The Zé Quoia 34-key layout

I'm a coder as well as a translator of English, French and Portuguese, so I made this layout which is highly optimized for all these usages. It also performs very well in Spanish, and can find its way to ß for the occasional Notstandsmaßnahme. I find it a joy to use, so that it's sure to be my endgame.

Its ergonomics are lightly premised on the A. Dux's aggressive column stagger and pinky splay, but it should work fine on any 34-key board.

The ZMK source was written to be used on top of Bépo, as QWERTY's need to recur to certain ASCII alt-sequences would mean trouble for my cross-platform usage.

Features

• Lower row favored instead of the upper.
• Low on SFB and redirects and high on alternation, but
• Still features some very enjoyable rolls ('s, you, which…).
• Easy combo for qu, which is much more frequent than a loose q.
• Combos for bothersome common sequences (bj, ão, õe, ãe, ção, ções).
• RH navigation layer for efficient darting through text, including Vim-style homerow arrows but with ^← and ^→ on the sides.
• LH conceived to be used alongside a mouse on RH (sorry, lefties).
• Modified LH numpad leaves homerow for 0123, which account for some 75% of all typed digits.
• Utility layer on LH home row featuring unlimited alt-tab or ctrl-tab in both ways, history navigation, and full mouse control with three cursor/wheel speeds.
• Promptly accessible one-shot layers to insert symbols and accented vowels with only two key taps.
• Automatic placement of narrow non-breaking space for French punctuation.
• Manually implemented capsword.

Integrations

Dedicated scripts included for

• AutoHotKey: mouse control, dark mode toggle, and double/single display toggle
• ControlMyMonitor: change brightness and other settings of external displays

Suggested shortcuts for

• PowerToys launch and clipboard history, both from base layer
• Everything search from home row

Layout

The outer home row keys act as modifiers when held.

Each thumb key activates a certain layer while held. The thumbs sit on their outer keys by default; the inner ones, when pressed, are one-shot switches. This works great for symbols and accents, which are less often used in sequence.

Here's a rough outline of the main layers:

Base

q - y . ?    k c h w j
u o i a f    g t r s n
z é p , x    v d m l b
        e   spc

Accents (inner right thumb)

û ô î â ¿      ç ' " bj
ú ó í á ã      ^ ` ´ ñ 
ù õ ï à        ¨   ß ~ 

Numbers (hold outer left thumb)

 | 7 8 9 ?    $ [ ] # %       
0 1 2 3 ;    : + - * /          
  4 5 6 ,    . < > = \          
             _ spc         

Symbols (outer left thumb)

| @ æ œu !      $ [ ] & ~			  
{ } (  ) ;      : ^ `   /		  
— − «  » ,      . < > = \		  
             _ spc

Performance

On the benchmarks I ran this layout scores very near the top, right next to the (English-focused) likes of RSTHD and MTGAP. But Zé Quoia depends so heavily on combos and layers that any complete mechanical analysis of it would have to be highly opinionated in its parametrization.