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The 40% Keyboard

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Re: The 40% Keyboard

#81

Post by clarry »

jacobolus wrote: post #38
wy35 wrote: post #34

I've built a Planck (40% ortho) and I can say for sure that I personally don't find the short finger travel between keys to be worth having to hit two keys to type a number, for example. Instead of moving one finger an extra row to type a number, I now have to move two fingers.

The problem here is not the lack of an additional row of number keys, but the poor other choices in physical keyboard layout (based on largely following the historical pattern of a 19th century typewriter design; in the “planck” example with an arbitrary ergonomically-useless horizontal shifting of the rows). It also doesn’t work very well to put the numbers on a shifted layer but all on the same row, requiring 8 fin…

If you re-arrange the keyboard into a shape according to human hand ergonomics, you can easily fit a number row that is easy to reach without making typos. See kinesis advantage. It's hard to imagine how requiring me to press two different keys for the same effect would increase speed and reduce typos. I suspect the effect is completely opposite. (Shift is painful enough and I hate typing camelcase code)

Number keys are also indispensable for games where you need to switch items while moving. A finger or two are already going to be busy with the motion keys, adding two more fingers that don't overlap with the motions is going for some octopus keyhandling.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#82

Post by leni536 »

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.

The problem is that the numpad is at the wrong side. I have seen a "left-handed" keyboard before with the numpad on the left. I think it's actually more ergonomic for a right-handed person.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#83

Post by Freak_NL »

ISL wrote: post #47
toast0 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Left mousing provides a similar benefit, plus it confuses people who use your terminal -- left mouse and unlabeled keys is basically hacker proof.

Unless they can touch-type and move the mouse over to the right?

Short USB-cable and swap the two primary and secondary button designation of course.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#84

Post by alpaca128 »

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…

> Now the trend is for brightly multi-colored keys, which are often unlabeled

A close look will show you that people rarely go for unlabeled keys, nicely shaped keycaps with high-quality labels(double-shot) are the preferred thing right now. Like the very expensive SA keycap sets.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#86

Post by alpaca128 »

lewisflude wrote: post #73
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…

I thought the same as you until I used a planck[1]. I thought not having direct access to numbers or symbols would be a pain, but it really wasn't. The typing experience was comfortable and my wpm went up. I would say I still prefer something in the 60% range (HHKB) layout, ideally with dedicated arrow keys. [1] https://olkb.com/planck

How portable is the Planck?

I've got a 40% but it's a split keyboard and so it's a bit of a hassle to transport. But the Planck would let me use the exact same layout and is still ortho, so I'm thinking about getting it as a secondary.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#87

Post by Bayart »

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…

The lack of a numpad makes the main keyboard's part centered relative to the display, which is of tremendous importance as far as OCD is concerned.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#88

Post by Yizahi »

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.

Either your table is extremely narrow (like 50cm wide in total) or you will have empty space between keyboard and mouse anyway, even with numpad. At least I have and I find claim about "reducing hand travel time from mouse to kb will increase productivity" not very convincing.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#89

Post by phaus »

TylerE wrote: post #36
Tarks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bought a Corsair K95 a year or so ago and it's fantastic for me, even bought a second for the office. Pricey but it's worth it.

Thats...not quite a meant by high end. I mean stuff like a bespoke PCB so you can change all the switches out, an aluminum case... one of those $500+ custom jobs that /r/mechanicalkeyboards likes to drool over. It's a very very deep rabbit hole.

Is this close enough?

https://kbdfans.com/collections/diy-kit/products/pre-orderkb...

Full size are rarer and more expensive. There might be some other options.

Honestly the GMMK full size is pretty nice and you can pick whatever switch you want. It doesn't have a custom case like the one I linked above, but its aluminum and you can customize everything else. Some people have even dissassembled the case and painted it.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#90

Post by pletnes »

Yizahi wrote: post #88
terandle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Either your table is extremely narrow (like 50cm wide in total) or you will have empty space between keyboard and mouse anyway, even with numpad. At least I have and I find claim about "reducing hand travel time from mouse to kb will increase productivity" not very convincing.

It’s not about travel time, but shoulder movement. I moved to left hand mouse partly for this reason.
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