I don't get the obsession with custom keyboard with ever fewer keys. If I designed one, if anything it would have at least a few more modifier keys that a standard keyboard.
Keyboards with support for custom firmware (https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/) can also greatly increase the functions of normally single-use keys at the cost of a steeper learning curve.
Simply: fewer keys means less travel for your wrists and fingers, albeit (as someone mentioned) at the cost of a steeper learning curve in order to master the layer-switching and dual-use keys that you need to make such a small keyboard work. Germ, designer of the Gergo split-ergo keyboard that I currently use at home, has a good post on it here: https://blog.gboards.ca/2019/11/on-gergoplex-and-updates-let...
I use a Keyboardio Model01 split ergonomic keyboard at work.
Almost every fancy mechanical keyboard seems to do away with it, though, so presumably a lot of people are OK without one.
I’d say most analytics focused people will need to do something like this at some point - that, and people who are forced to interact with spreadsheets occasionally.
I also remember owning a Samsung Alias 2, which had e-ink keys so you could use it in either vertical or horizontal orientation.
They are $100 each though.
I use a ten key less keyboard so I can put the mouse closer to it.
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cdn.coolermaster.com/asse...
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/peripheral/keyboards/ma...
Also I use it for software like Blender for camera controls. (Though this is probably more of a niche use case...)
Pie menus addon is a game changer for that though. Hold Q, push your mouse toward the desired view direction, and let go. It's honestly even faster than moving my hand from the mouse to the numpad.
You still lose the 4/8/6/2 shortcuts for orbiting in 15° increments, but I never used those much. It gives quick access to front/back/left/right/top/bottom preset views. The ortho/perspective toggle is in a second-layer "More" menu which isn't ideal, but quick enough action for something that I'm not changing back and forth all the time.
You can also navigate the pie menus with number keys, so typing q-1-4 will pull up the menu, open the second level, and toggle ortho/perspective.
In addition to being quicker than moving my hand to the numpad, I also like that it keeps my desktop UI consistent with my laptop where I don't have a numpad either.
Outside of the numpad and pie menus, 2.8 has the clickable view gizmo in the top right corner for people who like to click on stuff. That's a nice addition for new users, it's certainly the most discoverable of the three options.
My current keyboard doesn't have one (it shipped faster and that was more important to me at the time), and I really miss it, and I'm thinking of getting a separate 10-key. I thought it wouldn't miss it that much, but I use numbers frequently enough that it's noticeable.
I wish keyboards had removable 10-keys so I could save space on my desk until I need it. Likewise for page-up (etc) and arrow keys.
The Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless comes with a separate number pad, which you can place wherever you like.
There are separate numpads, i.e. USB keyboards that are only the numpad. My brothers are civil engineers, and they use these when working with AutoCAD on a notebook since AutoCAD apparently puts a lot of stuff on numpad keys.
With a centering mark in the middle of the pad, and only the need to move fingers forwards and backwards (no sideways motion), sustained input of 10,000 digits per hour, with 0 mistakes, is not just possible to expected.
For me I find that typing numbers with the top row the home keys for the letters are still useful for centering to move between letters and numbers.
Couldn't you argue only having to move sideways for typing is more efficient than having to move forwards and backwards? Plus you can use two hands to divide the digits between left and right hand.
I tried to go 60%(?) with a Pok3r but I like having the arrow keys available without having to use a modifier key.
[1] https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0267/1905/products/tada68-...
I just learned about the existence of smaller keyboards like a year ago, have always had one of those monstrous l33t gamer keyboards decked out with macro keys because they were the only mechanical ones at decent prices last time I was in the market. Just hated the space it took up on my desk.
Right now I'm using a cheap Reddragon K552 because I too like having the arrow keys available and mechanical+backlit was non-negotiable for me. After a few months of heavy use the cheapness is starting to show itself in the key wobble though, do you have any suggestions for a decently priced alternative with better build quality?
After having a TKL, I don't know how any gamer can use a full size. Now I can't see myself going back to full size even if I stopped gaming, despite me constantly eyeing the Logitech MX Keys everytime I'm in Best Buy. The mechanical switches (brown) have grown on me finally; this after having went through a mechanical phase years ago only to not see what all fuss was about. The noise I have drowned out and the the smooth presses are pleasure to type on.
I have looked far for a lower profile scissor switch TKL that can handle gaming (NKRO and backlighting) but doesn't exist. The only negatives of mechanical keyboards are a) the noise which I mentioned and b) the tallness of them. I would never consider having a mechanical like this in the work place because of the noise.
FYI this is the keyboard I have. Highly recommended for the price. Held up for a year now so far of daily use. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFBKYT5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_0...
I like the HHKB because of its default layout and how it feels in addition to the way it looks. I wouldn't use these smaller ones, but I understand why people like to play with them.
Using your right pinkie to hit function and then having the arrows right there is nice. I also use caps lock as control and it’s nice to have it as a hardware default in the HHKB too.
