Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards
Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)
i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²
¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid
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I am currently using thumb shift on all my keyboards as it feels very natural: no need to move the whole hand (unlike classical shift) and no priority conflicts (unlike HRM shift: with HRM, if hold is preferred then you shift letters by mistake, if tap is preferred you end up typing erroneous extra chars instead of shifting).
Actually I combine enter and shift on the same key, giving priority to hold/shift. Since I don't need to roll enter, there is no conflict.
it causes misfires or takes TOO LONG to aviate, there is no middle ground with that one.
A lot of people use Miryoku to type fast and accurately. There are settings to fix/alleviate this if you are interested in going down that path.
If you are using QMK setting the TAPPING_TERM low (200 or less?) and enabling IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT will help a lot I think.
I use miryoku and typing uppercase is annoying. You are either swapping shift keys as you type or you have to use caps lock (ewww). Let me know if there is a secret.
Caps Word might be the secret you are looking for. It's invaluable for writing constants when programming for example.
On my Dactyl Manuform I have right thumb managing enter and space and left thumb managing shift and backspace. I also use the option to hold for shift with tap being tab and backspace is Ctrl if held.
I have tried to overload the home row keys as modifiers but that is a huge mistake as it causes misfires or takes TOO LONG to aviate, there is no middle ground with that one.
Did you try bilateral combinations? They reduced accidental misfires to almost zero for me:
I primarily use one thumb key for shift. Unlike pinkie-shift, I can comfortable use the same thumb key for characters typed on either hand.
My layout: https://mark.stosberg.com/markstos-corne-3x5-1-keyboard-layout/
I use a dactyl manuform with all modifiers on the thumbs. Works great for me.
I use a left thumb for shift and prefer it to home row mods.
I use one of my mini spacebars for shift, feels 10000 times better than the regular pinky shift keys
I've been using thumb shift since day one and I don't see myself changing that.
I'm not using the thumb cluster for shift and other mods, but rather homerow mods. It takes a bit to get used to, but I feel like it is very confortable. I have S/shift and L/shift (tap/hold), so if I need to shift a key from the left hand I use the opposed hand to shift and vice versa. Also pressing both S and L at the same time will toggle caps lock which I find very convenient.
Homerow mods allow me to keep my fingers on/near the homerow and reduce A LOT hand movements.