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The Joys of Unix Keyboards

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Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#131

Post by rovr138 »

ianai wrote: post #122
barbs wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are common keyboards really that bad? I don't really think there's enough benefit in investing the time and effort and money in working out and purchasing your absolute perfect layout if it only deviates from the standard by a small amount. Even the keyboard in the article only deviates from the standard by a few keys. It's all subjective of course, but personally I'd prefer to be able to use any keyboard anywhere wi…

I’ll never leave my kinesis keyboard. It has multiplied how useful my thumbs are by placing more useful keys near them than just space (but including space). It’s great for rsi too

I’d only consider upgrading to the new Kinesis due to the mechanical F keys. The previous ones feel really weird.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#132

Post by barbs »

m463 wrote: post #130
j74k wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, UNIX tradition is the reductio ad eruditionem of every recurring expression. This is not the perfect consonance with recent idolatry of UNIX keyboards that I imagine a number of proponents believe it to be. Has there been a study of the ergonomic and productivity effects of various keyboard designs? I type in the region of ten thousand words every day and I have no adverse physical symptoms, after almost three…

I think most typing problems could be cured with a good wrist rest and good posture. The wrist rest should keep your wrists straight and keep them off the cold desk and its sharp edges. Posture should keep your head balanced over your neck, not holding it forward or backwards. The monitor height should support this, and it should be straight in front of you. Your shoulders should be relaxed and your elbows should be…

My impression is that RSI differs from person to person, which means the solution differs from person to person depending on what is strained. For some, a new keyboard layout fixes the problem. For others, simply changing to a less strenuous editor like Vim helps.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#133

Post by jiux »

knorker wrote: post #96

I don't understand the commenter saying they don't want to spend $200 on a keyboard. That's a $200 investment on something you'll likely spend more time with than your bed, your car, and your sofa. Over 10 years that's maybe 0.9 cents per hour of use. It's worth having your perfect keyboard. I have a custom print 88 key wasdkeyboards.com one. Yes, your work should buy you your perfect keyboard, but if they don't then…

Is there a science to the biggish-feeling keys on most, if not all, of those mechanical keyboards?

I personally use the latest model Apple Magic Keyboard and the thin size seems nice. No need for a wrist support and the keys feel like hair pin triggers when I type. I personally haven’t experienced anything comparable, yet.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#134

Post by mikekchar »

SkyBelow wrote: post #80
terofle wrote: post #3

> The ~ and \ have moved to the usual location of the Backspace. Working exclusively on UNIX systems now, I don't mind the \ being harder to reach. I could understand a Windows user finding this irritating. This guy has clearly never used LaTeX. I mapped my \ to a more accessible location and it improved my typing speed by factor 2 or so.

>it improved my typing speed by factor 2 or so. Is it odd that I've never found my typing speed to be a bottleneck worth optimizing? Maybe I haven't thought about it enough. While I overall type slower than I think, the difference is very slight and the result is more time to think about how to phrase things. I often find my hands freezing for .5ish seconds while my brain get stuck deciding on what the next appropria…

Very early in my career, I started to get RSI issues (before it was a well known phenomena). I limited my typing speed to 32 WPM and also enforced a rest every 30 seconds (originally by beeping the speaker every 30 seconds until I got used to it). I now type very slowly while programming, but usually I'm thinking continuously. Often I'm not thinking at all about the thing I'm typing -- the typing is waaay far behind. I'm convinced that this strategy both saved my hands/wrists and improved my coding.

