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Split Keyboard for Professionals

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Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#41

Post by simias »

Waterluvian wrote: post #6
wegs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most are horrible. One of the reasons is overlap. Your hands do occasionally hit keys on the other side. You want a pair of 2/3 keyboards, rather than 1/2 keyboards. You /especially/ want a lot of the "special" keys on both sides. Another is key action. You want proper mechanical keys. A third is mounting. That's a problem which hasn't really been figured out. The middle hinge or fixed setup is definitely sub-ideal.…

I was told by one friend that they made it really hard to use a normal keyboard effectively after a few years. Did you find that?

I've been doing most of my typing on an Ergodox for years and while switching to a "normal" keyboard feels clunky and a bit awkward I can still type reasonably well on those. I guess it just becomes a lot more obvious how un-ergonomic those are (especially for the left hand in my experience). Having to bend your hand in weird ways to hit the modifiers feels odd when you're used to have them fall naturally below your fingers.

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#42

Post by generalk »

Waterluvian wrote: post #6
wegs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most are horrible. One of the reasons is overlap. Your hands do occasionally hit keys on the other side. You want a pair of 2/3 keyboards, rather than 1/2 keyboards. You /especially/ want a lot of the "special" keys on both sides. Another is key action. You want proper mechanical keys. A third is mounting. That's a problem which hasn't really been figured out. The middle hinge or fixed setup is definitely sub-ideal.…

I was told by one friend that they made it really hard to use a normal keyboard effectively after a few years. Did you find that?

I've been using an Ergodox EZ for a lot of professional work for a few years now, but since I'm bouncing between that and laptop keyboards regularly, I haven't found any issues switching between layouts. I do occasionally try to use some custom-mapped ergodox keys the wrong way on a laptop keyboard, but it's a momentary embarrassment and not a thing that impedes my work.

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#44

Post by MrPowers »

stavros wrote: post #29
cliffwarden wrote: post #17

I just picked up a moonlander that i'm really living. https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/

I wouldn't recommend an ortho keyboard, I've found it takes a lot of time to relearn how to type with not much benefit.

I've loved learning how to use ortho keyboards. They open your brain to new text editing possibilities. Just like how learning Spanish teaches you about English and learning new programming languages teaches you about what's possible with code. They improved my typing accuracy and got rid of my right pinky pain too. I agree that they're not for everyone.

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#45

Post by scribu »

ahelwer wrote: post #25

The trackball thumb module is a great idea - being able to mouse without moving my right hand off the keyboard would be ideal (you can buy an actual mouse to use for FPS games if you want that). For anyone who is seeing this and thinking they need to upgrade though, know that you really don't have to spend $300 to get a good-quality ergonomic keyboard. The Goldtouch GTN-0099 can be found in like-new condition for $60…

I own a Kinesis Freestyle2. It's collecting dust because I've found the keyboard layout suboptimal. My thumbs would awkwardly reach inwards for the modifier keys.

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#46

Post by bbojan »

stavros wrote: post #29
cliffwarden wrote: post #17

I just picked up a moonlander that i'm really living. https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/

I wouldn't recommend an ortho keyboard, I've found it takes a lot of time to relearn how to type with not much benefit.

What I noticed is that people who are really good at (properly) touch typing on a staggered keyboard have more difficulties adapting to a linear one.

In my example, I type around 80 wpm on a regular keyboard, but I've never learned and used the proper key->finger assignment - I just type how I adapted over the years. So for me there was no trouble switching to proper technique on an ortholinear. I'm not yet nearly as fast, but it feels like it's 3-4 times easier to type (ie. less finger movement).

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#47

Post by Pawka »

wl wrote: post #34
Pawka wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using UHK for almost a year and can share with my experience. It really depends on a keyboard - if it is similar to regular one or not. The UHK is pretty similar to regular keyboard - keys are staggered (not ortholinear), there are no additional thumb keys which are also not available on a regular laptop keyboard. After a year with UHK I'm still able to jump between laptop and UHK when needed. Somehow muscle memo…

I use a Kinesis Advantage, which is a split ortholinear design with the keys in bowls and thumb clusters, just like the Dactyl. I have no issues switching between that and normal keyboards.

Good to know. Thanks!

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#48

Post by realharo »

wegs wrote: post #4
kozak wrote: post #2

I am puzzled why there aren't more split keyboards on the market, they are such a good idea.

Most are horrible. One of the reasons is overlap. Your hands do occasionally hit keys on the other side. You want a pair of 2/3 keyboards, rather than 1/2 keyboards. You /especially/ want a lot of the "special" keys on both sides. Another is key action. You want proper mechanical keys. A third is mounting. That's a problem which hasn't really been figured out. The middle hinge or fixed setup is definitely sub-ideal.…

I have an Ergodox EZ that I've used for about 4 months now, and it definitely took some time getting used to. I dropped from about 90 wpm to below 40 in the first few days, but now I'm back up to over 80, with fewer mistakes on average - I guess I'm slower at correcting them, so I try to type more accurately.

Previously I was used to typing some of the letters on the edges with the "wrong" hand (e.g. typing Y with my left hand) so I mapped an Y onto both halves, but eventually I got rid of that mapping.

I also had to gradually make many other small adjustments to the layout (which is thankfully really easy), because while you can adapt to typing of the letters fairly quickly, keyboard shortcuts and function keys are another matter (especially if you were used to using the function key row with Ctrl/Alt/Shift modifiers).

Having your arms naturally apart is pretty comfortable though, and I also like how cool it looks with the blank keycaps and the metal legs.

If anything, I had bigger issues with a MacBook keyboard, due to the missing Home/End keys, which I use all the time for selecting code (e.g End followed by a Shift+Home or vice versa to select a row, or using Shift+PageUp/PageDown plus arrows to select a block, are very ingrained in my muscle memory).

Re: Split Keyboard for Professionals

#49

Post by bbojan »

oskardenandre wrote: post #23
cliffwarden wrote: post #17

I just picked up a moonlander that i'm really living. https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/

I am on the fence about this one, care to push me over? (I already have the Ez)

If you have smaller hands, consider a Kyria. I use an Ergodox EZ and while I'm generally happy with it, it's quite difficult for my thumbs to reach all but the first key in the thumb cluster.
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