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The 40% Keyboard

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Re: The 40% Keyboard

#21

Post by mewse »

I'm mostly typing on Corne keyboards now; a split kit keyboard with 42 keys, so still considered 40%, but fewer keys than most other 40% boards. (so you have to learn to cope with not having dedicated arrow keys, for example)

I can't imagine ever going back to a non-split keyboard; for me, it's a much better typing position to have my hands shoulder-width apart rather than squeezed together. I think that's more important than the "every key is within reach of the home row" argument for the 40% size in particular (although I've kind of fallen in love with the 40% size, but I could cope with going to a larger keyboard again better than I'd cope with going to a non-split, I think)

But more than that, as a programmer, there's something meditative about maintaining the custom hardware I use to do my job. Double-checking the soldering, tuning the firmware, taking it apart to polish the components and then putting it back together again, etc. Reminds me of the Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance, in a lot of ways.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#22

Post by irjustin »

I use the Diverge 3 + Khaili box whites as my daily driver. It has more layers than I personally could ever effectively utilize. Absolutely love this setup.

I picked it up over the Ergodox. After having used my co-worker's erogdox repeatedly, I did not like how far the thumb cluster was and this simply brought it closer which is what the author is explaining with the minimal amount of movement.

I don't like 40% keyboards because I am still traditionalist in that numbers are still a first class key. Basically, what am I willing to give up and allow to be put into a cord/layer?

If I could, I would bring the arrow keys back out, but the design's cost goes up a lot when that happens.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#23

Post by baroffoos »

kranner wrote: post #13
dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

> [1] This makes no sense because the colored keys imply you enjoy looking at your keys and their unlabeled nature implies that you don’t need to look at your keys while you type. i.e. a fashion trend. But you could still enjoy looking at your keyboard with the coloured keys while not using it to type at that exact moment.

Exactly. Some of those colored unlabeled keyboards look stunning on the desk. Why should a keyboard be purely a utility and not part of the room design.

I own an unlabeled keyboard and I mildly regret it. I have no issues typing with it but I struggle with special keys like trying to find ^ or f5. Typing 2fa codes are a pain. If I was buying a new keyboard I would get a labeled one but with no numpad

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#24

Post by pugworthy »

kranner wrote: post #13
dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

> [1] This makes no sense because the colored keys imply you enjoy looking at your keys and their unlabeled nature implies that you don’t need to look at your keys while you type. i.e. a fashion trend. But you could still enjoy looking at your keyboard with the coloured keys while not using it to type at that exact moment.

I don't look at the outside of my car when driving, but appreciate what it looks like when driving.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#25

Post by kranner »

baroffoos wrote: post #23
kranner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [1] This makes no sense because the colored keys imply you enjoy looking at your keys and their unlabeled nature implies that you don’t need to look at your keys while you type. i.e. a fashion trend. But you could still enjoy looking at your keyboard with the coloured keys while not using it to type at that exact moment.

Exactly. Some of those colored unlabeled keyboards look stunning on the desk. Why should a keyboard be purely a utility and not part of the room design. I own an unlabeled keyboard and I mildly regret it. I have no issues typing with it but I struggle with special keys like trying to find ^ or f5. Typing 2fa codes are a pain. If I was buying a new keyboard I would get a labeled one but with no numpad

You could just buy new keycaps and switch them on your current keyboard.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#26

Post by TylerE »

dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

This is a real annoyance of mine. None of the real nice mechanical keyboards are available in a fullsize layout. A numpad is NOT negotiable for me...several creative apps I regularly use use the numpad for control (and no, the regular number row keys ARE NOT mapped to the same commands).

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#27

Post by tony »

dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

> Small style keyboards

I'm optimistic about them (depending on what "small style keyboards" mean to you). I consider ergodox in this category, due to how it does ctrl/z, function keys and layers.

Ergodox-EZ is quite beautiful. The build quality on it is solid. It's heavy, for a keyboard. This is not a logitech or microsoft keyboard where they cynically use cheap materials.

But, there are these "small" hacks: It joins Z with the ctrl key. Z has to be hit twice to type Z. Sounds like the end of the world, right?

No function keys, a layer key has to be used to get to those. Took me a bit of time to find where F12 was to get to the boot loader :)

My anecdote: I am programming and typing efficiently with it (vim, tmux). And I'm hopping onto a laptop keyboard with normal keys and at 100% speed, maybe with the exception of alt-tabbing and accidentally minimizing all windows in Windows 10.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#28

Post by shirro »

I tried a 60% about 10 years ago with a happy hacker but it wasn't a great keyboard to use and wasn't easily customisable or with many options. I just jumped back in this week with an Anne 2 Pro. I was moving from laptop back to desktop use and was looking to replace my full size with a mech TKL since I never use numpads ever but I wondered if corded replacements for some of those keys wouldn't be practical with a smarter bit of hardware so I gave it a go.

I have ~` replacing escape since I need them for shell and programming. I don't understand how any keyboard could drop that key. I set caps as a function key to access arrows (on hjkl as well as wasd) as well as the function keys and a few other features and it operates as Esc on tap which would be useful if I didn't have jj escape from insert mode. Overall very happy so far. There are a few window manager and term combinations I used to need to reach over to the arrows and which I never bothered to remap that I can do one handed.

It makes me want to become a proficient typist.

The only problem is it has better led light shows than the old full size gaming keyboard and the kids want to type on it all day.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#29

Post by taneq »

dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

> [1] This makes no sense because the colored keys imply you enjoy looking at your keys

I completely agree with you here. I've been using a Das Keyboard S for years and at this point I tend to forget it's even there except as a keyboard-shaped lump on my desk. It's only when someone else tries to use my computer and stops with a blank stare that I remember that most keyboards have labels on them. :P

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#30

Post by taneq »

terandle wrote: post #20
dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

No numpad is an ergonomic benefit. Your mouse is closer so you don't have to move your hand as far. The best way to have a numpad if you really need one, I have found, is to have a separate one like how the Microsoft Sculpt keyboard does it.

But my WASD keys and my mouse are exactly shoulder width apart. If I didn't have a numpad I'd just have a gap between my mousepad and my keyboard.
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