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Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

blog.scottlogic.com

31–40 of 187 posts

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#31

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…

Why not use thumb keys for modifiers? I thought that's what most people did.

right now, thumb keys are mapped to space/tab and backspace/enter.

It's a tempting prospect, but I'm hard-pressed to sub-out any of those for modifiers. Maybe I can make it "hold enter" or something like that, but that seems like a dangerous prospect

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#32

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…

Same thing here. I've tried tons of different keyboards.

For me, the thing that makes the most difference is a low travel switch and a compact layout. Ideally, ANSI.

I've found Apple Magic Keyboard to be good enough.

Regarding mice, I also like their Magic Trackpad or a Logitech Trackman. It's a shame the latter is not as smooth as the 1990s model.

Everything works great under Linux. Except for Logitech having issues with power saving via USB. But that's a given in all their devices. They should get their stuff together. It can be solved with a udev rule, though.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#33

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 eithe…

Yah, my typing speed is far slower on my ergodox just from lack of practice I suppose (maybe 1 year?), but that doesn't stop me from the occasional "zv" instead of "ctrl+v".

I can't remember a time where I've held z too long accidentally, but yes, z is less commonly used than e.g. O.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#34

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 eithe…

I had this problem too, so I don’t have any of my normal letter keys as dual-function.

The pointer-finger vertical-middle keys that they default to Hyper and Meh, I changed those to both be Cmd on MacOS (would make them Ctrl on Linux). I set the bottom row and pinky keys to also have lots of modifiers & layer toggles, and my pinky-fingers can hit those modifiers/toggles when needed. Then moved basically all symbols to another layer on easy-to-reach keys.

This means I can type regular words as fast as I want, and can easily reach any symbol when I need it. Only downside is that it takes some adjusting and practice, but I personally think it was worthwhile

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#35
post #23

I would have been perfectly happy if Microsoft had just kept making the Natural 4000 forever. Logitech has some 20+ year old designs they keep producing because for some people they're perfection, and I'd hoped Microsoft would continue likewise since it's been well over a decade with the 4000 too. But nope, it's dead, and the replacement isn't nearly as good.

I had 3 of those, but they are very unreliable. Contact foil always fails after couple of years.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#36
post #20
post #8

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

Plenty people who use ergonomic keyboards also use a laptop keyboard directly all the time and there's few complaints about that. Are you talking from experience?

I bounce around between keyboards a lot, because I work on industrial machinery with dedicated computers. I use a standard, flat, 105-key keyboard (with quiet tactile mechanical switches) as my daily driver. I also run 2 laptops, a personal Thinkpad and a company Latitude, usually plugged into a dock with the aforementioned keyboard (I have 3, one on my cart in the shop, one in my home office, and one in my work office).

It takes me half an hour or so to adjust every time I switch machines. The laptop to mechanical isn't so bad, but in particular, the Dell and Lenovo keyboards have different orders of the Function and Control keys, and I constantly enter the wrong key combos if I'm coming from the other laptop. The transition from mechanical keyboard to the rubber ones on machines also leaves me using either too little force to register a key, or slamming my fingertips into the steel backplate at the bottom of travel. And the Fanuc CNCs are high-dollar, highly functional machines, but their keyboards - ugh! Mushy, wobbly, weird row/column spacing and alignment, weird layout... fortunately you can plug in a USB keyboard if you carry one with you, but otherwise I have to slow down to a hunt-and-peck crawl or I make constant typos in an environment where typos can be really expensive.

I do acknowledge that switching from a full size keyboard to a laptop, or from a laptop to a phone keyboard can be pretty smooth. And that the short time adjusting can easily be worth the effort, especially if you're going to be working on a given machine for a few hours. But if they are physically similar and functionally remapped then I don't think I could do it.

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#37

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 eithe…

I’m two weeks into the ergodox ez, using the onyx trainer a bit each morning. It is just okay, almost wish there was something better. It lags and stuff typing Alice.

How are y’all handling shift? Left Shift is my pinky’s biggest pain. I saw this hold the key for shift option, people using that?

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I keep getting advertised Theraguns and similar things almost non-stop on Instagram. Are they worth the expense? And how/where are you using it to improve carpal tunnel?

I get some wild forearm pain if I work too long on a laptop (coffee shop, on couch with dog), or if I hold my phone too long (Pokémon Go, there are literally dozens of us.) In particular, it really seems to be in my brachioradialis muscles.

I tried out one of those generic massage guns at a friend’s place. I had scoffed at the infinite variations I saw advertised on Instagram, but I tried it on those small muscles and: wow. It helps me a lot. I can really massage out my forearms. There’s no way it's strong enough to work on knots in big muscles like quads, but for those little extensor muscles? Seems to help me.

I’ve also been helped by what are called, broadly, “tennis elbow compression pads”. (Linked to Amazon below—not recommending this particular brand, it’s just what I have.). I wear theses at night if I’m having pain, and it seems to help.

Now, the actual solution to my problem boils down to “use a full keyboard and mouse, and don’t bend your arms like a t-rex”, but, well, Pokémon.

(https://www.amazon.com/Tomight-Elbow-Brace-Tennis-Compressio...)

Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole

#39
When I worked in IT, I had a love/hate relationship with ergo keyboards. The worst thing in the world is when you sit down at someone's computer to fix their "quick problem" and it takes you forever because you have to figure out their weird keyboard first, or run back to the supply cabinet to get a regular keyboard and hook that up so you can type.

But I myself have been using the Microsoft ergo keyboard for 20+ years. Any time I start a new job, the very first thing I do is request an ergo keyboard.

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