I type pretty fast (100 wpm or so), but when programming typing speed is rarely the bottleneck. I suspect people just rationalize fashion to themselves by pretending it’s also better, but everyone is different so maybe some people actually prefer the complexity.
I do wish full size keyboards stopped wasting so much space with the space bar though, the way small keyboards do. That would put more modifier keys in the reach of your thumbs.
Or you're using Vim where just hitting v is all it takes.
I definitely wouldn't use an even smaller board than 40%, though - that is basically the lower limit for me where I can still map all keys to positions I'm comfortable with. Lower than that and I'd need to start using multiple modifiers at once for some symbols.
I use a 30%(33 keys) as my daily driver and I very rarely need 3+ button combos even though my arrow keys are in a seperate layer.
For example: My "A" and "O" key acts as shift when held. My "Z" key switches to the layer where "h;,." are arrow keys and adds "CMD" as a modifier. So to select left I do "Z + A + H". I use colemak so A is right above Z.
There are other tricks I do for reducing layer switches. On almost every keyboard "." and "," are next to each other but they are never used together in any human or programming language. "/" is not used that often so it doesn't make much sense to have it in the main layer of a small keyboard. So I made my "," key to output a "/" if pressed immediately after "." for typing "./". I have some other keys that act different if pressed after a certain key.
That been said, I honestly can’t imagine how you’d write code with 28 keys. I assume this is for some sort of steno.
Even should the actions become muscle memory (I own, but no longer use, a HHKB and know that muscle memory fits in), that muscle memory will fail me the moment I have to use another keyboard, causing a mental stutter as I consciously override my muscle memory (with the HHKB, that was escape and delete in particular).
Moreover, I can feel my way around a keyboard and find all of the keys I could need by the clustering and relative position to the home row. Since I don't rest my hands on the keyboard while typing, this movement is not at all uncomfortable or distracting.
That's why I like full keyboards, why even I could find a keyboard with more keys useful.
IIRC, this idea was originally proposed on reddit as a joke taking this idea to the extreme.
I never really got used to using the numpad block, and it's nice to have the mouse a little bit closer. But I definitely use the navigation keys (both the arrow keys and the Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn block), F-keys, symbols (`~[{]}\|;:'",<.>/?), all of the modifier keys, Esc, and PrtSc.
Also it's more comfortable to use the arrow keys and PgUp, PgDown without the numpad. (I'm on TKL)
I think the obsession with small keyboards is manyfold:
1) Large keyboards get in the way of the mouse.
2) People have noticed that they have to move strangely to press keys the farther away they are from home row. 1 is a stretch for most people, F5 is probably impossible. So why include them?
3) It's easier. After laying out 107 keys in CAD, waiting for an 18"x9" keyboard to print in three pieces, soldering 107 diodes, soldering 27 wires to my microcontroller, and reading the entire STM32F103 reference manual to figure out why one row didn't work... I can tell you that a 28 key keyboard seems a lot easier to build ;)
4) They use the same keyboard for home and work, and want something easier to carry around. When I switched to an Ergodox a couple years ago, I managed this for about 3 days before buying another one. To me $600 on keyboards is nothing, but to a lot of people, that's unimaginable.
Personally, I see the advantages with both approaches. I don't actually have ({}) keys on my keyboard; they're on a layer and under the jkl; fingers, because that's easier to type than moving my pinky to some weird place to jab them with my weakest finger hundreds of times a day. So using a Planck or a 28 key keyboard wouldn't feel all that different to me when programming or writing prose.
But what people don't consider are all the cases where you aren't touch typing but are instead issuing high-level commands to the computer. Some people frequently use mouse-driven software (CAD, video editing, etc.) and have the option to either pick a command out of the menu, or press a key on the keyboard. With a 28 key keyboard, the typing route means taking your hands off the mouse and pressing at least three keys at the same time. So you pick it out of the menu. With a full keyboard, you can use the "wrong hand" to press F12 or something, and not break your flow by navigating through 8 layers of menus.
(Even with all this in mind, a split 107 key keyboard doesn't help every use case. Some games really want you to type right hand keys with your left hand, and a split keyboard makes that difficult. I don't play any of those games, though ;)
And my keymap file: https://gist.github.com/burakcan/dbb292e47df2defaffd405669fe...
It's probably not something I would use unless I can find a way to make mod-tap more reliable for me (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22112693). But using a tap dance for ESC (or some other key) seems like an idea I could steal to free up a key for other uses.
This also got me to look into quad function tap dance and I realized I could use it to bind altgr to the same key I use for alt and dash with a double tap + hold. This should work since I've never seen any program require a combo that uses alt and altgr at the same time.
It seems like you don't have a mechanism for inputting ^X, how do you deal with that?
#define TAPPING_FORCE_HOLD #define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT #define TAPPING_TERM 200
> It seems like you don't have a mechanism for inputting ^X, how do you deal with that? I use macos so there's no need for it. Cut is CMD+X on macos. But to do CMD+D I have 2 CMDs (D and K). Same goes for shifts (A and O)