GNU Emacs Custom Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

GNU Emacs Custom Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

[Patishnock, Timothy Mitchell]

Greetings! I have a question I thought the GNU Emacs community would be interested in.

I'm currently seeking a mechanical keyboard for professional and gaming 
uses on my GNU/Linux machine. I found a company which can custom build 
said keyboard with any writing or symbols I desire either laser-etched or engraved. 
Naturally, I would like to have certain keys visually stick out to 
indicate GNU Emacs functionality (as vi vi vi is the symbol of the Beast).

Which keys would you edit (space permitting on such a small surface) to 
indicate GNU Emacs functionality?

I'm thinking about editing the <alt> key to read <META> on top and alt 
in italics below it. Also, the F10 key would read Emacs Menu underneath 
the F10 label.

I realize this is a rather unusual request but it would mean a great 
deal to me to have your input on this input device.

Sincerely,

/tmp

-- 
Sent from my Debian GNU/Linux desktop 

Re: GNU Emacs Custom Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

[Stefan Monnier]

> I'm thinking about editing the <alt> key to read <META> on top and alt 
> in italics below it. Also, the F10 key would read Emacs Menu underneath 
> the F10 label.

How 'bout having an "Emacs" key, to the left of the left alt/meta key?


        Stefan

Re: GNU Emacs Custom Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

[Miles Bader]

"Patishnock, Timothy Mitchell" <patis1tm@cmich.edu> writes:
> Which keys would you edit (space permitting on such a small surface) to 
> indicate GNU Emacs functionality?
>
> I'm thinking about editing the <alt> key to read <META> on top and alt 
> in italics below it. Also, the F10 key would read Emacs Menu underneath 
> the F10 label.

I presume it'll have the control key in the right place, to the left
of the "a" key (that's priority number one with an Emacs keyboard).

How many additional modifier keys do you have (even my small HHKB has
two on either side of the spacebar, so I guess four total)?  Besides a
"Meta-" key, you could have dedicated "Super-" and "Hyper-" keys...

[Getting those through the software stack is another issue of course;
presumably just a Small Matter of Programming... :]

-miles

-- 
What the fuck do white people have to be blue about!?  Banana Republic ran
out of Khakis?  The Espresso Machine is jammed?  Hootie and The Blowfish
are breaking up??!  Shit, white people oughtta understand, their job is to
GIVE people the blues, not to get them!  -- George Carlin

Re: GNU Emacs Custom Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

[Timothy Patishnock]

On 06/22/2012 09:49 PM, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> I'm thinking about editing the<alt>  key to read<META>  on top and alt
>> in italics below it. Also, the F10 key would read Emacs Menu underneath
>> the F10 label.
>>      
> How 'bout having an "Emacs" key, to the left of the left alt/meta key?

Sounds like an interesting idea.

Is this what you mean? (The following constitutes the layout of the 
bottom row of that section of the keyboard):

[Emacs] ["Meta"] [Alt] [Space] [Alt] ["Meta"] [Menu] [Emacs]

On 06/22/2012 10:17 PM, Miles Bader wrote:
> "Patishnock, Timothy Mitchell"<patis1tm@cmich.edu>  writes:
>    
>> Which keys would you edit (space permitting on such a small surface) to
>> indicate GNU Emacs functionality?
>>
>> I'm thinking about editing the<alt>  key to read<META>  on top and alt
>> in italics below it. Also, the F10 key would read Emacs Menu underneath
>> the F10 label.
>>      
> I presume it'll have the control key in the right place, to the left
> of the "a" key (that's priority number one with an Emacs keyboard).
>
> How many additional modifier keys do you have (even my small HHKB has
> two on either side of the spacebar, so I guess four total)?  Besides a
> "Meta-" key, you could have dedicated "Super-" and "Hyper-" keys...
>
> [Getting those through the software stack is another issue of course;
> presumably just a Small Matter of Programming... :]
>
> -miles
>
>    

Just checked out the HHKB; pretty slick.

The one I'm designing is a 104-key US ANSI layout design.

Here is the bottom row in order from left to right:

ORIGINAL:
[Ctrl] ["Meta"] [Alt] [Space] [Alt] ["Meta"] [Menu] [Ctrl]

WIP (Work in Progress):
[Ctrl] [ Emacs Super / "Meta"] [Emacs META / Alt] [Space] [Emacs META / 
Alt] [ Emacs Hyper / "Meta"] [Menu] [Ctrl]