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Looking at the keyboard layout makes me wonder. How many devs here actually use the right shift key and/or the right modifier keys? I've been programming for 20 years (15 or so using emacs) and I exclusively use the left shift and left modifiers. I probably have never used the (physically) right shift/modifier keys on the keyboard I'm currently typing on that I've had for 2 years.

I loathe the four left modifier key layout on keyboards which is probably why I hate typing on my Macbook. It would be nice if I could have a fat left control key with the fn key on the right somewhere.

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I use the right shift key to type capital letters on the left side of the keyboard since I type with ten fingers. I suspect most people do that?

I often type them on the left side with one hand holding the shift and typing. It's not as hard as it sounds.

For me it's highly idiosyncratic. I type a lop of caps with LeftShift+Left hand, and RightShift+Right Hand, and many more with LeftShift+Right Hand or RightShift+LeftHand. I think it even comes down to what I'm typing: whether I'm working on Prose or text, and even the language I'm writing in (English, Irish or French)

Chording isn’t hard but my hands cramp faster when I do it. I’m working on a Karabiner config to force me to use right modifiers.

Proper touch typing dictates that you should not use the same hand to both type the modifier key and the modified key. So a symmetrical setup is necessary in that case.

I use right shift more than left shift because most of my hotkeys use buttons on the left side of the keyboard and two handed combos are more comfortable than hand stretches.

Right Alt/Alt Gr is a different modifier than left alt, though I'd say 90% of my usage is AltGr+4 for the € sign.

I regularly swap between left and right shift depending on which opposite side of the keyboard the key I need to modify is (does that make sense?). However, I strictly use left ctrl (replacing left caps-lock) and left alt.

Yep that makes sense. I could be an outlier on exclusive left shift key usage.

I also remapped the enter key to act as ctrl if pressed with another key to get symmetry with caps lock key.

Same as for the caps lock key, one way to look at it: if you don’t use it, remap it to something useful to you. If you only need ctrl on the left, remap all the other left modifiers to ctrl, etc.

It’s a long tail thing I think, but the right/left modifiers pair are tremendously useful if you use it to switch states. For instance I use it for switching IME modes, I could see it used for switching virtual desktops, show/hide virtual environments etc.

It’s more intuitive than using the same key to switch, it works with muscle memory as you’ll always get into a given state by hit a given key.

> How many devs here actually use the right shift key and/or the right modifier keys? I've been programming for 20 years (15 or so using emacs) and I exclusively use the left shift and left modifiers. I probably have never used the (physically) right shift/modifier keys on the keyboard I'm currently typing on that I've had for 2 years.

Why would that be common? I ask because I also don't use the right modifier keys, but that's because I got in the habit years ago on a keyboard which forced me to do it that way.

I guess I assume that left key dominance is more common because that's where some modern laptop keyboards elect to retain the control key and add the fn key.

I do it all the time - I don't know another way if you want to touch type. It creates a symmetry - depending if the letter key with which you need to combine is on the left or the right hand, I will use the opposite hand to press the Shift or Ctrl keys. And the AltGr is an absolute must for me as I need to write accents for several western European languages and the English International with AltGr Dead keys is the best solution I found so far (and I do not understand why it is not shipped with Windows).

I use right shift all the time? Probably 50:50 between the two for me.

My brother says the same thing, I thought it was absurd when I first heard it but they are out there.

Today I learned that touch typing is absurd.

I actually use it quite often.

Right shift when I'm typing with a single hand (for example while phoning or eating). Without it, it would be pretty much impossible to type anything using only one hand, because the rightmost letters are too far away from the left shift key.

The right alt (gr) is very useful to type many languages (especially accentuated) using a US qwerty.

An (arguably better) alternative to alt gr is a compose key. It allows you to type many more characters than alt gr, and the compose sequences are generally intuitive enough that (unlike alt gr) you don't have to memorise them.

I have right-win set up for this.

Initially I only used the left-hand modifier keys.. then figured this is pretty terrible for the hand, requiring a bunch of stretching. I tried to use the opposite-hand modifier after that.

Now, I use a custom keyboard, so that I can avoid using my pinky finger as much, and can put the modifiers on the home-row.

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