9 great mechanical keyboards for coders • Hacker News Board

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#11

Post by dsp1234 » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:13 PM UTC

samfriedman wrote: post #4

One thing I rarely see discussed in any detail in mechanical keyboard roundups is a noise comparison. For a tool for "coders", many mechanical keyboards can be pretty disruptive to your coworkers if you're using it in a workspace without a closed door. My favorite switches for typing (and thus, coding) are MX blues. Unfortunately these are also the loudest, with a distinct click at each key activation. You can purcha…

Cherry MX come in a spectrum on both tactile and auditory (clicky) feedback.

MX Blues are tactile and clicky.

If you want tactile, but not clicky, then you would want an MX Brown. You can feel when the actuation happens, and as long as you don't bottom out the keys, they are silent. Many DasKeyboard models come with a choice of Blue/Brown, but other manufacturers have them as well.

Here is a site that has an explanation of the various colors:

http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/an-introduc...

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#12

Post by badlucklottery » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

sushisource wrote: post #6

Topre switches are the best ever, and they get no love in the fervent mechanical keyboard community. It's just "cherry cherry cherry" ad nauseum with the occasional model-m imitator like the ones in this article. Do yourself a favor and get a Realforce keyboard. It's typing nirvana.

>Topre switches are the best ever

Do you know of a decently built and split design keyboard that uses them? A quick googling didn't show anything. I'd be willing to give it a shot but I'm not going back to a one piece keyboard for anything.

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#13

Post by ashark » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:25 PM UTC

badlucklottery wrote: post #12

sushisource wrote: post #6

Topre switches are the best ever, and they get no love in the fervent mechanical keyboard community. It's just "cherry cherry cherry" ad nauseum with the occasional model-m imitator like the ones in this article. Do yourself a favor and get a Realforce keyboard. It's typing nirvana.

>Topre switches are the best ever Do you know of a decently built and split design keyboard that uses them? A quick googling didn't show anything. I'd be willing to give it a shot but I'm not going back to a one piece keyboard for anything.

Offtopic(ish), but do you mean like the MS ergonomic keyboard split-but-one-piece, or actually two separate pieces? If the latter, what do you like about them?

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#14

Post by peternicky » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:26 PM UTC

samfriedman wrote: post #4

One thing I rarely see discussed in any detail in mechanical keyboard roundups is a noise comparison. For a tool for "coders", many mechanical keyboards can be pretty disruptive to your coworkers if you're using it in a workspace without a closed door. My favorite switches for typing (and thus, coding) are MX blues. Unfortunately these are also the loudest, with a distinct click at each key activation. You can purcha…

Interesting anecdote from my experience using mechanical keyboards in open, corporate offices: people never stop me and complain about the noise. Rather, people usually are curious about my "retro" or "vintage" keyboards. I quickly tell them that these are new products and then they ask the price. Once they hear that I pay for "special" keyboards, their eyes usually roll and I feel the judgements coming :)

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#15

Post by michaelvmata » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:39 PM UTC

ashark wrote: post #13

badlucklottery wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Topre switches are the best ever Do you know of a decently built and split design keyboard that uses them? A quick googling didn't show anything. I'd be willing to give it a shot but I'm not going back to a one piece keyboard for anything.

Offtopic(ish), but do you mean like the MS ergonomic keyboard split-but-one-piece, or actually two separate pieces? If the latter, what do you like about them?

Don't physically split keyboards allow for more extreme flexibility?

Single piece split keyboards still restrict the angle of your wrists. I find the MS ergo keyboards to better by default, but having the ability to adjust the angle opens the possibility of finding an even better angle (that may change over time).

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#16

Post by bjpbakker » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:43 PM UTC

samfriedman wrote: post #4

One thing I rarely see discussed in any detail in mechanical keyboard roundups is a noise comparison. For a tool for "coders", many mechanical keyboards can be pretty disruptive to your coworkers if you're using it in a workspace without a closed door. My favorite switches for typing (and thus, coding) are MX blues. Unfortunately these are also the loudest, with a distinct click at each key activation. You can purcha…

Matias actually has a sound comparison on their website [1].

I had a keyboard with Matias quiet pro switches and I really loved them. Very tactile, about as much as Cherry blue. But with less snooze than browns.

Too bad that keyboard was the KBP V60 which after a few weeks gained lots of key chatter. I read that many more people suffered from that, their firmware is bad at preventing it.

[1] http://matias.ca/switches/quiet/

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#17

Post by CrankyBear » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

I still Love my Avant Stellar, but since they're long out of production, this is an excellent intro to what's available today and not hidden away on eBay.

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#18

Post by emilecantin » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 6:50 PM UTC

A challenge I had in choosing a mechanical keyboard was the availability of 105-key (ISO) layouts in North America, as I prefer the Canadian Multilingual layout. Apparently, such keyboards are mostly sold through European resellers, even when they're actually made in the US (looking at you, DAS).

In the end, I went with a Unicomp, and I'm very happy with it.

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#19

Post by mamcx » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 7:14 PM UTC

sushisource wrote: post #6

Topre switches are the best ever, and they get no love in the fervent mechanical keyboard community. It's just "cherry cherry cherry" ad nauseum with the occasional model-m imitator like the ones in this article. Do yourself a favor and get a Realforce keyboard. It's typing nirvana.

Not love?

Topre have a lot of love. Exist a lot of jokes about it be "just membarane" .

The main thing are:

1- The higher cost 2- Most good are very hard to get, and only from Japan

and the most important:

3- You can't get alternate key caps (easily). All the ecosystem is around MX Stems.

ALPS like matias suffer mostly for this too.

Re: 9 great mechanical keyboards for coders

#20

Post by mamcx » Fri, Jul 21, 2017, 7:17 PM UTC

I'm building one semi-based in the MS Ergo.

This is my layout:

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/75c4808455c07a...

Note how it have some punctuation for coding more easily reachable.

I'm trying to figure out how bend it to match the MS Ergo.

I request a custom keycap set from http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keycap-set/1... with custom icons, colors (for the limited set available, but enough) and text.

Hopefully I can start the build soon. Waiting for the plate now...