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Mechanical Keyboard Guide

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Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#21

Post by listic »

kellishaver wrote: post #7

I have an old IBM Model M with the buckling spring switches and it's the greatest thing in the world to type on. It's loud, but it feels so good. My typing accuracy and speed have both improved greatly since I switched to it. I dug it out of the back of a storage building a couple of summers ago. The sticker on the bottom says it was made in 1986. It works flawlessly, and with the help of an old tooth brush and a Mr.…

Why does typing accuracy improve? Is it because the keys have less wobble? I figured that generic keyboards on the market differ greatly in wobble.

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#22

Post by listic »

thristian wrote: post #4

I'd like to have a mechanical-switch keyboard someday; unfortunately most of the ones I've seen (including the ones in this article) tend to be full-size 104-key keyboards, while my tastes tend toward smaller keyboards like the Happy Hacker keyboard (which is excellent but uses rubber-dome switches). Right at the moment I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad USB keyboard because it's a smallish keyboard with a built-in trackpoi…

I think I can get by without right-hand number pad (that's for accountants). But how do you substitute for grey +-*/ keys?

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#23

Post by jedbrown »

I have a somewhat strange requirement which seems to be rather rare in stand-alone keyboard layouts (as opposed to laptops). I like to hit Alt_L and Alt_R (which I remap to Control) with my thumbs because it makes Emacs chording far more comfortable. This is very awkward with a long spacebar. The MS Natural keyboards are good with key placement, in my opinion, but I prefer the lighter activation of a notebook. I definitely like mechanical switches, but don't want to change my chording technique to deal with a long spacebar. Any recommendations?

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#24

Post by thristian »

listic wrote: post #22
thristian wrote: post #4

I'd like to have a mechanical-switch keyboard someday; unfortunately most of the ones I've seen (including the ones in this article) tend to be full-size 104-key keyboards, while my tastes tend toward smaller keyboards like the Happy Hacker keyboard (which is excellent but uses rubber-dome switches). Right at the moment I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad USB keyboard because it's a smallish keyboard with a built-in trackpoi…

I think I can get by without right-hand number pad (that's for accountants). But how do you substitute for grey +-*/ keys?

There's mathematical operator keys in the main part of the keyboard too. :)

When I had those keys on the keypad, I never really used them because they were further away from the home row than their counterparts on the main keyboard. With the left-hand hitting Shift (if necessary), it's not difficult to hit them with the right hand.

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#25

Post by thristian »

nodata wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #6

If you are new to mechanical keyboards, I recommend a Cherry Brown-based keyboard. They have a great tactile feel that quickly trains you to recognize that a key is typed without having to bottom out. I prefer the Topre switches, but the tactile bump is very subtle and if you do not consciously make the effort to not bottom out (initially), you will. And then it's just a very very expensive rubber-dome keyboard. (The…

Where can you buy a Cherry Brown keyboard?

From another post in this thread, it seems http://elitekeyboards.com/ has "FILCO"-brand keyboards available with Cherry Brown key-switches.

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#26

Post by Keyframe »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #18
Keyframe wrote: post #15

Has anyone tried TypeMatrix 2030?

I'm using one right now. It's not "mechanical", it's scissor-switch. It's a bit better than plain rubber dome, but you still have to bottom out. The layout on the other hand, is really cool. I can now touch type without twisting my fingers in weird ways. It's more comfortable (even more than a Natural keyboard, actually), and a bit faster than ordinary slanted keyboards. The displacement of some of the keys isn't a b…

I was interested in it's layout. Do you use QWERTY or other layout like Colemak and Dvorak with it?

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#27

Post by Keyframe »

dxq wrote: post #14
thristian wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... elitekeyboards.com only seems to have the HHKB Professional 2... the one I have is a "HHKB Lite 2", which (in a strange inversion of the usual hierarchy) includes an extra Fn key on the left and an inverted-T arrow-key cluster. I realise using arrow keys is heresy to a certain subset of the programming community, but I've been using them for decades and it's hard to give them up.

The arrow keys are accessible with the function key. It seems awkward at first, but after a day of use it becomes very natural. If it's what you really want, the HHKB Lite 2 is actually sold in the US and is quite a bit cheaper (though the switches aren't as nice).

Can you reprogram where arrow keys are? I have my arrow keys in emacs as Alt and then IJKL (like WASD), so it would be nice if Fn IJKL worked the same in OS.

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#28

Post by jharsman »

jedbrown wrote: post #23

I have a somewhat strange requirement which seems to be rather rare in stand-alone keyboard layouts (as opposed to laptops). I like to hit Alt_L and Alt_R (which I remap to Control) with my thumbs because it makes Emacs chording far more comfortable. This is very awkward with a long spacebar. The MS Natural keyboards are good with key placement, in my opinion, but I prefer the lighter activation of a notebook. I defi…

A Japanese keyboard layout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Japanese) has a shorter spacebar and some extra keys instead. You might be able to remap them to extra modifier keys with suitable software.

The Kinesis Advantage (http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage.htm) also has a unique layout where you hit modifier buttons with your thumbs, and it uses brown Cherry mechanical switches. It's $300 though.

Re: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

#29

Post by gnosis »

The problem with a lot of these fancy and expensive keyboards is that they have far too few keys.

For instance, the Realforce 87U ($255) has only 87 keys.

My current $24 keyboard has 136 keys. And I still wish I had more keys! Using a keyboard with a mere 87 keys would be torture, no matter how pleasant the tactile feedback was.

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