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If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

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Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#331

Post by duxup »

sjy wrote: post #309
duxup wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep meaning to find a local keyboard Meetup and hope to try the ergodox. The downside is I work 50 / 50 home and work so if I liked it I would probably need a traveling case or something.

I’m using an Atreus at the moment and while I enjoyed carrying it around when I was learning the layout, once the novelty wore off it got really old having to pack up the keyboard every day. I’ve switched back to a spare regular keyboard at work as a result. If you want to go all in, be prepared to invest in two keyboards!

Noted, thank you.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#332

Post by APock »

stevehawk wrote: post #77
overkalix wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$300 for the simplest keyboard...

complaining about $300 for a great keyboard is like complaining about a pricey bed. You use it for how many hours of the day if you're a programmer/engineer? Maybe it's worth spoiling yourself.

I work with senior developers all around me all day, most of them don't see a reason to spend more than $10 on a keyboard, and mock me constantly whenever I get a typo somewhere about my $150 daskeyboard.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#333

Post by crispyambulance »

brandonmenc wrote: post #94
ganonm wrote: post #49

Around 2 years ago now, I took the plunge and bought myself an Ergodox EZ split island keyboard. Quite franky, it is the biggest quantum leap in the ergonomic experience of interacting with a computer I have seen since learning Vim. It is comfortable, effortless and fast. If you spend any significant time interacting with computers it is a complete no brainer to invest in optimising the IO channel between your brain…

> it is a complete no brainer to invest in optimising the IO channel between your brain and the machine Why? You'll never even double the "throughput" of that "channel", let alone improve it by an order of magnitude. And I say this as someone who wasted lots of time and money attempting exactly that before I realized that typing is not what I spend most of my time doing while programming.

I think folks should not bother trying to justify their keyboard preferences. You're right that it usually makes little difference in terms of productivity.

On the other hand it can be very rewarding to choose something relatively unique for one's keyboard, or even make their own. The keyboard is kind of "intimate". It makes sense to make it yours. Not everything has to be utilitarian.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#334

Post by philote »

lsc wrote: post #57
7thaccount wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can any of these be bought? I love mechanical keyboards, but I can only use an ergonomical keyboard

I use a kinesis advantage2 with brown cherry keyswitches. (I think it's available with others) - my only complaint is that it's kinda giant. Overall, it's pretty great; if you don't want to build your own, and if you don't want to change your keyboard, it's the best choice because it has been in production since the early '90s with few changes to layout; for me? this is big- changing layout is a big deal. The kinesis…

I use the Advantage2 as well, and now have two so I don't have to lug one around to my second location. But when I got my first one, it sat for almost a year because I couldn't be bothered to learn how to type on it. I'm glad I finally took the plunge though because it has relieved my hand/wrist problems and I love typing on it.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#336

Post by dkersten »

sjy wrote: post #308
dkersten wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a happy vim Colemak user! The one thing I wonder about as a colemak user is should I have opted for a fully optimised layout instead? Having the common keys stay the same as qwerty was convenient while learning colemak but really isn’t necessary after a few weeks. I don’t regret choosing colemak though because it’s got good OS support (cones built in with Linux and OSX) while the fully optimised layouts typically…

I’m an unhappy vim Colemak user. I remapped HJKL to NEIO, which implied some other changes (particularly needing to find new keys for N and I), and now I never know what keys to press because I can’t keep track of whether I’m using a local vim with all my settings. Touch typing on Qwerty and Colemak is no problem, but changing my vim habits is much more difficult, I suppose because I don’t think as much about the let…

I experimented with changing the config so that the vim keys remain in the same physical qwerty locations and I suppose if you have super strong muscle memory for vim commands it probably makes sense to do that, but I didn’t so ultimately decided not to remap keys. Yes my hjkl are in weird locations, but I actually got used to it quit quickly (and on my kinesis advantage, I just use the cursor keys since their in reach).

Used to map navigation to AltGr+u/n/e/i (for up down left right), so qwerty i/k/j/l which was a suoer comfortable way for me to navigate (left thumb on AltGr and then wasd style cursors) but since I got the kinesis keyboard, I haven’t bothered. I do still use windows key + unei for navigating in i3

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#337

Post by dkersten »

Symbiote wrote: post #322
sjy wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m an unhappy vim Colemak user. I remapped HJKL to NEIO, which implied some other changes (particularly needing to find new keys for N and I), and now I never know what keys to press because I can’t keep track of whether I’m using a local vim with all my settings. Touch typing on Qwerty and Colemak is no problem, but changing my vim habits is much more difficult, I suppose because I don’t think as much about the let…

Non-Qwerty layouts are probably much better for Emacs users, at least if they know the somewhat dated names for the commands: most of the letters are chosen (if at all) for their initial, rather than their position. Moving the cursor Forward, Backward, Previous line, Next line is Ctrl+F/B/P/N, which doesn't involve learning anything new when changing layouts. "Paste" is actually "yank", so that's Ctrl+Y.

Many vim commands are by initial too. But not hjkl of course.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#338

Post by chapium »

BigJ1211 wrote: post #291
tomc1985 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By my read y'all need more practice typing, not a fancy expensive ergo keyboard. Other than the occasional hand cramps this lifelong nerd doesn't have any of those problems on this old, mushy MS natural.

I thought so too untill I started having RSI/CTS issues. I've since switched to a 'fancy expensive ergo keyboard'. And it fantastic, I'm about as fast as I was on a traditional qwerty, but with less errors. However most importantly I have far less RSI/CTS complaints when typing on my redox than I do with a non-split (even ergo non-splits). My arms are in a far more natural position and so is my wrist thanks to the te…

Totally agree. I never realized this until one day it started hurting to do work which really took the wind out of my sails. Adjusting my setup to better compensate for eye strain and rsi related issues really helped.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#339

Post by raydev »

Title should be modified to "build it instead (as long as you want a mechanical keyboard).

I love Apple's Magic Keyboard 2 very much. I've looked around a lot, but there's nothing out there with its super low profile that's also customizable.

My ideal keyboard would be a Magic Keyboard with a variety of key colors, RGB lights, and the ability to split it in half so I can put my arms in a better position.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#340

Post by slightwinder »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #20

I want a keyboard with an extra row of keys (I could use for additional characters in a custom layout) between the letters and the numbers. Is this possible?

A cheap solution would be to buy a macropad or a separate numberpad and then remap the keys. Macropads can be remapped on the pad itself, numberpad usually would need to be remapped on OS-level, but is chaper than the macropad.

Numberpads go for around $10 dollar, while macropads are around $50 dollar.

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