What keyboard do you use?

General Prog (Archived)
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You haven’t used Romer-Switches yet :wink: Their backlight can’t escape below the keys, because the switches are constructed around the LED.

Perhaps you didn’t notice… But I assume it came bundled with your PC and a lot of software you didn’t need. That software you do not need and all the time to uninstall them is a very high price in my opinion. But that doesn’t belong here.

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Everyone. The UHK configurator Agent is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it is open source (like the keyboard firmware and I think most other things too): Agent - Ultimate Hacking Keyboard

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Nice to know. I might consider them as soon as a multicolored backlit version is available.

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I heard they are working on an RGB kit but it will probably take a long time since they have quite some backlog with the UHK orders and addons already.

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I became quite good over the years in stripping down anything and everything I dislike and which has the potential to be a spyware. MS really hasn’t gotten anything out of the Faustian deal I made with them (by using Win). I mean, Win10 itself is likely a keylogger and many other sinister things, but I am working on fully moving away from it.

Yeah it’s off-topic but no harm done in a few light-hearted messages. Thanks for entertaining them. :023:

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You can always construct your own with RGB LEDs to provide backlit. For my keyboard I like the fact that it has only underglow. I have purchased LEDs, but never had time to solder them.

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My 6 years old membrane keyboard, bought it new for about 5 USD.

I also have a cherry MX Brown, I also have the latest Macbook Pro with its butterfly switch.

I still come back to the membrane keyboard. Kinda underrated.

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I don’t look at my keyboard when I type either, but I still have a backlight that I use for a variety of purposes, like it ‘pings’ yellow with a bright fade when I get an alert in a terminal, green notifications, I even made a factorio addon that outputs data via a script to a named pipe in the script-output directory to another program that does things like show my health on the Function keys and self-crafting info via colors on the G1-G16 keys and so forth, plus the best of flashing a horrifying bloody red when my base is blowing up. ^.^

The colors I use as indicators a lot for when I’m “approaching” my computer overall though, not generally for active usage except for indicators in my periphery vision. :slight_smile:

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I wrote a sort of experiences/review post about the UHK: https://blog.nytsoi.net/2019/01/26/ultimate-hacking-keyboard-review

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Did you ever learn Dvorak? I have always wanted to learn Dvorak, just don’t have time.

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The problem is, most of softwares and apps we use daily are based on QWERTY keyboard. From MS Office to Visual Studio Code and vim to most games like Counter Strike.

It’s really hard not to use QWERTY.

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I’m not worried about any of that. I am interested in typing faster (documents). I actually started this week learning Dvorak. Let’s see if I can keep at it.

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If your goal is WPM Dvorak alone isn’t going to make that much of a difference.

Here’s a casual 174 WPM with Plover:

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And to lower error rate. Dvorak foots the bill, so far it’s been quite easy to learn. Proficiency — we will see as I go along :joy:

Don’t get me wrong, for my programming ventures QWERTY, it’s only for writing am I interested in being more efficient. I write hundreds upon hundreds of pages of documents a year. Shoot I may end up just sticking with QWERTY if I can’t switch mental contexts and keep making mistakes. I do that with the two languages I speak all the time.

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157

My ErgoDox EZ Glow arrived on Tuesday and I wanted to give it a few days until I posted some initial thoughts.

  1. It is a lot more comfortable to type on than my Apple Magic Keyboard 2, both in terms of space and also tactile feedback. I’m currently on the sofa using a MacBook and the keyboard feels really weird!

  2. I may change the keyswitches from Cherry MX Brown to something a bit more ‘Clicky’ like the Kailh Gold. I’m not going to rush into that however.

  3. The configurator is brilliant and it’s a lot of fun tweaking layouts and creating custom layers. I’ve submitted a few feature requests for it (including a simple macro system so that you could generate things like |> via a single keypress) and I’m still tweaking things but I’m loving the flexibility and ease of modifying the layouts.

  4. I’m learning to touch-type properly. I tend to use six fingers to type and am pretty fast but I’m not a touch-typist. I think that the keyboard will be even better if I can touch-type however so I’m going to put in the effort.

  5. I’m expecting this to be the case for a few weeks but my muscle memory throws me completely at times. It’s not just that some keys are very different (space being left thumb activated for example) but also that there are key combinations I use when writing code where I’m not conscious of the keys I press so having to think about them and then find them is proving to be the most painful part for me.

  6. I considered trying a couple of alternative keyboard layouts like (Programmer) Dvorak or Colemak but decided against it because of still using my MacBook and also iOS which doesn’t really support alternatives to QWERTY very well.

  7. ErgoDox EZ are really helpful people and the few questions I’ve asked and the suggestions I’ve made have all been responded to promptly and in a very friendly way.

Overall I’m really pleased and I knew I was going to face a learning curve so whilst occasionally typing can be frustrating I am slowly improving and retraining my muscle memory and feeling and seeing improvements is my typing is very encouraging. I’ve got no regrets at all about my purchase.

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Nice one Simon!! What was the total cost inc customs charges in the end?

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The keyboard (including the wrist rests and tilt kit cost £283 and then UPS added £52.36 on top, of which £40.86 is VAT which I can claim back.

It’s not cheap but I look on it as an investment in my overall welfare like the ergonomic chair I bought a couple of years ago.

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If you’re interested in keyboards you should check out QMK. It’s an open source keyboard firmware that lets you do a lot of interesting things. Here are a couple of my favorite features:

The leader key: If you’re a Vim user you probably know what this is. I think this one is best explained with an example. On Windows the screenshot shortcuts look something like this:

  • Print Screen: Take a screenshot of the desktop.
  • Windows + Print Screen: Take a screenshot of the desktop and save it to a file.
  • Windows + Shift + S: Take a screenshot of a selection.
  • Alt + Print Screen: Take a screenshot of the window.

With the leader key you can do something like this:

  • <Leader Key>sd: This means “press the leader key, then s, then d” and it’s a mnemonic for “take a (s)creenshot of the (d)esktop”.
  • <Leader Key>sdf: Take a (s)creenshot of the (d)esktop and save it to a (f)ile.
  • <Leader Key>ss: Take a (s)creenshot of a (s)election.
  • <Leader Key>sw: Take a (s)creenshot of the (w)indow.

Mod Tap + Ignore Mod Tap Interrupt: If your workflow is primarily keyboard driven imagine how convenient it would be to have all of your modifiers on the home row. You can hit many shortcuts without having to leave the home row (Ctrl + A, Ctrl + S, Ctrl + Shift + S, Ctrl + F, Ctrl + K, Ctrl + L, …) and most while only having to move a single finger a single key from the home row. I imagine this would’ve been nice to have back when I was an Emacs user.

For more see the features bit at https://docs.qmk.fm/.

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I use HHKB Professional 2

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I’ve got an Anne Pro 2, mostly because I’m moving around a lot and a Bluetooth 60% keyboard is very convenient. Can use it with my iPad Pro as well. When I eventually settle down I look forward to getting a full size again :slight_smile:

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