There's a few big upsides to going down this rabbit hole imo-
1. Realizing how much dead space there is on a normal keyboard (capslock, the space bar doesn't need to be so big, many keys you might want to use frequently are in awkward spots, like the numbers).
2. Being able to fully customize the layout to your liking. I don't think anyone agrees 100% on what the ideal layout is, but once you get more comfortable with layers and testing various layouts it gets pretty easy to adjust.
3. Finding out how quickly you can adapt to multiple layouts by just sticking with it. You won't be perfect the first time, and you might struggle to briefly when you switch back to a normal board, but people vastly underestimate how good humans are at adaptation.
There's also a bonus level of just having nice keys/switches. While this is the part that can get pricey, as someone who's typing all the time it really does feel like a worthy expense.
The major downsides being that it can get expensive fast (at least if you're picky), you might need some level of soldering skill, and there are times where you DON'T want to be the person with the fancy keyboard that no one else can use (I always have a normal one plugged in at work just in case).
Still i'm super glad I got into it. I'm a huge fan of 40% boards just because of the portability and the space they save. I'm typing all this, on a mercutio and my work daily driver is a low profile crkbd (I do analytics and some low end/intermediate coding).
The only issue i've ever run into is that I'm a fan of roguelikes, and while most games don't need too many keys, those in particular seem to have this habit of the designer trying to use EVERY key on a full sized keyboard, so i'm working on a layer for that.
I had a go at smaller keyboards - tried a 65% to see how I'd like it. And honestly - it was annoying. I know you can have layers and your hands move less, but having to press three keys for say, tilda (shift + fn + esc) is just silly. I'd rather just roam my hand around, my muscle memory is pretty good.
These days my main is an 1800 keyboard, numpad and all, and it's fine.
> I know you can have layers and your hands move less, but having to press three keys for say, tilda (shift + fn + esc) is just silly. I'd rather just roam my hand around, my muscle memory is pretty good.
Yup. That's why the best format for me is the "84 key" or "75%", which is roughly "laptop layout". You get all the Fx keys, arrows, home/end/etc, but no numpad, and it's smaller than the "tenkeyless" format.
I find it much more comfortable for having the mouse closer. For some reason, this format doesn't seem as widespread as the one without the Fx row.
Yes! I don't lock my hands on the home keys, so roaming around the keyboard isn't a carpal tunnel nightmare as some make out. I just move my whole arm a bit.
I rest my hands on the laptop's left and right edges, not on the home keys... and no I don't "hunt and peck", I touch-type at 90wpm. But I love function keys, give me more function keys! I dream of the Hyper7 [1]
Yes! I don't lock my hands on the home keys, so roaming around the keyboard isn't a carpal tunnel nightmare as some make out. I just move my whole arm a bit.
I wonder if some of these preferences have to do with how long your fingers are.
It wouldn't even occur to me to try and access the F row from homehow without moving my arm. But if my fingers were a bit longer I could see how I might do it, even if it wasn't good for my joints.
I'd expect finger length and even ratio between them to play an important role.
I was talking with a friend about how he had issues reaching some keys which seem easy to reach for me. And I don't think I have particularly big hands, I can't reach any F key if my fingers are on the home row. I can barely reach 4 and 8, but it's uncomfortable.
Exactly what I have been using for years - its nice they are finally getting more popular. I bought one almost 10 years ago now and it was one of the only models available. Still typing on it right now and it looks almost new. Cherry MX Blacks ftw
That tilde combo thing is why I only use 60% and 65% keyboards that offer the layout option known as “split backspace” — that is, the backspace key is moved moved down to where the pipe/backslash key normally is, and in backspace’s normal position there’s two 1u keys: pipe/backslash and tilde/grave. This also makes backspace easier to reach for my small-medium sized hands, which I didn’t know was a problem until I tried a split backspace board for a while.
In a similar vein, I also find split right shift which carves 1u off the right end of the right shift key to add an Fn key nice for improving quality of life on 60/65% boards. For me that Fn positioning is much more natural, plus it puts that duty on my right hand which is typically much less loaded down with modifiers than my left hand is.
Do you have some recommendations for keyboards that fit that layout? Tilde being on the Fn layer of Esc was never a problem for me on my Poker until I changed jobs and suddenly was writing much more Markdown than before.
For 60% boards, the HHKB (Happy Hacker’s Keyboard) which is built with Topre switches mentioned in my other comments has this layout. There’s also boards with MX style switches that mimic the HHKB, such as the Tokyo60.
For 65%, things get more spotty. Off the top of my head I’m not aware of any prebuilt 65% boards that use this layout.
For both 60% and 65%, there’s a huge number of build-it-yourself kits as well as separate PCBs, cases, etc that support this layout. It’s a bit of a rabbit hole (as alluded to with this post’s title), but if you have the patience by far building your own board gives you the greatest degree of control.
I've been rocking a Poker with clears for years, so unless I go on a big exploration, I already know what I mostly like. I went to a meetup right before the pandemic and I was amazed at how many new switches there were since I stopped buying new keyboards five years prior.
