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The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

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Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#111

Post by roydivision »

coldpie wrote: post #17

I am continually baffled by how keyboard enthusiasts almost never have ergonomic layouts. If you care this much about typing, surely the first thing you do is get an ergo layout. The rectangle layout is really bad, people! How can you spend this much time and energy and money on keyboards, and keep using the awful rectangle layout?

The main reason I don’t stray too much from a ‘standard’ layout is that I type on a number of different keyboards in a given day, my wfh keyboard, my personal laptop, and the keyboard I have at work. If I went the ergo way I’d either have to have three, or cart one around with me, which is more hassle than it’s worth.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#112

Post by wakeupcall »

coldpie wrote: post #17

I am continually baffled by how keyboard enthusiasts almost never have ergonomic layouts. If you care this much about typing, surely the first thing you do is get an ergo layout. The rectangle layout is really bad, people! How can you spend this much time and energy and money on keyboards, and keep using the awful rectangle layout?

If you're referring to the "mechanical keyboard" and similar subreddit trends, it's pretty obvious that the fascination is in the DIY and styling aspect.

It's amazing how many switches you can find today, mostly boring variations of the mx types where people post minutes-long videos of sound and smoothness when lubed.

And how it does rainbow. This is clearly what sells.

Ergonomic keyboards are a completely different market. You can't review an ergo keyboard in 5 minutes, or 5 days. The effort required to learn, and then judge the aspect of a different layout is much, much harder and time consuming. I'd argue it takes months by my own experience.

Ergonomic also means something different to each of us. For people coming in with RSI or other issues, there's no single "best" solution.

What I'm quite happy with though is that this keyboard craze has still increased the number of alternative/ergonomic layouts (and somewhat lowered the price) anyway.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#113

Post by orbital-decay »

colanderman wrote: post #42
coldpie wrote: post #17

I am continually baffled by how keyboard enthusiasts almost never have ergonomic layouts. If you care this much about typing, surely the first thing you do is get an ergo layout. The rectangle layout is really bad, people! How can you spend this much time and energy and money on keyboards, and keep using the awful rectangle layout?

The rectangle layout is only bad if you are a home-row typist. The problem with home-row typing is that your wrists are bent. It's possible to learn to type without bending your wrists. I am self-taught and have typed this way for three decades with no wrist issues due to keyboard use. My fingers rest naturally on "QWERF" and "JIOP". I actually cannot type on "ergo" keyboards due to the angles being wrong, and not be…

> The problem with home-row typing is that your wrists are bent.

People keep saying that and it confuses the hell out of me. Keeping wrists straight while still landing the fingers on the row seems... natural?

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#114

Post by lycopodiopsida »

microtonal wrote: post #94
jsheard wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish there was a keyboard club or something that let you try these out for a week or so. There's a useful tool for comparing ergo layouts and printing out 1:1 scale templates to get an idea of how they would fit your hand size: https://compare.splitkb.com It's not quite a substitute for actually using a real keyboard, but it can help to narrow down what you might want to try.

Sadly printing out 2D layouts doesn't work for contoured keyboards. Switching to the contoured Kinesis Advantage was the largest improvement for me (much better than the Kyria, Ferris Sweep, Moonlander, or Keyboardio Model 100). I would've never tried the Advantage if I had used a flat keyboard comparison tool. (Now using a Glove80, which provides benefits over the Advantage2 and doesn't have the issues of the Advant…

How do you find the choc switches on Glove80 compared to mx on KA2? Is the small amount of travel more problematic, because you bottom out more?

I am thinking about getting one, but am unsure about the choc switches and which type I should get.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#116

Post by bombcar »

Tor3 wrote: post #108
bombcar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keyboard enthusiasts can never get carpal tunnel because they spend too much time switching keyboards to actually type .

I've been a touch typist since I was a boy, and a programmer for more than four decades (started out on teletypes), and I've never had any kind of hand or wrist problems with normal keyboards ever. I'm choosy when it comes to keyboards though, for where I do most of my programming. Never liked the clicky ones, but what one likes is individual choice. Looking at my hands as I write this, my wrists are not bent, or at…

I've always suspected that like airbags are mainly designed to try to save people who don't wear seatbelts properly, that ergo keyboards (split, etc) are mainly designed to try to save people without proper typing posture.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#117

Post by kstrauser »

majewsky wrote: post #105
kstrauser wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played piano long before I learned to type, and it's natural for me to move my hands all over the place. I've never contorted my fingers the way "correct" typists do.

Oh, so that is why my own no-rules typing method is working so well! I never made that connection.

It's just a hypothesis, but I think it's plausible!

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#118

Post by JKCalhoun »

madphilosopher wrote: post #37
JKCalhoun wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And no CapsLock at all. Bug or feature?

In my entire computing career, I have never locked my Caps or unlocked my Num! That's how I roll.

Only hit caps lock on accident. I used to pry the CAPSLOCK keycap off my keyboards at work.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#119

Post by colanderman »

kstrauser wrote: post #87
colanderman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rectangle layout is only bad if you are a home-row typist. The problem with home-row typing is that your wrists are bent. It's possible to learn to type without bending your wrists. I am self-taught and have typed this way for three decades with no wrist issues due to keyboard use. My fingers rest naturally on "QWERF" and "JIOP". I actually cannot type on "ergo" keyboards due to the angles being wrong, and not be…

I played piano long before I learned to type, and it's natural for me to move my hands all over the place. I've never contorted my fingers the way "correct" typists do.

Learned to play piano and type cotemporaneously myself.

Re: The unix69 keyboard layout: nerdy and nice

#120

Post by numpad0 »

So the difference between this and HHKB is (full size)arrow keys and left Fn? That's like 90% HHKB Lite2 which is HHKB but with left Fn, miniature arrows, cost effective membrane construction, for $50 discontinued.

ref: https://happyhackingkb.com/jp/products/discontinued/hhkb_lit...

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