Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

naildrivin5.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 81 posts

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#21

Post by bhauer »

tjdetwiler wrote: post #11
bhauer wrote: post #8

I agree with what I take as the underlying premise of this blog entry: if you're going to call something a "keyboard for programmers" it would be nice if you made concerted effort to improve matters for programmers, moreso than just tactile ergonomics. However, I have mixed feelings with several of the author's specific points. 1. In general, I think a keyboard should retain all legacy keys, including Scroll Lock and…

My impression is that PS/2 is desirable mostly for NKRO

Indeed! You're right. I wasn't quite remembering why gamers preferred PS/2 and took a guess it had something to do with speed. But you're right, it's because PS/2 has a higher capacity for simultaneously reporting multiple keys being held down concurrently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_%28key%29

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#23

Post by mlwarren »

bhauer wrote: post #8

I agree with what I take as the underlying premise of this blog entry: if you're going to call something a "keyboard for programmers" it would be nice if you made concerted effort to improve matters for programmers, moreso than just tactile ergonomics. However, I have mixed feelings with several of the author's specific points. 1. In general, I think a keyboard should retain all legacy keys, including Scroll Lock and…

I stopped reading after the Page Up comment. Keyboard preferences are obviously subjective and the author of the post feels very strongly in a way that I don't agree with.

I used the wireless Apple keyboard for a while but I missed Home/End/Page Up/Page Down. Also had a lot of trouble swapping it back and forth between my OSX and Windows machines.

At least the CODE keyboard will add more variety. At the end of the day that's what people really need.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#24

Post by agumonkey »

walls wrote: post #4

> And what is that “Print Screen” key doing there?! > Stupid keys like Page Up, Scroll Lock, and Insert are gone. Surely I'm not the only person regularly using the "page" and "print screen" buttons?

I was a heavy user of all the dimension keys: u|l|d|r arrows (with ctrl/shift to step) , page u|d, home(aka start) end. Never touched the mouse. Too far, not precise enough.

One of the first thing you read while learning emacs/vim starts is leaving the arrows. The idea is that static~ wrists => more speed and less fatigue.[1] Then you'll wanna stop using anything more than 2 steps from the home row, meaning the other keys are also about to go away in your mind. I understand that this would cause a complete reshake of OS keyboard interfaces to adopt home-focused keybindings, but they aren't really necessary.

[1] ironically this was the reason I dropped using the mouse for anything else than analogical input (say drawing) in the first place.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#25

Post by bhauer »

jfb wrote: post #10
bhauer wrote: post #8

I agree with what I take as the underlying premise of this blog entry: if you're going to call something a "keyboard for programmers" it would be nice if you made concerted effort to improve matters for programmers, moreso than just tactile ergonomics. However, I have mixed feelings with several of the author's specific points. 1. In general, I think a keyboard should retain all legacy keys, including Scroll Lock and…

I think there should be a 100% remappable keyboard. I never use any of the legacy key functions, but the switches are precious on a fixed piece of hardware. It is maddening to me that there are dead keys on my keyboards; having a completely soft layout would allow me to customize things exactly the way I want.

I'd like that too. Wasn't that the premise of that ultra expensive keyboard with individual OLED displays for each key [1]? I've never seen one first hand because I live in the world of mere mortals.

Hard to conceive of spending that much and having to continue typing after all. If I had that kind of money, I'd have a keyboard chauffeur.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#26

Post by Pxtl »

Coincoin wrote: post #15

Am I the only one who still uses Shift-Delete and Shift-Insert to cut and paste? I swear when I tell my fellow programmers, they look at me as if I'm from another planet.

I honestly had no idea that shift-delete was cut. Either way, "delete" is the key I usually rage about when I'm using a cramped laptop keyboard and can't find it. No, backspace is not an adequate substitute.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#27

Post by kylec »

It sounds like the author is describing the Happy Hacking keyboard:

http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?pid=pdkb400b

Control where the caps lock key is, escape moved down, and elimination of all unnecessary (and some debatably necessary) keys. It actually looks very close in layout to the diagram in the article of the keyboard that vi was developed on.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#28

Post by ripter »

RazerM wrote: post #9

What's wrong with caps lock? Only when using an editor is there an easy shortcut to capitalise multiple characters at a time. Typing a word in caps using the shift keys is uncomfortable due to alternating which hand presses shift.

Best thing about the caps lock key is that I can remap it to control. Even when my caps lock key isn't remapped I'll hold down the shift or use my editor.

It is uncomfortable to hold the shift key down for long words, but it is so rare that I don't mind.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#29

Post by seferphier »

wesley wrote: post #17

This is the real, modular keyboard for programmers/hackers: http://acidfire.ca/keyboard/BDY14295.jpg (It's a modular kit, the image above is just one of the configurations, the center part is an addon). You can also have multiple layers, so you could create a dedicated programming layer. All firmware will be open source. It's going to go up on kickstarter soon (when Canada launches in september). More info here: http…

I have ErgoDox too. Nice keyboard stand.
Post reply on HN