jklp: a 36-key ergonomic keyboard | Hacker News Reader

jklp: a 36-key ergonomic keyboard

github.com

13 pointsteaspoon6 comments

I wonder why most ergonomic keyboards have the halves pointed in, so your hands are like /\, rather than V. When I used a Freestyle I greatly preferred the V shape, quite spread apart, to reduce pectoral tightness.

I think it’s because they’re so tiny.

I have a kinesis advantage and love it. Tried others and I don’t like that they feel to me too cramped.

I’m not small either at 6’2” with broad shoulders... I might not be the target audience.

Yeah, tiny keyboards are a menace.

I had a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro for many years, the one with full size arrow keys, and I loved it.

The thing with the angle-in is because that's how most people's arms and wrists naturally fall when they put them in a relaxed position (on a table, in their lap) in front of them. Having your wrists at the same width as your elbows is for many people not a natural relaxed position.

I do like the Kinesis "fall-down" button position, though. I imagine your wrists don't bend back-/upwards as much? Today I have a large/wide armrest to avoid the wrist-bend. No ergonomical keyboard, though. A Corsair Strafe Silent RGB.

It's to keep your wrists straight. Bad wrist positioning is one of the bigger causes of major discomfort or repretive strain injury. Unless you have a keyboard that is wider than you are, your hands are going to be closer together than your elbows when you type, so having the halves of the keyboard point inward rather than outward is what will keep your wrists straight.

Yeah, the freestyle has the 2 halves of the keyboard disconnected and freely movable, so really it's like \___/. Set up at a slight outward roll, my wrists were straight, and you avoid the effects of being hunched over, tightly crowded around your keyboard for x hours a day.

Ah, I have a keyboard with two separate halves myself. I did try putting the halves further apart but found I didn't like it. It's probably relevant that 'hunching over' is something I tend to do even if I'm not at a desk.

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