capsicain VS kanata

You would have to intercept the barcode scanner (keyboard) data on a low-level before all other software gets it... Maybe this could help: https://github.com/cajhin/capsicain

If you want to have layers without buying a QMK keyboard there's some software solutions like capsicain (most powerful, harder to configure, has limitations when working with wireless keyboards), Microsoft Powertoys keyboard manager (easy to configure, very limited with what you can do) that allow the same kind of functionally.

I'm not sure if this works for you: https://github.com/cajhin/capsicain

Capsicain is another one: https://github.com/cajhin/capsicain Gotta try 'em all!

For windows there is also capsicain

The mod has better split, almost orthogonal, two levels of thumb cluster, I use capsicain for this mod, find the config on this link

Gotta give a shoutout to kanata[1] which I have used daily for years at this point after giving up on QMK-powered keyboards.

QMK itself is great, but I was never able to find a non-columnar split ISO keyboard to use it with. Eventually I reluctantly settled on the Logitech K860[2] and I'm now happily using my favourite features from QMK with kanata at the software level.

[1]: https://github.com/jtroo/kanata

[2]: If I'm behind the times and there is now a QMK-compatible keyboard that looks like this, please let me know!

This is not in Emacs, but if I can't modify my keyboard's firmware (e.g on a laptop), I use Kanata https://github.com/jtroo/kanata. It works by creating a virtual keyboard in Linux (and uses a filter driver or process hooks in Windows), so it can work in any program as they just see a normal keyboard.

Besides the better caps word (by the way, you can have it in software in Win/Linux apps like https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/docs/config.adoc#c...) you can also toggle capslock with e.g. a double tap while having on-hold functionality to the more useful Control, so you still wouldn't need to hold any modifier key

jtroo/kanata: Improve keyboard comfort and usability with advanced customization (github.com)

One particular approach that one might find it interesting is how the configuration is laid out (using S-expression from Lisps).

[0] https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/docs/config.adoc

Kanata[0] is amazing. It support both Linux and Windows. But I'm yet to try it on windows because my majority work is on linux.

[0] https://github.com/jtroo/kanata