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HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

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Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#51

Post by globular-toast »

TheRoque wrote: post #47
globular-toast wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it really funny how people refer to pressing two keys at the same time as "shortcuts". I never understood that. "Ctrl-C" isn't a "shortcut for copy" any more than pressing "C" is a "shortcut for typing the letter C". I guess what you don't like is (excessive) key combos or "chords". I've been using a 65% keyboard for a few years now and I don't miss the function keys one bit, but I do occasionally miss the arr…

It's a shortcut because it's an alternative (and faster) way to access a functionality. There's no other way to get the letter C than to press the C key on your keyboard, therefore it's not a shortcut. Saying that using the function key to access the arrow key is indeed not a shortcut, chord or combo would be more appropriate, but your "Ctrl + C" example was a bad one to take.

What other way is there to access "copy" (Ctrl-C)? I feel like this stems from the belief that the keyboard is secondary to the mouse. So the official way is to right click and select copy from the menu? When was the last time you actually saw someone do that?

You could go the other way and say all the letters on your keyboard are shortcuts for entering the characters specific to your language. After all, there are far more characters in unicode for all the languages in the world and there is no shortcut for those. In Emacs I could do absolutely everything via M-x commands, even typing: e.g. M-x "insert-char" "LATIN SMALL LETTER J".

OK, this is becoming a bit silly. My main point really was that by adopting a keyboard-driven workflow you no longer think of the keyboard as "shortcuts", it just becomes the way to do it and, yeah, I definitely think Ctrl-C counts as that.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#52

Post by jwells89 »

skowalak wrote: post #34
dannyobrien wrote: post #4

I'm a happy owner of a Tex Shinobi and Tex Shura. It's pretty hard to get a good trackpoint experience and Tex have done a good job getting right over the years (including producing a Lenovo-branded mechanical keyboard). They're a small shop based in Taiwan. Shura is $169. https://tex.com.tw/collections/keyboard

I used the Tex keycaps for a keyboard I built about three years ago. After three years of daily usage I have noticed a lot of wear on the keycaps. Some letters are barely visible, and some of the caps have gotten really shiny, i.e. they have lost their surface structure. Have you noticed something similar? Other than that they feel really nice and I like them a lot.

The Shura uses double-shot keycaps, where the legends are a different colored plastic whereas earlier TEX models used UV printed or laser etched keycaps.

TEX’s older method is common to a lot of keyboard manufacturers and is prone to wear like you’ve seen. By contrast double-shot keys will get shiny, but their legends will always be legible no matter how many years they’re used.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#53

Post by jwells89 »

ch_123 wrote: post #27
TheRoque wrote: post #6

Sorry for being such a newbie, but I never understood why HHKB was popular, and where it got its fame. I saw my roomate already having it 10 years ago, I find cool the minimalist aspect, but why such keyboard with basic design made it so far ? Also, on a personal note, having a 65% keyboard now for 3 years, I'll go back to a 75% keyboard. I think functions keys and arrows are used way too frequently to spend your tim…

HHKB fan here. When using macOS or Linux, I basically never use the function keys, and I find the arrow key shortcuts pleasant to use because they do not require me to move my hands from the home row. Another factor is that I use vim (and VScode with vim bindings) so I use the arrow keys less than usual. Add to that the high build quality, light weight, high quality switches which are not too loud for an office envir…

I’m in this boat too, although I don’t use VIM. On macOS where mnemonic key shortcuts are the norm, function key usage is low enough that them being layered isn’t an issue, and layered arrows are actually nice than dedicated once you’re used to them.

I have a few boards with the HHKB layout, only a couple of which are HHKBs. For me the layout is nearly perfect, just wish I could have it in my laptops too.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#54

Post by zoke »

TheRoque wrote: post #6

Sorry for being such a newbie, but I never understood why HHKB was popular, and where it got its fame. I saw my roomate already having it 10 years ago, I find cool the minimalist aspect, but why such keyboard with basic design made it so far ? Also, on a personal note, having a 65% keyboard now for 3 years, I'll go back to a 75% keyboard. I think functions keys and arrows are used way too frequently to spend your tim…

The location of the Control key.

https://hhkeyboard.us/blog/the-mystery-behind-the-ctrl-key-a...

