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A beginner's guide to split keyboards

justinmklam.com

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Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#201

Post by coldpie »

layer8 wrote: post #54
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kingdom for a split keyboard with a traditional layout. I have no interest in chording, layers, or having fewer keys. No numpad if you must cut something. I just want to spread my arms without any additional novelty. No shortage of “vertical” desk space, give me that F-row

I bought a stockpile of Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard for Business (LXM-00001) when they were still available, after Microsoft announced discontinuing their peripherals. I hope they’ll last me for a long time. I don’t know if the curved geometry still counts as a traditional layout for you, though. Incase, who acquired Microsoft’s peripherals IP, has re-released them, but apparently can’t keep up with the orders: http…

Check out the Feker Alice series of keyboards. The Alice 98 has a full set of function keys & numpad. High quality build, too, I've been very happy with it. The one & only thing I don't like about it is it's missing the Home and End keys, but I can live without them.

https://fekertech.com/products/feker-alice98-qmk-via

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#202

Post by bunderbunder »

powersnail wrote: post #106

Whenever split keyboards come up, ulnar deviation is mentioned, and non-split keyboard users are depicted to be using the keyboard like this (image from the post): https://www.justinmklam.com/posts/2026/02/beginners-guide-sp... I don't know if it's just me, but I don't use the keyboard like that. I know the illustration is said to be exaggerated, but still. There is no need to squeeze your hands in front of the keybo…

I’ve been a consistent split keyboard user for a quarter century now. My current daily driver is a Redox, which uses a columnar layout. I got into them when I first started having problems with tendinitis. I feel like they help, but I’m not sure what the science says about it.

Anyway, I’ve always hated that diagram because it’s so obviously hyperbolic. I also use standard keyboards on a daily basis, and while there are some posture differences, the bending to make hands perpendicular to the keyboard just does not happen. Comfortably placing your fingers on the home row requires angling your hands a bit because the fingers are all different lengths. Are there some posture differences? Sure. But from what I’ve seen they’re really quite minor.

What I would guess makes more of a difference is tenting. Which is admittedly only possible with a split design. But also, not all split keyboards do tent.

Also, and this one might be specific to my particular problem, moving keys the thumb strikes to a position that it can reach with less stretching has helped a lot. (I suspect that the space bar in particular might have been the source of most of my woes.) And that’s another variable that’s highly correlated with - but still not the same as - the keyboard being split.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#203

Post by taikon »

yoavm wrote: post #121
taikon wrote: post #119

Shameless plug but I'm a doctor who made an ergonomic split keyboard called the TAIKO-01 ( https://taiko.taikohub.com ). It's split in two so you can position them at shoulder width. It's angled so your wrists are in more natural positioning (reduced pronation), and curved to prevent finger overstretching (finger joints have arc-shaped range of motion). It's injection molded and hot-swappable. I've been working on th…

Looks great! What do you use for mouse though? I wish more split keyboards had some integrated pointer control (touch / trackball / thinkpad-like-stick) so I didn't need to move my hand all the time.

I personally use an Evoluent vertical mouse. I've noticed some users use navigation software (such as mouseless, vimium/vimium C, vim-mode vscode).

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#204

Post by NetMageSCW »

gaanbal wrote: post #144

I tried to use a kinesis but my problem is that I don't touch type I learnt from scratch as a kid. and it's insanely difficult to adjust to only pressing certain keys with a certain hand/finger

I started with two finger typing taught myself from entering Basic listings into early computers, but I didn’t find it difficult to switch to all finger typing once I decided to use all of them. A little bit of time with a typing tutor helped solidify my skills but I was doing fine without it.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#205

Post by NetMageSCW »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #4

So after almost 50 years of hacking, I'm starting to feel it in my hands. But I don't have any wrist problems -- no carpal tunnel. What I have is tendonitis in my fingers, primarily in my middle fingers and my right pinky (from slamming Enter several million times). I've had steroid injections into the tendon sheaths of my fingers a couple of times, which hurts like a bugger when it's done but definitely improves thi…

One thing to try is to sleep with your hands underneath your pillow in a prayer position. If your hands tend to curl the fingers while you sleep all night, that causes real issues eventually.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#206

Post by __mharrison__ »

Pretty good article.

