Monday 5 January 2009

Njorak isn't dead (yet (now lives on a lone E6400))

Yes, I admit it! I am still a Dvorak typer. I tried going back recently when learning Vim using my new Vim book, but I just can't. Something about Qwerty makes me squirm when trying it. Perhaps it's just that I have become accustomed to the strangeness of Dvorak but in general I don't see any reason to switch back. Sure, I am not that quick when I get in front of someone's Qwerty laptop, but I'll manage.

Now with my new Dell E6400 it's time for yet another njorak layout. Since Swedish characters are too precious to miss out on, but not precious enough to get rid of all the good things about pure and clean Dvorak (hmm, I does sound like a fanatic don't I?). Here it is, the all magical njorak for Dell Latitude E6400 using the Windows key to access Swedish characters.

! njorak, not-quite-dvorak. Version 1.2
! By Pontus Stenetorp
! Derived from us dvorak, accesses Swedish characters through
! altgr or similar combos. Also swaps caps and esc.
! Apply it to an ordinary dvorak keymap using xmodmap.
! Dell Latitude E6400 version
! still dedicated to spatrik

! Set up Swedish special characters
keycode 43 = d D aring
keycode 44 = h H adiaeresis
keycode 45 = t T odiaeresis

! Windows key on a Dell Latitude E6400
keycode 115 = Mode_switch

! Swap escape and caps lock
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Escape
keycode 66 = Escape
keycode 9 = Caps_Lock
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Escape


I have also added a Caps-lock Escape switch to this version. The reason, there is never a good reason not to remove caps-lock. The only I reason I can come up with is that it's not expected behaviour for anyone who is new to your layout. But being a Vim user (and a Dvorak user, which makes most people perplexed when trying out my keyboard) and also having taken a couple of seconds to ponder on which key I use the most, the switch really is a sane thing to do.

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