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00Key a 75% Keyboard

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Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#41

Post by orphea »

jwells89 wrote: post #18
mmh0000 wrote: post #4

I really do not like these compressed baby keyboards that are missing essential keys. My perfect keyboard would be something like a 150% with standard full layout but then adding in a bunch of programmable macro keys, I want more than F12! I want F1 through F36. Also a built in coffee grinder, water heater, and there should be a fan under the keys to keep my hands cool. Okay, ignore those last three.

What’s “essential” varies a lot between users. As a mobile dev I’ve been using 60% and 65% boards almost exclusively since 2015 and haven’t missed the removed keys much at all. Really though, to me the problem with full-size keyboards isn’t the number of keys but their positioning. The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the a…

How do you guys not miss F keys? I can press e.g. Ctrl+F5 with one hand but I would have to use both hands to press Ctrl+Fn+5.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#42

Post by crazygringo »

mmh0000 wrote: post #4

I really do not like these compressed baby keyboards that are missing essential keys. My perfect keyboard would be something like a 150% with standard full layout but then adding in a bunch of programmable macro keys, I want more than F12! I want F1 through F36. Also a built in coffee grinder, water heater, and there should be a fan under the keys to keep my hands cool. Okay, ignore those last three.

But why?

The whole point is that you can access all the "essential" keys with modifiers like Fn.

I find it so natural to Page Up/Dn using Fn+Up/Dn that when I'm on a keyboard with dedicated Page Up/Dn keys it just seems like this bizarre waste of space.

Plus the keyboard is so big I have to keep moving my hands all over the place! A 75% keyboard keeps everything within distance of the home row, as it should be. Faraway keys are just inefficient and not ergonomic.

There's no need for F36 when you can just use Shift+F12 or Ctrl+F12 or Fn+F12 or whatever you want.

Also, a compact keyboard keeps your mouse closer which is good for ergonomics as well.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#43

Post by lawn »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #6
mmh0000 wrote: post #4

I really do not like these compressed baby keyboards that are missing essential keys. My perfect keyboard would be something like a 150% with standard full layout but then adding in a bunch of programmable macro keys, I want more than F12! I want F1 through F36. Also a built in coffee grinder, water heater, and there should be a fan under the keys to keep my hands cool. Okay, ignore those last three.

I've been wondering for a while now why these fractional keyboards are so popular. It's some sort of trendy faux-minimalism that I've never been able to wrap my head around.

I use a keyboard with 34 keys. Except for being split, the lower number of keys has fixed my RSI as I never have to move my fingers too far.

Why couldn't I use a larger keyboard then? I could, and that's how I started, but having unused keys is just a waste and occupies precious table space.

Of course, they're much easier to travel with too (although I haven't done that yet).

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#44

Post by jwells89 »

orphea wrote: post #41
jwells89 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s “essential” varies a lot between users. As a mobile dev I’ve been using 60% and 65% boards almost exclusively since 2015 and haven’t missed the removed keys much at all. Really though, to me the problem with full-size keyboards isn’t the number of keys but their positioning. The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the a…

How do you guys not miss F keys? I can press e.g. Ctrl+F5 with one hand but I would have to use both hands to press Ctrl+Fn+5.

I primarily use macOS, where shortcuts have been almost exclusively mnemonic (e.g. Command-R → Reload) since the earliest Mac models. F-key usage is relegated mostly to lazy ports from other platforms.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#45

Post by lawn »

BossingAround wrote: post #2

Personally, I found the perfect keyboard in Ergodox [0][1]. Ortholinear, split, programmable (and open-source) keyboard with hot-swappable switches. I've had my Ergodox EZ [2] for ~7 years now. The biggest problem that happened was that some of the switches started malfunctioning - fixing which was a matter of literally 5 minutes. I don't think I would want to go back to non-split, non-ortholinear keyboards nowadays.…

The problem with Ergodox (and Moonlander) are the horrific thumb cluster that only makes sense if you have very large hands/fingers.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#46

Post by dyingkneepad »

mmh0000 wrote: post #38
dyingkneepad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a keyboard that's "missing" essential keys, but I have a special key that I can press with my thumb that changes that every single key does (it's called a Layer). So I never need to move my wrist to press the arrow keys: just hold the thumb button and press hjkl. Page up is layer+t, page down is layer+g. And so on. It's great, my wrists thank me. I can even program a macro that will trigger an OS shortcut that…

I'm familiar with layers; in fact, I have an extensive layer setup in KDE. But then the problem becomes that I can never remember which key under what layer does what action. So, I basically use four keys from my other layers and have given up on all the others I set up. My poor memory is my unique problem. Layering won't help. Having dedicated keys that I can see, though, helps me remember what those do. As someone…

You have it configured in KDE. The cool keyboards allow configuring layers in the keyboard firmware.

Yeah it took me a while to get used to my layers, but now it's all muscle memory and I don't even remember which key does what.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#47

Post by bregma »

orphea wrote: post #41
jwells89 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s “essential” varies a lot between users. As a mobile dev I’ve been using 60% and 65% boards almost exclusively since 2015 and haven’t missed the removed keys much at all. Really though, to me the problem with full-size keyboards isn’t the number of keys but their positioning. The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the a…

How do you guys not miss F keys? I can press e.g. Ctrl+F5 with one hand but I would have to use both hands to press Ctrl+Fn+5.

The only F keys I use are F11 and F12, and only by accident when I'm trying to backspace. And don't get me started on the capslock key.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#48

Post by regularfry »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #6
mmh0000 wrote: post #4

I really do not like these compressed baby keyboards that are missing essential keys. My perfect keyboard would be something like a 150% with standard full layout but then adding in a bunch of programmable macro keys, I want more than F12! I want F1 through F36. Also a built in coffee grinder, water heater, and there should be a fan under the keys to keep my hands cool. Okay, ignore those last three.

I've been wondering for a while now why these fractional keyboards are so popular. It's some sort of trendy faux-minimalism that I've never been able to wrap my head around.

Personally I wanted an ergonomic mechanical keyboard I could shove in my bag and take to the office, and that meant something not-full-size. Once I'd made the decision that it wasn't going to be a full-size keyboard, that meant learning layers on a fractional layout, and it was the need to hammer the layering into my muscle memory that meant my fractional keyboard became my daily driver at home as well.

I only swap it out now if I want to do things in Blender, because that's very keyboard-heavy in a way that really assumes all the keys are laid out in front of you, including the keypad.

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#49

Post by CodeWriter23 »

luke-stanley wrote: post #8

This is cool but I wish I could just have a 75% portable Bluetooth keyboard. I can't justify buying a foldable phone with a million screens but would love a Psion like keyboard with 4 and a half almost full size rows that I can slide out from below my phone with no folding and just use directly without getting in the way of my rear camera. Has anyone seen anything like that? I am really happy with laptop scissor swit…

Best I can offer is a Blackberry-style non-sliding mono-slabic configuration or is it conflagration? I'm not affiliated in any way nor do I vouch for this just sharing info. https://www.clicks.tech/

Re: 00Key a 75% Keyboard

#50

Post by bregma »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #23
mmh0000 wrote: post #4

I really do not like these compressed baby keyboards that are missing essential keys. My perfect keyboard would be something like a 150% with standard full layout but then adding in a bunch of programmable macro keys, I want more than F12! I want F1 through F36. Also a built in coffee grinder, water heater, and there should be a fan under the keys to keep my hands cool. Okay, ignore those last three.

You joke about the fan but I'd love a keyboard heater for winters. I keep it cold in here to save $ but I have a hard time keeping my hands comfortable.

Fingerless gloves are my go-to.
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