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Comment by thristian | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to have a mechanical-switch keyboard someday; unfortunately most of the ones I've seen (including the ones in this article) tend to be full-size 104-key keyboards, while my tastes tend toward smaller keyboards like the Happy Hacker keyboard (which is excellent but uses rubber-dome switches).

Right at the moment I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad USB keyboard because it's a smallish keyboard with a built-in trackpoint device (one less reason to ever leave the home row). If it wasn't for the trackpoint, however, I'd be back on the HHKB - I like the layout more and I seem to have less trouble finding the arrow keys by feel.

Since they don't make HHKB keyboards any more, I suspect my next keyboard might very well be an Apple USB mini-keyboard - it's got the layout I like, it's small and light, and I suspect I could get used to the key-switches soon enough...

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The HHKB is very much still in production (mine just arrived last week), though it can be hard to get one in the US. I ordered mine from http://elitekeyboards.com.

My HHKB is replacing a 16 year-old Apple Extended Keyboard. It's definitely not as click-clacky as a buckling spring keyboard, but it's much easier on my wrists (and doesn't wake people up when I'm hacking at night).

Hmm... elitekeyboards.com only seems to have the HHKB Professional 2... the one I have is a "HHKB Lite 2", which (in a strange inversion of the usual hierarchy) includes an extra Fn key on the left and an inverted-T arrow-key cluster.

I realise using arrow keys is heresy to a certain subset of the programming community, but I've been using them for decades and it's hard to give them up.

I realise using arrow keys is heresy to a certain subset of the programming community, but I've been using them for decades and it's hard to give them up.

Then buy a RealForce or the Japanese HHKB Professional instead:

http://www.g-ray.co.uk/pictures/Realforce87U2b.jpg

http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/lineup/pdkb420b.html

FWIW, I use the arrows once in a while (not everything supports Emacs-style keybindings, after all, especially on Windows), and I like the HHKB's approach. Less hand movement than normal arrow keys.

in a strange inversion of the usual hierarchy, includes an extra Fn key on the left and an inverted-T arrow-key cluster

"Lite" refers to the price, not the number of keys. Topre keyswitches are not cheap. A rubber membrane is.

The lite can be found here http://pfuca-store.stores.yahoo.net/haphackeyser.html

Though they didn't take away their days unavailable from august. I believe this yahoo store is also found from the officials manufacturers website for buying the keyboards.

The arrow keys are accessible with the function key. It seems awkward at first, but after a day of use it becomes very natural.

If it's what you really want, the HHKB Lite 2 is actually sold in the US and is quite a bit cheaper (though the switches aren't as nice).

Can you reprogram where arrow keys are? I have my arrow keys in emacs as Alt and then IJKL (like WASD), so it would be nice if Fn IJKL worked the same in OS.

No, you can't reprogram them.

HHKB Professional keyboards are not rubber-dome keyboards. They do use rubber domes to provide tactile feedback, but the actual switch mechanism is capacitive.

The reason rubber-dome keyboards are bad is because you have to bottom-out to get the key to register. Topre switches (which is what the HHKB and Realforce keyboards use) do not have this problem.

Also, HHKBs are very much still in production.

I think I can get by without right-hand number pad (that's for accountants). But how do you substitute for grey +-*/ keys?

There's mathematical operator keys in the main part of the keyboard too. :)

When I had those keys on the keypad, I never really used them because they were further away from the home row than their counterparts on the main keyboard. With the left-hand hitting Shift (if necessary), it's not difficult to hit them with the right hand.

Those keys are good not only for typing in mathematical operators, but also for shortcuts. They must emit different keycodes from the ones one the main keyboard, and you don't need shift. I don't know how to do Shift+ or Control+ without them.

Maybe I should finally switch to Linux. There, you don't even need F keys in the terminal ;-)

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