ADM42 logo

Developers

On the base layer, two of the most important keys for developers, Control (on both sides) and Tab, are located on the home row.

Alt is also easily accessible on both sides, making the layout particularly efficient for all programming text editors.

Symmetric modifiers make key combinations straightforward:

  • Control + .../Backspace/Enter/Space
  • Control + Shift + ...
  • Alt + ...

Special Layer

The Special Layer contains numbers and all programming symbols, logically organized for optimal usage. Combined with the Base Layer, they fulfills all the requirements for developpers.

CAPS_WORD

This variant of CAPS LOCK is extremely useful as it allows for capitalizing only a single word LIKE_THIS_ONE without holding SHIFT or having to disable CAPS LOCK manually.

Once the word is completed, the capitalization is automatically disabled.

In addition to the letters, the mechanism also supports numbers, underscores, dashes, and Backspace.

The vi key placement and modal editing have been influential in development, offering a more efficient way of editing text. It is available in most editors and as extensions in many applications.

When designing the ADM42, we went back to the roots of the vi editor, taking inspiration from the original terminal on which it was created: the ADM-3A.

Additionaly to the features already described in the previous sections, we can highlight the following points:

  • Esc available on thumb
  • Arrow keys at the same placement as HJKL

ColeMAX

Numerous developers who utilize modal editing are reluctant to transition to better layouts because of the non logical placement of HJKL keys on them.

The ColeMAX layout is an exclusive layout developped for the ADM42 that adapt the Colemak layout with the requirements for modal editing by applying only two decisives permutations.

First K and J are swapped to place them in a logical position. Then, ;: is swapped with quotes. This restore the home row position of ;: while placing quotes at a stronger position.

As on the ADM42 the arrows key on the special layer stay at the same position as the original HJKL, the transition to a new layout is made much easier.