I'm familiar with the idea of the HHKB and am looking up the Tokyo60 now.
https://i.redd.it/vjbpi0rtx1q41.jpg
I guess in this case delete/back space are the same key. which makes sense. well until you want to press ctrl+delete or ctrl+backspace.
My 60% doesn't require 3 keypresses for any key. This is with out of the box configuration (vortex pok3r).
Muscle memory is something you gain over time regardless. I was just tired of my keyboard taking up so much deskspace when I basically never used 30% of the keys on it.
Split space keyboards are a thing, though not as common. One of the reasons I ended up with a split ergo board was to increase the use of my thumbs on the keyboard.
Not just that, but a keyboard is a huge section of desk real estate particularly the critical part of the desk (the part right in front of you), and that is really poorly utilized for a single function.
At a minimum, your keyboard should function as a port expander / dock for video, usb (all of them), flash, headphone ports. Most techies have multiple machines, so it should probably be a kvm switch as well. It should support both wired and wireless modes. It could also be a wifi network switch or range extender. Why not double as a power strip?
Why don't keyboards double as a port hub? Obsolescence, price, and reliability. Combining more functions into that single item means that there is more than can go wrong. Keyboards are (were?) made for USB-A and don't need speeds above 1.0: the keyboard/dock combo should be something closer to a Thunderbolt 4 hub.
> many keys you might want to use frequently are in awkward spots, like the numbers
Laptops used to handle this by having a toggleable numpad on top of the letters. That is, if you pressed a button (analogous to numlock) then the keys u/i/o would input 7/8/9, and j/k/l would input 4/5/6, etc.
I found it very convenient, but they stopped including that for some reason.
Some recent Asus laptops have a touch-panel numeric keypad that you can turn on in the trackpad, the zenbook I have being one of them.
It doesn't feel the same as actual keys, but it is better than nothing.
My dad uses numeric keypads a lot (habit from years of working in payroll & similar, lots of figures and basic arithmetic to type) but doesn't like the function-key-to-overload-keys-for-a-keypad due t the extra key and the key alignment not being quite right. He has a USB add-on keypad that he plus into laptops when convenient (i.e. when desk space allows).
There's definitely a reason to pay attention to your input devices - you can get better ergonomics, learn something about your preferences and sometimes optimize your workflow. I don't think the mechanical rabbit hole is the best value-for-money but it is definitely on the fun and aesthetically appealing side of things, and you don't have to get super deep into it with the high end customs and group buys to see interesting stuff. In the end I went back to membrane but with the split Kinesis Freestyle2 design. It's just great for me, even if I can't get the hang of using the shortcut keys.
Most recently I've been working reusing some old keyboards to create giant surfaces full of labelled launchers and shortcuts - I had to spend a few days working out what software solution I wanted but I'm about to do some actual device config this evening. I think the labelling strategy works when you explicitly go wide and turn things you would normally browse for or type a line for into massive quantities of macro keys. When it's a frequently accessed thing, it has to stay near your fingers which favors chording, combinations, modes and context sensitivity.
I'm curious, I hear this alot, but when I'm coding, whenever I need to type out constants, they're in ALL-CAPS. Do you remap caps-lock to an unused spot, or do you hold down shift while typing? I'm usually in vim or equivalent most of the time, FWIW.
I see it in Programmable Logic Controllers. Engineering drawings often come in all caps and a program's input and output buffers are sometimes named to match. The older programs were in all caps because the programming terminals had no lowercase.
When I realized this it was eye opening. I used to have an MIT layout Planck (2u) spacebar, I tried a full grid and it feels perfect for spacebar to just be another 1u key.
1. Realizing how much dead space there is on a normal keyboard (capslock, the space bar doesn't need to be so big, many keys you might want to use frequently are in awkward spots, like the numbers).
2. Being able to fully customize the layout to your liking. I don't think anyone agrees 100% on what the ideal layout is, but once you get more comfortable with layers and testing various layouts it gets pretty easy to adjust.
3. Finding out how quickly you can adapt to multiple layouts by just sticking with it. You won't be perfect the first time, and you might struggle to briefly when you switch back to a normal board, but people vastly underestimate how good humans are at adaptation.
There's also a bonus level of just having nice keys/switches. While this is the part that can get pricey, as someone who's typing all the time it really does feel like a worthy expense.
The major downsides being that it can get expensive fast (at least if you're picky), you might need some level of soldering skill, and there are times where you DON'T want to be the person with the fancy keyboard that no one else can use (I always have a normal one plugged in at work just in case).
Still i'm super glad I got into it. I'm a huge fan of 40% boards just because of the portability and the space they save. I'm typing all this, on a mercutio and my work daily driver is a low profile crkbd (I do analytics and some low end/intermediate coding).
The only issue i've ever run into is that I'm a fan of roguelikes, and while most games don't need too many keys, those in particular seem to have this habit of the designer trying to use EVERY key on a full sized keyboard, so i'm working on a layer for that.