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The 40% Keyboard

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Re: The 40% Keyboard

#161

Post by usrusr »

pletnes wrote: post #90
Yizahi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But why is less movement automatically considered better? Screen work is sedentary enough even without movement-minimized input placement. The downsides of repetition are best battled by increasing variation.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#162

Post by knome »

GrayShade wrote: post #159

I don't have RSI, but it seems to me that rotating your wrists to press Ctrl with your pinky is one of the larger parts of the problem. I prefer to press Ctrl with the side of my palm, but that doesn't work on some Lenovo and Apple laptops which Fn is at the edge of the keyboard.

You may want to check the BIOS for your laptop. It often has the ability to swap the `ctrl` and `fn` keys, which is nice for those of us that find their choice to put them on backwards from how they ought to have annoying.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#163

Post by clarry »

lewisflude wrote: post #120
alpaca128 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It fits in my jacket pocket! Depending on the case material you go for, it can be heavy or light. Planck-EZ will be super light as it's plastic! Here's a picture of mine: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzsqXJKnJhT/

I'd like a planck with smaller keys / tighter key spacing (85% to 90% of standard) and two keys in place of one big space bar. Maybe splittable at the center, still with possibility to stick the halves together for transport.

Also blank, low profile caps would be nice..

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#164

Post by GrayShade »

knome wrote: post #162
GrayShade wrote: post #159

I don't have RSI, but it seems to me that rotating your wrists to press Ctrl with your pinky is one of the larger parts of the problem. I prefer to press Ctrl with the side of my palm, but that doesn't work on some Lenovo and Apple laptops which Fn is at the edge of the keyboard.

You may want to check the BIOS for your laptop. It often has the ability to swap the `ctrl` and `fn` keys, which is nice for those of us that find their choice to put them on backwards from how they ought to have annoying.

That's a fair point, but I avoid on principle laptops with stupid keyboard layouts (which seem to be more and more common these days).

On the other hand, my current laptop (which I haven't bought) has no End key, but rather Home, PgUp, PgDn, Power.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#165

Post by giancarlostoro »

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 use the Microsoft Surface wireless keyboard (poorly named but its ergonomic) and the Logitech MX Trackball mouse. I had bought them both cause I had pain in my hands and once I made the switch to both its been very rare for me to have my hands hurt in that way since.

As a result I could care less what other devs think. As soon as I say I use a trackball I get poked at but I can move my mouse much faster and its been great for gaming as well.

Edit:

In case anybody is in a similar situation and is willing to try anything I'll post the amazon links I just got off Google here:

This is the keyboard, I believe I got mine at a BestBuy when it was slightly cheaper for a moment, it's normally like $120 or so, but totally worth it, I have one for work and one for home, one of which my wife bought me.

https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-3RA-00022-Surface-Ergonomic...

And this is the Logitech Ergo MX Trackball, it is the latest installment in a very small market, everyone who had a Trackball heard about it and we all talked about it, I ultimately bought two of them.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Ergo-Wireless-Trackball-Mous...

I use the heck out of my Trackball when gaming. I feel like aiming is easier in FPS games. My friend trusts me to shoot down helicopters or just snipe any NPC while playing Far Cry 5. I do wonder what I'd be like with a regular mouse as a comparison but I don't want to go back.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#166

Post by sundvor »

roel_v wrote: post #143
sundvor wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd recommend everyone to get used to operating the mouse with either hand. It certainly helps load balancing, and probably has other benefits too. Consider it a DR plan if you suffer a dominant hand fracture, for example.

But the best mouses are tailored for one hand, like the MX Master. I used to switch mouses when I used generic mice, but I'm never going back to those.

The G903 is perfectly ambidextrous, but even something like an old G9X works great as well in my left hand.

I have a Kensington Slimblade as well at home, works great to mix things up.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#167

Post by CedarMadness »

roel_v wrote: post #142
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.

"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 way I do this, is by having an 'Ultimate Hacking Keyboard' (ugh I loathe that name, how can anyone take you serious with a name like that? but at least the product itself is the best there is available (at the moment)) and then have a numeric keypad in the middle (betwee…

I've had my eye on that one for a while. How do you like not having an escape or function keys? That's the biggest thing holding me back from getting it.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#169

Post by C1sc0cat »

Lio wrote: post #128
_0ffh wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I use the numpad to navigate source code and other text files. I very rarely use the mouse under those circumstances. So this very much depends on our personal style and use cases.

Yeah definitely somewhere where people should be allow a personal preference. What does that numpad offer that is not already on the rest of the keyboard? I think if you are comfortable touch typing numbers then there's not much advantage to having a number pad. (I've worked from laptops (without numpad) connected to an external monitor for about 15 years now so I may be missing something potentially useful here.)

Originally it was for more general date entry type of work , eg a clerk entering data into a spreadsheet - spread sheets where a massive driver of PC sales origionaly.

Programmers have a different use case.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#170

Post by the_gipsy »

angrygoat wrote: post #60
mewse wrote: post #21

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 impor…

I'd really like a keyboard with e-ink keycaps, so that they update as I flip between mappings. It'd be particularly useful when swapping between languages / character sets (e.g. Hebrew, Greek, ...)

the corne has a neat oled display, you can display layers and modifiers there
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