According to my statistics (which include a good deal of programming code), this is the frequency of punctuation:

, . \ " ' _ ( ) - ; = 0 $ : 1 / 2 > { } ? ! [ ] * 3 5 < 4 @ 9 | 8 6 7 + % # & ^

Most numbers are more common than most of the punctuation on the same keys. The only punctuation that's more common is the stuff that's closer to your fingers (except for a few anomalies like \ - = which are way more common than their position makes them look -- they are actually more common than JXQZ). I think that the positioning of numbers is fair; the main problem is those outlying keys. Here is a possible rearrangement.

This is what it looks like now:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =      ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +
q w f p g j l u y ; [ ] \    Q W F P G J L U Y : { } |
a r s t d h n e i o '        A R S T D H N E I O "
z x c v b k m , . /          Z X C V B K M < > ?

This is what it could look like:

8 6 4 2 0 1 3 5 7 9 = ?      | & # $ % @ * ^ < > + !
q w f p g j l u y " ; [ ]    Q W F P G J L U Y ' : { }
a r s t d h n e i o -        A R S T D H N E I O _
z x c v b k m , . \          Z X C V B K M ( ) /

It's not perfect, but it's more ergonomic than what we've got.

IMO a good programming layout would probably need to try to maximize doing two strokes on one hand then two on the other, _including_ shift and enter usage.  Having so much crap on the same hand as enter is not good.  Programmers probably wish enter was less far of a reach and probably not even on the pinky.

I feel like designing keyboards around programming languages is utterly perverse because many programming languages have intentionally taken seldom-used characters from the keyboard and made them prominent, rather than kept the task of programming similar to the task of writing.  It doesn't seem unreasonable to instead demand that programming languages, or specialized IDE's, bring the task of programming back to one that is modeled after "normal" keyboard use.

I agree.

Interestingly, Arensito is the only alternative layout which takes care of moving non-character frequent keys in comfortable positions, albeit under the pinkies.

I don't think so. IMO, the standard keyboard has been modeled after business and prose writing, therefore it's not comfortable for tasks involving different characters frequencies. Moreover, since most programming languages have born in the USA, they are modeled after its standard layout. I once tried writing code with a USA keyboard and it was way more comfortable.

Wouldn't it be better modeling keyboard layouts after prose usage, but leaving some keys to customize for each area? That's already been done for different languages layouts.

I understand. I saw they were "shifted" and thought they were less comfortable that way. Thanks!

Indeed, a foot switch seems a brilliant idea indeed ! I would like to have shift under one foot and Control, Alt under the other