Interestingly, I stream some free software coding I do on twitch (usually about 2 hours a day). I should watch myself and see what I do now, because I haven't really paid attention to my typing for at least a couple of decades. Though, my streaming dialog easily takes half of my brain, so maybe it's not what I normally do... ;-)

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#136

Post by knorker »

j74k wrote: post #127
knorker wrote: post #96

I don't understand the commenter saying they don't want to spend $200 on a keyboard. That's a $200 investment on something you'll likely spend more time with than your bed, your car, and your sofa. Over 10 years that's maybe 0.9 cents per hour of use. It's worth having your perfect keyboard. I have a custom print 88 key wasdkeyboards.com one. Yes, your work should buy you your perfect keyboard, but if they don't then…

OTOH, UNIX tradition is the reductio ad eruditionem of every recurring expression. This is not the perfect consonance with recent idolatry of UNIX keyboards that I imagine a number of proponents believe it to be. Has there been a study of the ergonomic and productivity effects of various keyboard designs? I type in the region of ten thousand words every day and I have no adverse physical symptoms, after almost three…

Health issues aside, I will pay a fraction of a cent per hour for a keyboard that feels better, and a mouse that feels better.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#137

Post by knorker »

barbs wrote: post #113
knorker wrote: post #96

I don't understand the commenter saying they don't want to spend $200 on a keyboard. That's a $200 investment on something you'll likely spend more time with than your bed, your car, and your sofa. Over 10 years that's maybe 0.9 cents per hour of use. It's worth having your perfect keyboard. I have a custom print 88 key wasdkeyboards.com one. Yes, your work should buy you your perfect keyboard, but if they don't then…

Are common keyboards really that bad? I don't really think there's enough benefit in investing the time and effort and money in working out and purchasing your absolute perfect layout if it only deviates from the standard by a small amount. Even the keyboard in the article only deviates from the standard by a few keys. It's all subjective of course, but personally I'd prefer to be able to use any keyboard anywhere wi…

You could also go your entire life wearing underwear that chafe you, just a little. Or you could choose not to.

> I'd prefer to be able to use any keyboard anywhere without much drama.

I have no drama using other keyboards. Just like I have no drama sitting in chairs just because I have a good chair at home.

Hell, I've switched to Dvorak about 10 years ago and have been surprised at how rarely I type on other people's keyboards.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#138

Post by kod »

ianai wrote: post #122
barbs wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are common keyboards really that bad? I don't really think there's enough benefit in investing the time and effort and money in working out and purchasing your absolute perfect layout if it only deviates from the standard by a small amount. Even the keyboard in the article only deviates from the standard by a few keys. It's all subjective of course, but personally I'd prefer to be able to use any keyboard anywhere wi…

I’ll never leave my kinesis keyboard. It has multiplied how useful my thumbs are by placing more useful keys near them than just space (but including space). It’s great for rsi too

Kinesis led to thumb strain for me. I ultimately settled on a traditional tenkeyless with mechanical switches.

Different strokes for different folks.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#139

Post by boomskats »

knorker wrote: post #92
boomskats wrote: post #86

Somewhat related - I _love_ the fact that MacOS still maps Ctrl-H to backspace. I recently started instinctively using it as a backspace when typing (finally, thanks to a combination of laziness and vim). I'm finding it extremely comfortable (alongside xcape). Highly recommend trying it, especially if you're a Mac user.

MacOS and every other Unix.Ctrl-N,Ctrl-P, Ctrl-I... these don't just work in emacs.

What I like about MacOS is that it's got this covered in literally all contexts - GUI, terminal, Slack, logon, everything.

I wish there was a way of getting X11 to also do it consistently.

Re: The Joys of Unix Keyboards

#140

Post by m463 »

barbs wrote: post #132
m463 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most typing problems could be cured with a good wrist rest and good posture. The wrist rest should keep your wrists straight and keep them off the cold desk and its sharp edges. Posture should keep your head balanced over your neck, not holding it forward or backwards. The monitor height should support this, and it should be straight in front of you. Your shoulders should be relaxed and your elbows should be…

My impression is that RSI differs from person to person, which means the solution differs from person to person depending on what is strained. For some, a new keyboard layout fixes the problem. For others, simply changing to a less strenuous editor like Vim helps.

cruising around work and checking people's setups...

The overwhelming majority do nothing. Many folks do everything on their laptop (not possible to be ergonomic) and most desktops lack any sort of ergonomic planning (monitors off center, no wrist rests, etc)

There's a lot of low hanging fruit out there.

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