I have my autohotkey script running at the same time as PKL and it's working pretty much as expected with using tab as a modifier when held down and a key when struck.

I'll have to dig into the PKL codebase to see how to combine my AHK script into it.

Have you ever considered Capslock+Space as an extended layer? Seems like it'd be much easier than Shift/Alt.

I started using CapsLock as my Extend key, but after a while ended up moving my Extend key to left Alt.
(Effectively this meant swapping mappings for LAlt and CapsLock)

My Right Alt (AltGr) retains its normal function (level 3).

The nice thing about this is I get:
- standard symbol layer (level 3) on Right-Alt.
- extend layer (level 5) on Left-Alt.
- ... and by pressing both Alt keys together gives me a easy additional layer (where I have put virtual numpad etc).

Left Alt doesn't seem to be a common choice for Extend, but having used it for a while, have to say I am a big fan of it.

I have been perfecting a numpad extend layer that I really love. I will post it here pretty soon.

It's a direct swap of LAlt <-> CapsLock, which means my Alt key is CapsLock.  It takes some adjustment, but as I don't tend to use Alt function that much, it's not really a biggie. On the other hand, the LAlt is in a very convenient place for the left thumb. I tend to have my left thumb hovering over it. I find it is faster to access the Extend layer than using CapsLock, as it doesn't require a lateral hand movement.

I also like that all my important layers are accessible entirely with the thumbs, which seems very natural and intuitive.  If you can live with relocating Alt, I think it's worth a try!

Ah, yes, I see! I've given that a little thought but in the end I didn't come up with anything really useful. Extend in its purest form is about bringing keys to better positions, and the NumPad, obviously, doesn't play that tune well. So I was thinking, maybe it could be a HotString pad? But on the other hand, then those without a physical NumPad are left out. My ideal keyboard is tenkeyless to make the mouse more reachable, and I use tenkeyless laptops much of the time. Hmmm...

It'll be interesting to see what you've come up with, then!

Yeah, hehe, those are a little pesky aren't they.

Anything that works for you, really. If you do such a shortcut often you'll get used to it, if not it'll remain a PITA I'm afraid. But here are my suggestions:
• Ext+3: 3rd(3)
• Ext+Sh+F3: 3rd(3); 2nd(S). Or, LeftHand_3rd(3); RightHand_5th(RShift)
• Ext+A+2: 4th(A); 3rd(2). Yes, this one's a bit cramped.
• Ext+A+2: 3rd(2); 1st(Alt). Another way (actual Alt+Ext+2).

Left pinky for the Extend key (on the Caps key) for all of the above.

That thinking is basically mostly true, but only mostly. The fastest typists in the world use a lot of "alternative fingering" as we call it, adapting each word or at least n-grams (sequences of keys) to the best way of hitting them. But for basic typists, that's too advanced.

When typing bigrams with the center column (infamously, HE on vanilla Colemak; KE on DH-mod Colemak) I "slide in". That is, my index finger hits H(K) but instead of stretching the hand a lot to type E with the middle finger I allow the hand to retain its more relaxed shape and type E with the ring finger instead. Similarly for the NK(NH) bigram for which I use the index plus middle finger instead of a same-finger bigram with the index finger. And so on and so forth. Some forum members have suggested that alternative fingering may make you substantially faster at high typing speeds.

Keep in mind though that this is about shortcuts, not normal typing. What you do to hit the F# keys isn't normal touch typing anyway, it's jumping. It's not done in a normal typing flow but as a special action. As such, normal typing rules don't (quite) apply to this.

I've come up with a new Extend trick: The mouse homing key! Only available for PKL on Windows so far.

In PKL, I added this to my pkl.ini file replacing the line for the tilde key:

SC029 = Click 24,24,0

What this does is place the mouse cursor in the upper left corner of either the active window or, if no windows are active, the desktop. Why is that A Good Thing™, you ask?

• Sometimes, I lose track of where the mouse cursor is. Now I can easily reposition it.
• Sometimes, the mouse cursor gets in my way. Now I can easily put "baby" in the corner.

Snazzy side effects (not necessarily the simplest way but interesting nevertheless):
• On the desktop it'll be placed right over the "My PC" icon. Following up with a click (Ext+C on the CurlAngle mod) and Enter (Ext+Spc) opens an Explorer window.
• Sometimes on the desktop though, it goes to the menu line instead. Not sure when/why this happens.
• On windows, it'll be placed over the app icon. A click will open the app menu (but LAlt+Space is a simpler way – I use that a lot).
• One or two mouse down (Ext+G on CurlAngle, Ext+D on vanilla Colemak) will bring me to the menu and icon lines for more advanced virtual clickage.
• On my Firefox browser, it'll be placed right next to the first tab. Two down clicks and I can access the address line icons (I use Ext+6 for the line itself).

Glad you like the Big Bag! :-)

The BigBag PKL/Win topic is the most correct place to ask such a question. But basically, you'll have to choose one of the Alt keys for Extend as PKL doesn't let you use both. Then set its name on the extend_key line in layout.ini. I think you should unmap the key too like I've done with CapsLock in my layouts, but not sure.

In my implementations Extend follow the Wide mod so you'd be covered. This is true both for Linux, TMK and Win/EPKL.

I don't think I have any lock modifiers in EPKL as it is. I haven't seen a great need for them so far. I might reconsider that, but I'm rather busy at the moment.

If you have QWERTY as your OS layout, you may simply suspend EPKL to use QWERTY. You may also have it as your switch layout. Switching layout isn't as instant as a separate layer would be but I don't think you need to type every other word in Colemak and QWERTY either.

As a matter of fact, if you want a lockable coding layer you could make a separate layout for it and use that as a second layout. This is one reason I haven't seen the necessity for lock modifiers so far.