Been using split ergo since original ergoxdox drop. Currently using lily58.

If someone wants to go down this rabbit hole (I did because I had pain from writing my first book), I think the Voyager is the best option.

One thing I hate about the lily58 is the lack of decent cases. The plates are too flexible. I have a 3D printed case from etsy and the keys continually pop out of it or get finicky about seating and registering a click.

However, these days I'm typing much less. Voice recognition is so good that I generally press a button to start recording, press it again to transcribe. Then press another button to paste, press it again to hit enter.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#207

Post by __mharrison__ »

rgoulter wrote: post #60

Underdiscussed: The biggest difference these keyboards make: adding additional keys for the thumbs (replacing the unnecessarily large spacebar of traditional keyboards). This allows the hands to do more with the keyboard while resting the hands on home row. -- For users comfortable adding a bit of complexity for the benefit of increased expressiveness (e.g. vim users), having extra thumb keys allows bringing the full…

Especially for both of us emacs users...

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#208

Post by _dan »

andrewla wrote: post #185

I am not a split keyboard person. But I have one big question -- why aren't the "middle" keys replicated on both sides of the keyboard? That is, for example, why not have two 'g' and 'h' keys? There are always times when you have to adapt; when you're holding down a tricky combination of alt-ctrl-shift keys or something where on a flat keyboard one would just reach with the "wrong" hand to hit a middle key; why not j…

It's pretty common for Alice-style keyboards to have two Bs (the one in the pic in the article does) as on a normally-staggered keyboard the B key is basically equidistant from the home keys so it's common to use either.

But it would be a bit of a problem for keycap sets, some come with extra Bs to accomodate Alice keyboards, but none that I'm aware of have extra G/H/T/Y. That would mean you'd be into buying two sets or using weird keys, so it's probably unlikely to be a popular choice.

That said, there's so many custom keyboards out there, and it's easier than you think to design and build your own - if you feel strongly about it go for it.

I did have that problem a little when learning to type on a split, but I very quickly corrected after hitting the table a few times haha. I actually think it's arguably easier to learn to type on a split as it'll quickly force you to break some bad habits.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#209

Post by __mharrison__ »

incr_me wrote: post #33

I resent the idea of an absolute standard of ergonomics or typing technique. I often use my left thumb to key z/x/c/v/b. I often reach with my left index finger to key y/h/b. During certain chords, my hands often cross over the split. I tried multiple split keyboards over the period of 2 years and never grew out of these habits. I always wished, at the least, that some of the middle keys were duplicated between the t…

When folks ask about my keyboard preferences, I always state that these things are personal and there is no "one size fits all". Fully realize that my keyboard, layout, hot keys, etc won't work for 99.9% of people.

However, I feel very strongly that if your body is telling you that something hurts or it is in pain, you should take action rather than right through it.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#210

Post by _dan »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #206

Pretty good article. Been using split ergo since original ergoxdox drop. Currently using lily58. If someone wants to go down this rabbit hole (I did because I had pain from writing my first book), I think the Voyager is the best option. One thing I hate about the lily58 is the lack of decent cases. The plates are too flexible. I have a 3D printed case from etsy and the keys continually pop out of it or get finicky ab…

There are a bunch of aluminium Lily58 cases out there, they're not cheap tho.

Most of the time keys popping out means your plate is too thick or the switch holes aren't a good fit. You can often improve it (and the sound) with some foam between the plate and the pcb - you can buy laser cut neoprene plate foam for lily58s, or you can always freehand it with a knife and a sheet of 2-3mm foam (it's not that hard and doesn't have to be perfect).

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