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

The 40% Keyboard

tbf-rnd.life

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 334 posts

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#101

Post by yiyus »

m463 wrote: post #45
dangus wrote: post #7

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of the small style keyboards I see around the office are more of a fashion trend than anything. I remember when the insistence was on number pads, and how dare they be removed from our laptops and desktop keyboards. Fast forward a few years and I was made fun of at a programming job for preferring a full keyboard with a number pads. I guess programmers are too cool to enter in dolla…

Make things as simple as possible but no simpler ! Personally I type two ways: 1) engaged. I type with my fingers on the home row. This is for when I'm actively involved and typing / editing. 2) casual. For navigating. I usually do it with my fingers on the arrow keys, sometimes hitting page up/down. I don't use my other hand. My typing will not be used for input. Sometimes I use the mouse / mousewheel. The 40% keybo…

For those cases, you just have a switch to another layer (a permanent switch like cap locks, not a modifier like shift).

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#102

Post by songzme »

2 years ago I bought this vertex core 40% keyboard: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_det...

Unfortunately, I type in dvorak layout and the keyboard I purchased did not work out. I have to press 3 keys to type the letter 'z' because of the strange meta layers.

I switched to dvorak because I had minor wrist pains and I hoped that switching to dvorak would help. The pain went away (maybe a coincidence), but dvorak was a pleasure to type so I stuck with it.

Everytime there is a new keyboard, I try it out and become disappointed because it is heavily optimized for qwerty layouts.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#103

Post by kranner »

Oreb wrote: post #69
Tarks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bought a Corsair K95 a year or so ago and it's fantastic for me, even bought a second for the office. Pricey but it's worth it.

I have no personal experience whatsoever with these, but the Corsair keyboards have a very bad reputation among mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. Allegedly the keycaps are made of low quality ABS plastic, and because some of the keys are non-standard size, you can’t easily find replacement keycaps. Among mainstream brands, Ducky and CoolerMaster are supposed to be much better (I have no experience with these either).

Ducky One 2 user here: it is fantastic for the price. The aluminium case is solid, heavy and beautifully shaped and coated. Switches are perfect to me. Stock keycaps are very good though maybe not the best.

I like it so much I'm using it with both my computers with keyboard/mouse sharing software.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#104

Post by rimliu »

xouse wrote: post #64

I know a lot of people who think they can touch type the number row, but I've yet to meet anyone who can actually do it at anything resembling their normal typing speed and without errors. If people could there would be no reason for the numberpad to exist. I'm a very fast typist and I've always struggled with touch typing the number row. Thirty minutes into using a split 40% keyboard and I was using the number row a…

The most popular layout for my language (Lithuanian) has our "additional" letters ĄČĘĖĮŠŲŪŽ on the number row. So if you are touch-typing in Lithuanian you do touch-type the number row, just not for numbers.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#105

Post by ChymeraXYZ »

KaiserPro wrote: post #93

I really can't see how having to hold down two keys at the same time is going to help RSI. (because to get to the special keys you have to hold down a modifier key) When you have your fingers contorted and under stress trying to hold two keys down, thats when RSI really kicks in. I would go out on a limb and say that these keyboard are going to make one's RSI even worse.

If you program the keyboard slightly smart then the modifier key is always on the other hand than the "primary" key.

I'm not going to claim what it does for/against RSI, but I have been using a split 40% for the last 3 years and I never looked back, in terms of comfort.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#106

Post by ChymeraXYZ »

songzme wrote: post #102

2 years ago I bought this vertex core 40% keyboard: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_det... Unfortunately, I type in dvorak layout and the keyboard I purchased did not work out. I have to press 3 keys to type the letter 'z' because of the strange meta layers. I switched to dvorak because I had minor wrist pains and I hoped that switching to dvorak would help. The pain went away (maybe a coinci…

One of the main draws for me to build a somewhat custom keyboard is that you can program it yourself. That way you can modify the layout so it suits dvorak layouts.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#107

Post by g4d »

ianai wrote: post #100

Is anybody trying to combine the mouse input with the keys themselves? Ie embedding a nib? I’m thinking like a light touch on a home row key being interpreted as a mouse click. Have the nib input only register if the key is either depressed or not, depending on implementation.

Or you could just get a thinkpad, right?

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#108

Post by kgwgk »

joosters wrote: post #99
halotrope wrote: post #85

Most people would benefit much more from practicing proper (touch-) typing than upgrading/innovating devices.

Would programmers actually benefit? Realistically, how often are you limited by your typing speed when coding? I can type fast but there’s no way I could ever keep writing code at my typing speed, I’m always pausing to think about what I’m writing. If you type slower, you are still thinking about the code as you type. Is typing really the limiting factor, or is it actually the thinking?

I think the discussion is about ergonomics, not speed.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#109

Post by jdietrich »

KaiserPro wrote: post #93

I really can't see how having to hold down two keys at the same time is going to help RSI. (because to get to the special keys you have to hold down a modifier key) When you have your fingers contorted and under stress trying to hold two keys down, thats when RSI really kicks in. I would go out on a limb and say that these keyboard are going to make one's RSI even worse.

The modifiers are placed under the thumbs, so no contortion is necessary. Try it yourself - with the possible exception of the B and Y keys, you can reach all the alpha keys perfectly comfortably with your thumb simultaneously pressing the space bar.

Re: The 40% Keyboard

#110

Post by ChymeraXYZ »

taneq wrote: post #75
tapland wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which means you don't have a good position when typing? I bought a 40% split keyboard and had my mouse inbetween the halves and it relieved my joint pains. Now, I work on old mainframes and need up to function key F24, but otherwise the 40% works wonders with thumbs on modifier keys.

If you define "a good position" as "a comfortable position" then my typing position is fine for the work I do. I've tried various options, from the curvy Microsoft Natural keyboards to laptop keyboards to mini keyboards and I always come back to a standard mechanical 101-key keyboard with a G502 mouse. I think a split keyboard with the mouse in between the halves would do my head in.

If you don't need an actual mouse, putting a trackball in the middle is amazing.
Post reply on HN