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The 40% Keyboard

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Re: The 40% Keyboard

#311

Post by vijucat »

mdpye wrote: post #155
vijucat wrote: post #153

I have a Diverge 3 and I love the split aspect of it (easier on the wrists / nerves), and love the programmability (I have the keys that I use most near the home row), and I appreciate the wrist rest, but I miss the function keys' row. It has 71 keys. I think 40% keyboards work well for gamers, but are impractical for developers, who need to access all the symbol keys ( (, {, [, etc;), and often need access to the fu…

I can't reach `]` without moving my hands from the home row. Nor can I reliably find it using my weakest finger without looking down. Then after I've used it, I must re-home my hands before continuing. Don't even get me started on = and +... But on my Planck, I press both of my thumbs down in their resting positions and the home row suddenly becomes [{( )}] (with the round parens under my index fingers). Can't get mu…

On keyboards where you can re-map keys, you can place symbol keys nearby?

> I press both of my thumbs down in their resting positions and the home row suddenly becomes

Three keys to type in one symbol sounds bad to me, but it sounds like it works just fine for you!

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#312

Post by vijucat »

callum-oakley wrote: post #156
vijucat wrote: post #153

I have a Diverge 3 and I love the split aspect of it (easier on the wrists / nerves), and love the programmability (I have the keys that I use most near the home row), and I appreciate the wrist rest, but I miss the function keys' row. It has 71 keys. I think 40% keyboards work well for gamers, but are impractical for developers, who need to access all the symbol keys ( (, {, [, etc;), and often need access to the fu…

As a full time 40% keyboard user, I take issue with the sentiment that the form factor is impractical for development. Holding a layer modifier to access symbols on the home row is less work than moving to the far reaches of a 101 key board, and often having to hit shift as well anyway! I wrote an article on the subject recently if you're up for having your assumptions challenged: https://callumoakley.net/posts/48-ke…

Interesting, thanks for the article! So it looks like there are two types of people: those who don't mind moving away from the home row a bit but have just one keypress (me) vs. those who value being on the home row and don't mind the additional keypress to access layers with symbols, arrows, , etc;

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#313

Post by namelosw »

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 HHKB everyday. Small keyboard is not fashion only, it also means less movement.

And also if I have to work on windows I my right hand is closer to the mouse.

I always find for full keyboard if I try to align G and H key to the center of my monitor, the numpad and mouse are too far and some desk don't have such a big space. But if I don't it's make my spine hurts, and I don't think it's good for anyone.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#314

Post by b0rsuk »

intrepidhero wrote: post #282
b0rsuk wrote: post #95

Where is a hexagonal keyboard when you need it? Hexes are sweet for strategy and puzzle games, but could also be sweet for roguelikes if input devices were better. A smaller keyboard barely solves any problem, especially if you have palms as large as mine. But a hex keyboard would. Not even Kickstarter has something for hexagonal input device.

I just happened across http://xahlee.info/kbd/benzene666_keyboard.html will reading through some of the links in this thread. Unfortunately his review is spartan, and not positive.

Hexagonal arrow keys would have been enough.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#315

Post by Fnoord »

m463 wrote: post #307
Fnoord wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> casual. For navigating. I usually do it with my fingers on the arrow keys, sometimes hitting page up/down > The 40% keyboard fails #2 Only because you don't use hjkl to navigate. You could, but you don't (for whatever reason).

Only vi lets me navigate that way. I guess if you were causually playing a first person shooter, you could wasd :)

Games allow rebinding. Not saying you should, but you could. Some programs allow vi keybinds, such as Firefox (Vimium), Bash, Fish, Sublime, etc.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#316

Post by lewisflude »

clarry wrote: post #201
yiyus wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planck's with two keys instead of the longer space are pretty common. The PCB gives you both options.

Oh. Thanks for letting me know. I already orederd a pair of planck ezs, I'm gonna send them a mail and ask if they could give me a pair of keys there. EDIT: nevermind, looking at their photos, it looks like they'd have to tweak things a bit more: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1152/3264/t/25/assets/neat...

Planck-EZ is a cheaper version, but the regular Planck PCB supports split space bar! https://olkb.com/planck/pcb

Also has a basic built in synthersizer so you can play songs on it. Beautiful PCB!

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#317

Post by animal531 »

isp wrote: post #136
me_me_me wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God damn you cheating lefties! You cant have cake and eat it too! I really wish for keyboard options with numpad on the left. I am using numpad rarely but its handy to have when in need.

This exists. I have used this keyboard for the past few years, and swear by it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000V5GQ8O Full num pad, but on the left. For right-handed people like me, this makes the mouse position more natural, while still letting me use the num pad when needed.

I don't really use the numpad, but having another enter key by the left hand seems to be a useful feature.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#319

Post by magduf »

TylerE wrote: post #26
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).

>None of the real nice mechanical keyboards are available in a fullsize layout.

Not true. The IBM Model M is full-size and has been available for decades now.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#320

Post by magduf »

Clubber wrote: post #294
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 remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. I remember when laptops didn't typically have number pads. I rue the day when almost everyone started putting them on laptops larger than 14". I feel "off center" with them on a laptop. With a desktop keyboard, I just shift the keyboard to the right a bit so the traditional keys are centered and th…

>16:9 ratio is another bugger for me. Between 16:9 and number pads on laptops, I'm an odd man out. It's tough when my preferences aren't mainstream.

No number pads on laptops IS the mainstream. Almost no laptops have number pads; the only ones that do are huge ones, which are really "mobile workstations". Those aren't "mainstream" in any way at all. 13-14" laptops are mainstream these days, and none of those have number pads.

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