Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#1

Post by StevenWaterman » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 9:31 AM UTC

Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
blog.scottlogic.com

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#2

Post by lawn » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 3:53 PM UTC

Apart from the amazingly crazy story, this is very well written and worth a read even if the title doesn't interest you. And the paint images go so well with the text.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#3

Post by petercooper » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

Quite the rabbit hole and definitely worth the read :-)

This seems a good place to bring up an odd experience of mine. I've had carpal tunnel for decades but no longer get many flare ups. After trying numerous keyboards, the solution turned out to be using Apple's Magic Keyboard and whatever their huge trackpad is called. The key for me seems to be low key travel, a smallish keyboard (to avoid any stretching), and avoiding mice (the only flare ups I get anymore are from prolonged use of the family PC). This seems to run counter to most experiences, though!

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#4

Post by bobbylarrybobby » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:13 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #3

Quite the rabbit hole and definitely worth the read :-) This seems a good place to bring up an odd experience of mine. I've had carpal tunnel for decades but no longer get many flare ups. After trying numerous keyboards, the solution turned out to be using Apple's Magic Keyboard and whatever their huge trackpad is called. The key for me seems to be low key travel, a smallish keyboard (to avoid any stretching), and av…

Magic Trackpad, of course :)

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#5

Post by jszymborski » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

I've been enjoying my ergodox, but have yet to venture out into the layout customization side of things.

The default layout (mostly QWERTY, but split ortholinear) took a week or so to learn and has been totally fine. My only problem with it is that so many of the modifiers depend on my pinkies, which are my weakest finger.

Luckily, the default layout maps control as "hold Z key" which means my pinky doesn't need to travel as much, but it still leaves me with a sore pinky. I'm thinking of mapping a key like "O" that gets hit with a stronger finger like my ring, but inertia is great when changing a habit you've developed daily.

One thing I'll say about the ergodox is that you really notice it's value when you go back to your e.g. laptop's keyboard. Whenever I use my T495, I immediately notice that, while my typing speed is higher, it's putting a far greater strain on my hands and wrists (and back!)

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#6

Post by hexbinencoded » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

I laugh when I read this because the DataHand was so much better but inefficiently manufactured and badly-priced. Five motions per finger well, macros, and mouse control 20-something years ago.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#7

Post by swader999 » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #3

Quite the rabbit hole and definitely worth the read :-) This seems a good place to bring up an odd experience of mine. I've had carpal tunnel for decades but no longer get many flare ups. After trying numerous keyboards, the solution turned out to be using Apple's Magic Keyboard and whatever their huge trackpad is called. The key for me seems to be low key travel, a smallish keyboard (to avoid any stretching), and av…

My solution was a Theragun, trackball mouse and a Truly Ergonomic keyboard.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#8

Post by sdenton4 » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

...And you will never be able to use a random keyboard it in the world again...

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#9

Post by auslegung » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

sdenton4 wrote: post #8

...And you will never be able to use a random keyboard it in the world again...

That isn’t my experience. I have an ErgoDox EZ, and while it’s married to QWERTY, I’ve customized everything else and have 4 layers I regularly use. I also use my MacBook’s keyboard when not at my desk and I never have a problem context switching. I also recently got a windows laptop and put pop_os on it, and after a few days was able to context switch between OSes with different keyboard and different shortcuts without a problem. It takes time, and maybe diligent practice, and maybe my brain is a little weird, but I suspect most people can do this if they’re diligent.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#10

Post by positr0n » Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #5

I've been enjoying my ergodox, but have yet to venture out into the layout customization side of things. The default layout (mostly QWERTY, but split ortholinear) took a week or so to learn and has been totally fine. My only problem with it is that so many of the modifiers depend on my pinkies, which are my weakest finger. Luckily, the default layout maps control as "hold Z key" which means my pinky doesn't need to t…

I've experimented with putting some or all of my modifier keys under non-pinky keys like O on my ergodox. My problem with that is that it forces me to drastically slow down my typing. Otherwise typing a word like "word" will register as 'w ctrl-r d'.

I have not found a timeout value that will always register "word" when I'm typing at 110wpm and also Ctrl-r when I'm just lazily hitting that single hotkey :/ It's either too fast or too slow for some use cases.

I have read some posts from people that use layouts like that and it either seems they already type pretty slowly or they have RSI problems and it is worth it to them to slow down.