Base Features

On the base layer Control (both side) and Tab are both on the home row.

Symetric modifiers provide very efficient key combinations like:

  • Control + ...
  • Control + Shift + ...
  • Alt + ...

The second layer (shown above) is highly optimized for developers, providing easy access to all symbols commonly used in programming.

These symbols have been logically grouped and placed based on their usage. For instance, parentheses and brackets are conveniently located right under your fingers on the home row and symbols like ^ and $, which are typically used in regular expressions to denote the beginning and ending of a line, are positioned on each side.

Please check the Interactive Guide for all details.

Modal Editing - «Vi workflow»

The Vi key placement and modal editing have been influential in the development because they offer a more efficient and ergonomic way of editing text. Modal editing is now available in most editors and as extensions in many application.

To design 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 developer features already described in the previous section, we can highlight the following points:

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

ColeMAX

Numerous developers who utilize vi 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 vi 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 second layer stay at the same position as the original HJKL, you can rely on them and the transition to a new layout is much easier.

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.