keyboard/ergodox_ez/keymaps/townk_osx/readme.md


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# Townk's Keymap

Trying to take care of an enjury on my arm I borrow an ergonomic keyboard from
a frient ([Kinesis Advantage](http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage-pro-for-pc-mac/)).

I really enjoyed my time with it but there were some anoyancies:

* The curvature on the keys bothered me since I'm a Vim user and using the
  motion keys on my editor was awkard.
* I had to spend too much time remapping the keyboard to make some symbol keys
  more accessible to me.
* The fact that my hands had to stay close to each other was a bit stressfull
  to my sholders.

After a long research I find out that Ergodox EZ would be perfect for my needs
and purchase one. Before the keyboard even got in my hands I started to think
on the layout I would use on it and soon enough I planed couple adjustments
from the Kinesis I was using so far.

## The layout

Here are the layout mapping in images so you can have a glimpse on it:

![Base Layout](townk_osx_base.png)
![fn Layout](townk_osx_fn.png)
![Keypad & Mouse Layout](townk_osx_keypad.png)

Notice that, differently from the default behavior, my layer keys are not transparent
by default, which means that if you press any non-labeled white key, nothing will be
handled to the OS.

### One shot keys

It all started with the access to the function keys (F1, F2, F3...), since
those keys are located on a different layer I needed a way to press them with
minimal effort without disrupting my flow.

For me, togglihg a layer to press a button and than toggle it back is a waste
of time (although I admit it's a single tap from what I have), so I decided to
do it as a one shot key. I could press it and the next pressed key would be
handled by the target layer which just after it delivers the key to the OS it
would get back to the previous layer.

After setting up my layout to do just that I realized that occasionally I
would stop myseld on the middle of the process and the one shot layer would be
still triggered until I press any other key. So to prevent me from tapping
keys I don't want I added a timeout of 3 seconds for the one shot actions.

Ultimately I tested the shift key as a one shot one and really like it, so
here you have it, all the one shot keys on my layout.

## Glossary

If you're not familiar with the Mac symbols used on some keys, here is a
reference to them:

| Symbol | Description         |
| :----: | ------------------- |
|   ⌘    | Command             |
|   ⇪    | Caps Lock           |
|   ⇧    | Shift               |
|   ⌥    | Option (alt)        |
|   ⎋    | Esc                 |
|   ⇥    | Tab forward         |
|   ⇤    | Tab backward        |
|   ⌃    | Control             |
|   ␣    | Space               |
|   ⌫    | Backspace           |
|   ⌦    | Delete              |
|   ⏎    | Enter               |
|   ⌤    | Return              |
|   ⌽    | Power on/off button |
|   ↖    | Home                |
|   ↘    | End                 |
|   ⇞    | Page up             |
|   ⇟    | Page down           |
|   ⌧    | Clear               |