thebearmaster

Any tips for deal with symbols for programming?

https://lemmy.world/post/348359

Any tips on dealing with symbols for programming? - Lemmy.world

Since putting together my ErgoMax a month back, I found myself feeling increasingly less keen to get back to productive stuff, which in my case is programming. Yesterday I had a moment of clarity on the irritation that I couldn’t previously quite put my finger on — it was the steady hassle of having to fiddle with layer shifting and other mod keys such as shift or command, to type in even just a few lines of code. How do all the programmers deal with having to constantly key in “, [] and {}, sometimes with cmd, ctrl etc keys held down, on boards without dedicated keys for them?

Jun 20, 2023 at 5:18pmWeb
Show threadwillJun 20, 2023
I use a 30% split keyboard as my daily driver for work as a software developer. I use a keymapping where holding the F key down turns the right side into a numpad plus some of the other punctuation, and holding D down gives me the shifted versions of all that. So I have to chord to get the esoteric symbols but I don't have to actually move my left hand from home row to chord. I don't think this is a very common way of doing things though. I'm not sure it's any better than using a bigger keyboard, but I'm used to it now.
Show threadcurioushomJun 20, 2023
Yeah, I do the same with my thumb keys, they shift the layer so the symbols/numbers are all one handed typing operation. I use homerow mods so there's even less finger shifting but that also means I don't use the homerow for layers. It's definitely a learning curve, especially since my keycaps don't have a legend but you get used to it pretty quickly. I need to return to a right side being numpad, I got clever with F keys but I only use 4 F keys, I should just optimize for those, it doesn't need to be a "sensible" layout for anyone else.
Show threadKimcha87Jun 21, 2023

I put brackets as combos of pointing and middle finger.

On the left half the homerow combo is for (. On the right half, it’s for ).

And the other symbols are on a layer. I optimized it it to make common programming symbols easy to type.

And I found that practicing typing quickly on speedcoder.com really helped me.

At first you have to think about what key to press to switch the layer and then what key to press to get true symbol you need.

But after a while, your brain learns the combination of movements.

So you just express the intention of a symbol and your fingers execute the symbol.

Show threadheronJun 21, 2023
You should be able to cmd down > layer shift > symbol > layer release > cmd up. It sounds like a lot, but I don't need to do anything like that very often.
Show threadwispydustJun 21, 2023

My preferred way is to have one symbol layer with all the symbols. It prevents having to constantly doing shift/unshift or switching layers (I personally call this "shift dancing") 😀

It looks like this:

https://keebogram.pages.dev/hypership/

Show threadR4_UnitJun 22, 2023
This is a nice clean layout! I appreciate that it isn’t trying to be tricky, but just lay everything out simply. The only part I’m not really getting is the equals sign relative to things like plus and times? Seems like typing equations, and things like += or *= kinda awkward? Beautiful all the same.
Show threadredchlorophyllJun 21, 2023
Many people are forgetting the simplest answer here. Just use a full size keyboard. They are abundant and cheap. They come with ALL THE KEYS and don't make you layer shift in order to efficiently achieve what you need to do.
Show threadkukkurovacaJun 21, 2023
🤔 This is posted in ergomechkeyboards; full-size true ergo boards are pretty uncommon.
Show threadd3zd3zJun 22, 2023

I ended up with pretty much my own entire layout. For the most part, I don't use layers, but instead use pairs of keys for symbols, numbers, etc. I also kept things largely where they are on a traditional keyboard, so that I'm not fighting against several decades of muscle memory.

The main issue with what I've done is that I'm kind of pushing past the limits of combining features with QMK. I use pairs of keys as modifiers (my left shift is 'E'+'D' for example), this key pressed is also '3'. If I roll on numbers, I end up with stuck modifiers. I've gotten fairly used to it, but it still hits me from time to time.

I do use a layer for things like cursor keys, though.