Ergonomic aspect is also misguided since touch typing correctly on a standard qwerty keyboard will not bend wrists, so no need to split the keyboard in half. Your hands need to be at an angle to type (look at the keys, columns are offset to create an angle), if they are perpendicular you need to learn touch typing correctly.
The staggered columns are indeed offset to create an angle but it's more comfortable to be able to adjust the angle and the distance between the keyboard halves.
The benefit seems to be low level systems where it is hard to script the key mappings (assuming drivers work). But do you really write your code, i.e. spend a significant percentage of time in them, or in moderns OSs?
As for comfort, buy a ergonomic keyboard that is cheaper and static and will force you to adapt the correct posture. Especially if the problem is the small additional angle required to touch type, those keyboard solve it.
Strawman. The large device is the keyboard you need to lug around. Tell me, is your keyboard designed for use with a computer?
>Various OSes have various (sometimes quite severe) limitations regarding remapping and the "script" that you mention is also OS-specific which is a pain if you use multiple OSes.
No. It isn't a pain, it called hacking and you only need to do it once and it is free and shareable. So in this sense only one person has to do it once and it just works for everyone else from then on.
Of course it is.
> No. It isn't a pain, it called hacking and you only need to do it once and it is free and shareable.
It's not a pain for some who have the skills and are willing to spend enough time. The big difference is that we enable users to make this work in an intiutive, platform-independent way.
The keyboard boasts itself as a the ultimate hacking keyboard, yet the only "hackable" thing that can be done with it is configuring keys and macros, which can already be done for free on any OS and with any standard keyboard. The keyboard doesn't deserve its name in my opinion. It also costs 220$ (200$ as an early bird) .
Rhetorical question: Who will benefit the most from this project?
* modify the firmware at the source level
* repair it more easily than regular keyboards given its repair friendly design: https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/blog/2015/06/17/ifixit-g...
* mount it onto external objects like an armchair: https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/blog/2015/04/20/introduc...
* We'll open source the electornics, making not only the firmware and host side configurator application hackable but the electronics design, too
* We have yet another one-of-a-kind stretch goal to be announced that will massively add to the above points
You can also access the system's api directly, instead of buying hardware to do that for you under the illusion that you hacked something.
Accessing the system APIs have no use in alone. The solution should work out of the box without hacking for ages.
Using scripts works out of the box without hacking for ages as well. You only need to write the script once, and then share it with the world. This is the point I made in other comments already which you read but ignored the point.
I know from experience that scripts do not work out of the box. Often times their syntax is nontrivial. I also know quite few limitations of xmodmap/xev keymaps and autohotkey. Using a configuration application does work out of the box.
There is an app that allow for key combo config on Android. I'll edit post when I can recall it.