Please check out my sig topic, the section on locale layouts! Also, for general AltGr symbols see the Colemak[eD] and dead key sections.

Here's where my Hungarian layout suggestion is described (a bit down): https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php … 015#p10015

I think that moving the apostrophe and semicolon may prove too disruptive, depending on who you're asking of course. So I stuck to my general method and took the bracket keys, as seen in my sig topics.

   
    Hungarian layout, shown with the AngleWide ergo mod. The acute, double-acute and umlaut keys are dead keys.

Not sure what you mean by 'sacrificing primary finger keys'? If you mean the keys in the middle of the Wide modded layouts, they aren't in any way "sacrificed" as their mapping to the strong index fingers, while providing relief for the weak pinkies, has its practicality offset by the two-key distance from the home position. These keys are accessible in those positions, but not too accessible to justify mapping rare stuff to them.

Indeed, the point of the Wide ergonomic mod is to take some load off the pinky, increase hand separation a little and decrease the distance to Back, Enter, RShift and AltGr.

Yes, I sometimes do move the keys around for the ergo mods. On my current laptop which has a stick in the middle though, I haven't and it's working well enough for me.

On the upside, I had one physically altered board showing QWERTY with an AngleWide ergo mod. This computer was used by my wife and children who didn't seem to mind at all! I have only gotten complaints from touch typists that needed a little time to adjust to the Angle mod (the ZXVCB shift).

The one thing I really crave is an index bump for the right hand. So I've carved a little mark in the (unmoved) QWERTY K key, enough to feel "at home" resting on that key. It doesn't take a lot. Be careful when handling keys though, as you don't want to break off any of the delicate parts under them!

It's easiest on ISO, almost a no-brainer to me. ANSI users have some options, described in that topic, but all of them are compromises. The latest suggestion for brave ANSI users implied making LShift a Z key! A bit much for my tastes.

I've lately taken it one step further, to Curl-Angle(Wide); again, it's described in the XKB post. I like dethroning the QWERTY G and H positions somewhat, putting D and H down instead to positions that I at least like better. SteveP and I use slightly different mods (Curl-DbgHk vs Curl-DvbgHm) but the idea is the same.

My name for that one would be 'A-Frame Curl-DvbgHm Colemak'.

I'd put the accents on the unshifted brackets and the brackets on AltGr to better the typing flow unless you code a lot. Not sure if that might lead to some left pinky misfires so it'd have to be tested a little. But essentially it'd be my Hungarian locale layout with the A-Frame mod.

I agree that the /? key in the middle isn't optimal, but in this case it's one or the other and I think the '" key really needs to remain close to the original position. So it's probably the best bet given the constraints. I'd press it with the right hand index finger and the left Shift for the question mark.

I went for the more conservative Curl-DbgHk mod myself, as I think that breaking up the XCV block isn't worth the bother and the M key is too important for the middle trench. Also, it doesn't deserve being moved away from its QWERTY position which I think is good for that key as it is. In my experience, the new positions for my DH keys are really comfortable so I don't think they'd be better in those other positions really. But I haven't tried Steve's mod (that you want) for any length of time so I don't know for sure of course.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that – and I think AWFT is better than AFPT by a fair measure. But I do agree with the general idea of it.

However, my relaxed home position has the middle and ring fingers at the upper edges of the home row keys and the index fingers at the lower edges. This fits well in with the Curl mod, and is quite similar to what you describe.

The effort scores are pulled out of our arses for the most part, sorry about that! :-)

Interestingly, the MessagEase touch screen keyboard has some solid-looking research behind it! Usng Fitt's algorithm should work on normal keyboards too so there should probably be some research out there on the Dvorak and QWERTY layouts that I'm unaware of, but there will be other unknown parameters nevertheless.

The analyzer on the Curl mod pages is simple but nice and configurable. Steve (its creator) and I tried several sets of weightings based on intuition, and reassuringly we ended up with pretty similar conclusions. So while not representing any kind of solid truth, models like that may give you some good indications. Shai used similar analyzers when designing Colemak. But trusting them to the end like CarpalX seems to be doing is something I'm sceptical of as optimizing a layout purely based on modeling will find you layouts that are only as good as the model and will need tempering with wisdom and the observation of usage over time. Shai was very much aware of that, and spent hundreds of hours of his own work on the design. Unfortunately he didn't publish anything that I know of when he was done, only discussions beforehand. He acts like a "First Maker", which has merits but also downsides.

In a way, it's such usage over time that has shown me that Colemak and the optimizations I use with it are good. But being one single person I'm not fit to speak for the general effectiveness of these nor about my personal bias and misconceptions, so clearly that much wanted research is desperately needed. But nobody seem to have the money, facilities and/or interest for that... :-(

As often said before, the Wide ergo mods (or, for ANSI boards, also the A-Wing angle mod) are a simple enough solution to that problem! ;-)