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#55

Post by jwells89 »

ductsurprise wrote: post #20
azeirah wrote: post #16

Does anyone know if there are any portable bluetooth keyboards (think usable in the train) with a trackpoint? The only ones I can find have a trackpad, but I think a trackpoint would actually be a lot nicer.

- ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II Bluetooth ? It's pretty close to full size, but very slim and light weight.

I have one of these in usage as an entertainment center PC keyboard, as an alternative to the media PC keyboard with godawful integrated trackpads or extra coffee table clutter of a mouse.

It’s solid. Not quite to my taste for primary keyboard usage but not bad.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#56

Post by ndiddy »

threatofrain wrote: post #5

It really surprises me that the Happy Hacking Keyboard brand has stuck with their key layout. For a more conventional layout one might consider keychron. https://www.keychron.com/

The HHKB layout is a copy of the layout from old Sun UNIX keyboards: https://i.stack.imgur.com/D8RsW.jpg

I like it more than the conventional PC keyboard layout, it makes Esc and Ctrl more easy to access, and means you can press Backspace without having to stretch your pinky as far.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#58

Post by TheRoque »

globular-toast wrote: post #51
TheRoque wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shortcut because it's an alternative (and faster) way to access a functionality. There's no other way to get the letter C than to press the C key on your keyboard, therefore it's not a shortcut. Saying that using the function key to access the arrow key is indeed not a shortcut, chord or combo would be more appropriate, but your "Ctrl + C" example was a bad one to take.

What other way is there to access "copy" (Ctrl-C)? I feel like this stems from the belief that the keyboard is secondary to the mouse. So the official way is to right click and select copy from the menu? When was the last time you actually saw someone do that? You could go the other way and say all the letters on your keyboard are shortcuts for entering the characters specific to your language. After all, there are f…

Take a new software, like Blender or Gimp, and you'll totally have to do things "manually" via the menus before memorizing the "shortcuts" that will boost your productivity. It's nice for discoverability, accessibility, and probably necessary for most people (including me). I really don't see what's wrong in calling these shortcuts, if there's a longer, manual, tedious version, which has a shorter alternative. If you're a keyboard-driven person, I can get the idea, but you are being pedantic IMO...

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#59

Post by ndiddy »

ch_123 wrote: post #27
TheRoque wrote: post #6

Sorry for being such a newbie, but I never understood why HHKB was popular, and where it got its fame. I saw my roomate already having it 10 years ago, I find cool the minimalist aspect, but why such keyboard with basic design made it so far ? Also, on a personal note, having a 65% keyboard now for 3 years, I'll go back to a 75% keyboard. I think functions keys and arrows are used way too frequently to spend your tim…

HHKB fan here. When using macOS or Linux, I basically never use the function keys, and I find the arrow key shortcuts pleasant to use because they do not require me to move my hands from the home row. Another factor is that I use vim (and VScode with vim bindings) so I use the arrow keys less than usual. Add to that the high build quality, light weight, high quality switches which are not too loud for an office envir…

One thing I like about the newer HHKB keyboards is that they're remappable, which somewhat addresses the Windows shortcomings. The remap tool is only officially supported on the more expensive wireless keyboard, but it works on the wired Classic model by editing the "KeyboardDatalist.json" file in the install directory and replacing all instances of "false" with "true". I mapped Fn+HJKL to the arrow keys, Fn+F to PgDn, Fn+B to PgUp, Fn+N to Home, and Fn+M to End.

Re: HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint

#60

Post by fmajid »

jwells89 wrote: post #52
skowalak wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used the Tex keycaps for a keyboard I built about three years ago. After three years of daily usage I have noticed a lot of wear on the keycaps. Some letters are barely visible, and some of the caps have gotten really shiny, i.e. they have lost their surface structure. Have you noticed something similar? Other than that they feel really nice and I like them a lot.

The Shura uses double-shot keycaps, where the legends are a different colored plastic whereas earlier TEX models used UV printed or laser etched keycaps. TEX’s older method is common to a lot of keyboard manufacturers and is prone to wear like you’ve seen. By contrast double-shot keys will get shiny, but their legends will always be legible no matter how many years they’re used.

Those keycaps are doubleshot ABS, though, and ABS is widely considered to be an inferior material compared to PBT. At that price, you would expect the latter.
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