This is an xkeyboard layout that shifts the right hand side of the keyboard one additional unit to the right, placing the right pinky finger adjacent to return. The rightmost keys are relocated to the centre column to compensate.
The qwerty homerow thus becomes asdfg’hjkl;
This is primarily inspired by a usenet post by the late Lisp hacker, Erik Naggum (he never did share it). I have personally found it to be a great improvement over the standard layout on a standard 104-key US keyboard where it offers easier access to oft-used symbols and righthand modifiers. The extra hand separation is also appreciated.
Mileage may vary on keyboards that don’t have a strictly standard layout, especially those found on laptops. I find it very uncomfortable on the classic thinkpad keyboard, for example.
Copy the file naggum to /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/
Run setxkbmap naggum to set the default qwerty layout. Dvorak programmer can be used by adding -variant dvp
Additional options should work as normal.
I use this on GNU/Linux, and I believe it will work on the BSDs too, but it hasn’t been tested.
Other operating systems not using X are obviously not supported.
Push requests for other alternative layouts are greatly appreciated. I personally use Dvorak programmer and have added qwerty in the hope that more people will find it useful.
Note that the qwerty number row has not been adjusted, I was unsure whether it was actually worth splitting up the numbers. If you touch type with the number row and would like it changed to match the rest of the keys please leave some feedback so I can fix it.