Does anyone else have links to other interesting approaches to keyboards (products or otherwise)?
The rabbit hole is deep https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=55099
Where should the “6” key be?
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#52Does anyone else have links to other interesting approaches to keyboards (products or otherwise)?
My daily working keyboard is an Alphagrip.(Just tested at 69wpm vs 120wpm qwerty on plain English.)
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#53Does anyone else have links to other interesting approaches to keyboards (products or otherwise)?
Here's one that's been under development for a long time. I have two of these on preorder -- I hope I like them :-)
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is possible to remap pretty much any OS X key with the help of a utility like Karabiner.
Incidentally, if you try to do this with the Caps Lock key on an aluminum Apple keyboard, you will (painfully) discover, that this key has a built-in hardware delay. Remapping it to Control (as most normal people do) means that some of your control combinations will miss, also under Windows (it's really a hardware thing).
It's my understanding that to remap Caps Lock to Control (nicely that is) on Apple's keyboards that you need to use Seil (closely related to Karabiner, and from the same dev).
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't notice anywhere in the description which clarifies if the Fn key itself can be changed to, say, ctrl or alt. I also would avoid this (otherwise nice) keyboard if Fn could not be changed to a standard modifier.
As the lead developer of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard I can confirm that the Fn key can be reprogrammed just like any other key. You can make Backspace emit Ctrl, Enter emit Alt+Tab, or make the Right Shift play back a macro.
That's great. If I can make Fn work as Ctrl or Alt, then this keyboard would seem to have everything I need. Its design (particularly the split spacebar with extra modifier) nicely solves some of my keyboard annoyances.
I'll keep an eye on its development and availability. Thanks.
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't notice anywhere in the description which clarifies if the Fn key itself can be changed to, say, ctrl or alt. I also would avoid this (otherwise nice) keyboard if Fn could not be changed to a standard modifier.
As the lead developer of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard I can confirm that the Fn key can be reprogrammed just like any other key. You can make Backspace emit Ctrl, Enter emit Alt+Tab, or make the Right Shift play back a macro.
This seems like such a massively important feature that I have to ask you, as a keyboard developer, is there any particular obstacle to making a keyboard fully reprogrammed? I feel my productivity on my laptop would be massively improved by a few select changes such as Fn+hjkl as PgUp/PgDn/Home/End, and such, yet virtually no laptop I've seen allows this, so I have to rely on workarounds to fix the sometimes braindead layouts. Is there a hardware-level obstacle to doing this or is it just that the mainstream manufacturers just can't be arsed?
PS: I'm not your target audience (I use my laptop keyboard almost exclusively) but great job so far!
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#57Does anyone else have links to other interesting approaches to keyboards (products or otherwise)?
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually use media control keys very often when playing music on my laptop, much much quicker than going into an app first. I actually like the how OS X by default uses the fn functionality, and you press fn to access f1, f2 etc.. Except for very few games, I never actually use those keys anyways. And even then I use something like Palua[0] to automatically enable/disable the fn key based on the app that is current…
Having to press three keys for a force reload (Ctrl+F5 on Windows/Linux) seems incredibly awkward. I can't really imagine living without F5, F11 or F12 as a web developer.
OS X key shortcuts are very much biased towards alphabetical keys. F-key usage in standard system shortcuts is a very rare thing. In your particular example, reloading is done with Command+R while force reload is Command-Shift-R. Most OS X shortcuts follow this pattern: they're easier to remember (phonetic association) and usually make for less awkward hand positioning when used.
Because of this, on my MacBook I've mapped FKeys to do global stuff; F1 brings up Spotlight (launcher), F2 shows a Quake-style drop down terminal, and F3 bring up a popover calendar (Fantastical). The only exception is F4, which ive set up to pop open Xcode's "Quick Open" UI.
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#59As someone who hits the "b" key with their right hand when typing, I find it encouraging that they're splitting that off to the right side, as the vast majority of "ergonomic" keyboards put it on the left side, as the home row method of typing instruction recommends. (I learned my non-standard method of touch typing playing MUD's via telnet in the mid-nineties)
Actually 'b' is at a completely wrong position( on a ordinary keyboard ). It is inaccessible for both hand, without moving your wrist which causes strain. I have globally remapped 'b' to the right of 'l'. It feels much better. The old 'b' key is now unused.
Maybe I misunderstand but how can being forced to move your wrist cause strain? Your wrist moves all the time in day to day activities.
If anything I would think keeping your wrist in the same position too long would cause strain, especially if it's unrelaxed.
Even in piano, if you have to play the same notes many times, you are supposed to move your wrist slightly so you aren't doing the same movement each time to prevent injury.
Re: Where should the “6” key be?
#60What's most interesting here to me is that people are taught which fingers to type with. I was never explicitly taught how to type, but I usually hit 6 with my left middle finger. I type at 130 WPM on average. Edit: after some screwing around, I hit every number but 1 with my middle fingers (I hit 1 with my left ring finger).
Do you still type 130wpm if you are typing a lot of numbers? I'd be surprised if you could reach those speeds while typing all number keys but one with a single finger.