Hope that works for you!

Wow, you are epic! Such a fast reply. I thank you greatly and am currently using the layout you made :).
On the iso keyboard, the key that is between "shift" and "z" is "œ". All the others work perfectly. I will most likely change "œ" to something else anyway.

All the best regards!

DreymaR · 12-Sep-2012 10:58:30

All the symbol keys working as expected you say? That's good then. (I have no idea why that other file in the PKL distro has other OEM_# key mappings than these...)

The VK_102 key between Shift and Z is supposed to be an 'œ' in Colemak[eD]. This is one of the keys that I use to provide special characters for national layouts, together with the bracket keys. See 'Locale Colemak variants' above. I keep the œ there because it's actually sometimes used in English (in loan words like 'œuvre') as well as French and IPA, and has no accent dead key. But hardly anyone uses it these days it seems. ;)

So yeah, feel free to put whatever you need on that one! Keep in mind that it's only there on ISO boards - but the people who need national variants generally have ISO boards anyway.

Heh, according to this Wikipedia article the use of vowel ligatures in English is completely archæic; well, consider me somewhat of an archætypal primæval palæolithic phænomenon then. ;)

Last edited by DreymaR (12-Sep-2012 11:24:42)

vaskozl · 12-Sep-2012 19:12:29

After having this layout on my keyboard for 2 days now, I am certain that I will stick to it. The navigation buttons, provided by the extended capslock layer are just pure awesomeness. The altgr mappings are also very well constructed and I can see that much thought has been put into them. Almost any existing symbol that you will ever use either has a place there or can easily be achieved with a dead key. Another also cool feature is that if for some reason you can't use your mouse you can easily control the cursor on the screen with the caplock layer. I actually sometimes use it when the cursor is blocking my vision and I have to quickly move it away or when I want to click some nearby textbox and can't be bothered to relocate my hands. Because of this your hands rarely have to leave their homerow positions.

I highly recommend DreymaR's layout to any colemaker.
DreymaR I can't thank you enough for all the hard work and reaserch you have put into this truly fantastic layout.

I also have a few questions for you though:
1. When you just want to click enter do you use the "Enter" key or do you use "Caps + Space".
2. When you just want to backspace you use "Caps + ;" right?
3. I still can't figure out where the scripts that controls F9 - F12 keys is. Would you be so kind to point out where they are located?
4. I can't figure out what the extended "\" key that is labeled as "Fav" does. I guess it has something to do with favorites but I don't get how it's used.
;)

[update 9.27.2012]

Never mind, I found out how to change the "F" keys from the pkl.ini file. Also I saw that the Fav button was actually browser favorites... Remapped that anyway to capslock for easier reach when doing SQL. :)

Last edited by vaskozl (27-Sep-2012 16:46:38)

lilleyt · 21-Oct-2012 23:42:00

I think your Tarmak layouts have P instead of R at SC013.

DreymaR · 22-Oct-2012 07:15:48

Curses! Good catch lilleyt, thanks. Fixed now.

lilleyt · 22-Oct-2012 14:41:18

No problem. :)

XCQT · 14-Apr-2013 16:55:39

For some reason all the Caps Lock functions on the right of my keyboard (past LNM) are shifted right by one key (ie Left arrow is on E rather than N and backspace is on ' rather than o). Any way to fix this?

DreymaR · 15-Apr-2013 10:05:34

Hello, and welcome!

You seem to have gotten yourself a Wide ergonomic mod Extend layer atop a non-Wide layout. :)

Unfortunately, this goes by scan codes so I can't map the Extend keys versus Wide/Angle mods independently of what layout you're using. For an AngleWide ergonomic layout you'll need the Angle and Wide Extend code, and for a non-angle/wide (traditional) layout you'll need the non-angle/wide Extend code in your pkl.ini file under the [extend] section. If you look inside there it should be fairly well explained.

I've provided two template pkl.ini files named 'pkl_nonAngleWide.ini' and 'pkl_AngleWide.ini' (or something similar) in my pkl folder. You'll want to replace the pkl.ini based on the wide version with a copy based on the nonwide version. Simple copy-paste(replace) operation.

I just uploaded a version of my full PKL file that has a README file in it; hopefully that makes this and other things a bit clearer.

Hope that helps! :)

Last edited by DreymaR (15-Apr-2013 12:14:24)

Colemak forum

#1 03-Aug-2012 12:48:56