Command Classic
Tsundoku's keyboard concept. Concept, goals, etc. here.
Concept
The general design of the keyboard mostly derives from Apple keyboard layouts from the 1980s through the mid-1990s, before the AppleDesign keyboard and the broad adoption of the IBM AT Enhanced layout on the Mac platform. Distinguishing features include:
- Escape on number row, left of 1 key
- R2 1.75U Control (left of A)
- Arrow keys on right side of bottom row - left, right, down, up
- No function keys
- Number pad that is always a number pad (no Num Lock)
- Large Command key (1.5-1.75U)
Variants
Design Goals
- Not for Windows
- Mac/Sun-style bottom row modifier layout
- Large Command and Option keys for people who use them often
- Not minimalist
- Dedicated arrow keys
- Coincidentally smaller than 101/104 keyboards, but compactness itself is not a goal
- No IBM-style nav cluster
- Arrow keys can go on the bottom row as on many Apple keyboards
- Home/End/PageUp/PageDown on Fn layer of arrow keys
- Don't need Insert
- Forward Delete can go on tenkey (Clear on Macintosh keyboards)
- No dedicated function keys
- Can use Fn layer for number row
- Anticipates an environment where these are rarely used and only in specialized circumstances (eg. Minecraft)
- Has a tenkey
- No Num Lock (no modes!). Always numbers
Problems with existing PCBs
- No JIS Right Shift support
- Layouts all referenced from AT101/Windows 104
- 75%, 60%, etc... all expressed as reductions of AT101
- No consideration for different combinations of elements. Tenkeyless? 75% 60%? What about a tenkey but no IBM nav cluster?