Unusual Keyboard Configurations

[TinCow]

Alright, so who out there uses a non-standard keyboard configuration? (Where standard is WASD for movement, mainly in FPSs and RPGs.)

I used WASD like everyone else until about 1998-1999. Then one day I was looking at my keyboard and it occurred to me just how absurd it is to use WASD simply because it is crammed into the left edge of the keyboard. That severely limits the number of keys you can bind, as you have very few to the left of your hand. The pinky and ring fingers are greatly wasted in that configuration, especially since Caps Lock, the Windows key, and the tilda are not normally useful for binding.

So, I looked at the keyboard and picked the most central arrangement for keys I could find: YGHJ. With this arrangement, I have tons of keys available for use by my pinky and ring fingers, with the pinky getting SDFXCV easily, and QWAZ&LAlt with a stretch. Compare that to LShift and LCtrl on a WASD configuration. The ring finger gets TR65 and E&4 with a stretch. Compare that to QTab12 on a WASD configuration. In addition, the thumb not only has access to the big old space bar, but also to the large RAlt. I have used this YGHJ setup now for the past 8-9 years and I love it. Combined with a 5 button mouse, I never have any problems accessing important commands, no matter how complex the game is. Gamers look at me strangely when I describe YGHJ, but it makes so much more sense to me than WASD.

So, who else has come up with unusual keyboard configuration styles? Tell us what they are!