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A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

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Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#61

Post by xahrepap »

jerf wrote: post #45
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…

"Very much agree that Caps Lock should be diminished in importance.... Many of my colleagues and I simply disable the key outright." Augh! Don't do that! Remap it to something useful! CTRL is popular, but I'm loving backspace, personally. It's a key that never comes up if you just count keys based on taking text file samples, but I for one like having it available where it does not rip my fingers off the home row. (S…

[ESC] is my personal preference. I will never look back, and I never have once needed the capslock key since I switched it out.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#62

Post by xahrepap »

mlwarren wrote: post #23
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 da…

Mac has remapped CMD+[arrow] to Home, End, PgUp, PgDn. I think it's much easier that way than to have them way off to the side.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#63

Post by numo16 »

jerf wrote: post #39
jfb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 think there should be a 100% remappable keyboard." You have one. It's the one you typed that post on. A keyboard just emits numbers, it's up to the computer OS to determine what to do with it. Exactly how to customize your keyboard is OS-specific, but it can be done in all the major ones, as far as I know. (Can't commit to Windows 8. Windows 7 did require some unpleasant registry hacking for changing caps lock.) I…

On windows I use Autohotkey [1] to remap keys (capslock to backspace, qwerty to colemak, etc...), no registry hacks required. You just have to remember to run the script on startup.

[1]: http://www.autohotkey.com/

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#64

Post by mlwarren »

xahrepap wrote: post #62
mlwarren wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 da…

Mac has remapped CMD+[arrow] to Home, End, PgUp, PgDn. I think it's much easier that way than to have them way off to the side.

I don't agree. I use a full size wired Apple keyboard now and use the PageUp/PageDown buttons. I prefer it that way. Also Home/End scroll to the top and bottom of the entire document vs the beginning and end of a line and I've had to fix that in software settings.

That said, everyone has their preferences. I think someone else in the comments mentioned how it would be nice to have a fully 100% customizable keyboard. I agree with that idea.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#65

Post by vizzah »

"Stupid keys" PgUp/PgDn??! I wonder how people navigate and read through their source code if not using PageUp/Down. Scrolling with mouse? When one key press can bring you exactly one page forward or backwards. Irreplacable keys for me. I can't code properly on a keyboard which doesn't have these keys under my third and middle finger (making short jumps from the set of 4 arrow keys).

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#67

Post by _random_ »

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…

Looks cool, would consider for under $200.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#68

Post by moogly »

jerf wrote: post #39
jfb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 think there should be a 100% remappable keyboard." You have one. It's the one you typed that post on. A keyboard just emits numbers, it's up to the computer OS to determine what to do with it. Exactly how to customize your keyboard is OS-specific, but it can be done in all the major ones, as far as I know. (Can't commit to Windows 8. Windows 7 did require some unpleasant registry hacking for changing caps lock.) I…

On Windows, MSKLC is what you should use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#69

Post by bricker »

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…

> It bothers me that / and \ are not side-by-side on most/all keyboards

I agree with you regarding the brackets - , ( ), etc. ... but / and \ have nothing to do with each other.

Re: A Real Keyboard for Programmers?

#70

Post by bhauer »

bricker wrote: post #69
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…

> It bothers me that / and \ are not side-by-side on most/all keyboards I agree with you regarding the brackets - , ( ), etc. ... but / and \ have nothing to do with each other.

True. Still, I find it odd that they are not beside one another. Honestly, I don't really know why we have a \ key at all (and I'm a Windows user!). But there it is.
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