Hacker News Reader

Comment by dv_dt | Hacker News Reader

So does raising and lowering the layers change something visible on the keys or is it that you just have to know?

Errr, contradicting all the other responders: yes it does (or can) change the backlight colors per key. It still takes a ton of practice/trial and error, but you’d be surprised how much you can communicate with just lighting changes.

In most cases you just have to know. There are some ortholinear keyboards with some sort of display or indicator and you could program the backlight to show your current layer. It sounds like it would be hard to get used to but a few days was all it took for me to be proficient and I type faster now than I did on a conventional keyboard.

Aww I was hoping there was some trick with the backlighting and multi-colored keycap transparencies

It's something you need to know.

I have a Moonlander and had to print my layout on paper so that I could glance at it until I got used to it. Did a few adjustments, and eventually settled and enjoy it.

Also have a Moonlander. I found it helpful to set a color scheme for my upper layers, matching the corresponding activation keys in the base layer (e.g., my function key layer is yellow). I also color coded special things like modifiers, whitespace keys.

You just have to know.

It's not a big deal. I have an Atreus, which has even fewer keys, and correspondingly makes a bit more use of layers, and I had it all into my muscle memory within 3 or 4 days.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com