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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

#221

Post by smeej »

exitb wrote: post #153
jbstack wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All typing guides I’ve seen recommend keeping fingers on home row. If you do that you end up pretty close to what that drawing shows. I type at 130 - 135 wpm with my fingers on the home row. I don't have a posture anything like that drawing. In fact I have to make a conscious and uncomfortable effort to contort my hands into that position. It's far more natural (for me) to curve my fingers to hit the right keys rat…

The base idea behind keeping your fingers on the home row makes sense, as it promises that you can reach most of the commonly used keys by just curling or straightening your fingers, without moving your wrists at all. This doesn’t appear true in your picture. How does the person reach T with a finger that’s already straight, while still keeping a finger on A? This is obviously not an exact science and I’m sure you ma…

Wait have you been thinking "keep them on the home row" means any finger not actively typing a key must be in physical contact with its home row key??

This would at least help me make sense of people's wrist problems. Holy cow. Never mind how much it would slow somebody down. None of my fingers is ever stationary long enough to bring it back to a specific place typing 135 wpm.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#222

Post by cbsks »

noelwelsh wrote: post #168
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…

Agreed. The thumb cluster is what I miss the most from my old Maltron keyboard. I'm looking at the Dygma Defy as it seems to have the best thumb cluster of current ergo keyboards.

I’ve been using the Dygma Defy daily for over 2 years. Highly recommend.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#223

Post by bunderbunder »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #218
bunderbunder wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

So do you have advice? You’ve hooked me with this post I want to hear more.

Try things and see for yourself. I know that’s not super satisfying advice, but everyone has a different experience with these things so there are no easy answers.

Start small. Don’t feel pressured to dive straight into the $300 keyboards. I have a fancy custom mechanical keyboard myself, but that’s because a few years back I decided it would be fun to get into using a more hackable keyboard. For a very long time I was more than content with the (sadly now discontinued) Microsoft Sculpt keyboard, which was one of the least expensive options.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#224

Post by thehaikuza »

moozilla wrote: post #120
swiftlysingh wrote: post #69

Built a Corne with low profile switches last year and the small key count felt impossible until home row mods clicked. Once you train the muscle memory for mod-taps on ASDF/JKL;, you stop reaching for corners entirely and the 42-key layout starts feeling like enough. Honestly the split itself was less of a revelation than remapping my fingers to treat the home row as a modifier layer.

Last time I tried home row mods I could not get over how bad it felt having the letter not appear until I lifted the key rather than immediately on the keypress. Am I just overly sensative or is this just something you get used to over time?

I had a much better experience shifting them down a row so they’re “bottom row mods”, since those keys (if using QWERTY) are much less frequently used.

There’s also features like chordal hold and flow tap which have improved the home/bottom row mod behaviour.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#226

Post by silon42 »

jimbob45 wrote: post #131
waynesonfire wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same experience, I learned it early too. My thinking was, if I'm going to be typing my whole life, I might as well do it with the bee's knees. I also swap ctrl+caps. That caps key real estate is just too good. It's pretty wild, I can _ONLY_ touch type dvorak. I couldn't tell you which keys are which looking down at the keyboard. And I'm fast. I'm so fast I don't even need to vibecode.

I can push 130WPM with some serious warmup on QWERTY. Even still…I can feel its inadequacy. The semicolon sitting unused under my pinky is just such a massive waste. The period there instead would be a game-changer.

You must not program C/Java/... ;)

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#227

Post by aurecchia »

interroboink wrote: post #216

Does anyone know a google-able term for split keyboards that have doubled keys down the middle column (B/N, G/H, T/Y, 6/7)? I see one instance on this page of a keyboard with double "B" key ("Alice layout"), but not the others. I've been interested in trying a split keyboard, but I like to type those middle keys with either left or right hand depending on the moment, so all the split keyboards I've tried have ended u…

I don't think there is an actual name for that. I actually don't think I have ever seen a keyboard with a layout like the one you describe. I'm not really sure if it was really intentional on the Alice layout. The extra B might just be for extra symmetry between the two halves.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#228

Post by silon42 »

ihateolives wrote: post #138
RupertSalt wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person on the right side is sitting in a more elevated position, and so with their shoulders relaxed and upper arms at their sides, they only need to extend the forearms to reach the keyboard. The "numeric keypad" hazard also illustrates why I was motivated to switch my Sun mouse to the left-hand side, and I reversed the buttons in my X11 mappings. This was a reliable way to perplex my coworkers.

Many-many moons ago I moved my mouse to the left side because I didn't have enough room on my desk on the right side. I became equally good with both hands and this has been paying dividends for years. Except I didn't reverse buttons, my brain just adapted and I never confuse which button to press.

Yup, I do exactly the same... left hand for mouse, right hand for arrow keys.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#229

Post by [deleted] »

bunderbunder wrote: post #223
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do you have advice? You’ve hooked me with this post I want to hear more.

Try things and see for yourself. I know that’s not super satisfying advice, but everyone has a different experience with these things so there are no easy answers. Start small. Don’t feel pressured to dive straight into the $300 keyboards. I have a fancy custom mechanical keyboard myself, but that’s because a few years back I decided it would be fun to get into using a more hackable keyboard. For a very long time I w…

[deleted]

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#230

Post by [deleted] »

smeej wrote: post #220
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 think a shockingly high number of people really do type Z with their little finger, X with their ring finger, and C with their middle finger. It's the only way I can explain how they end up that way in columnar layouts so often. This is madness to me. That would wreak havoc on a wrist. Type Z with the ring finger, X with the middle finger, and C and V with the index finger, just like you type M with your right inde…

[deleted]
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