How much does having the sides separate help?
> How much does having the sides separate help?
I'm currently on my second Matias Ergo Pro [1]. I love the thing, it is one of my favorite tools I've used in any industry. I put it up there with VIM, the hydraulic press, and Snap-On ratchets. I'll be honest, I prefer Cherry keys to these Alps clones, and the build quality is absolutely excellent in some aspects yet atrocious in other aspects. But a split keyboard with actual F* keys (used heavily in Jetbrains IDEs, plus I've got a bunch of KDE features on them) has become a necessary tool for me.
I'm now considering a Raise keyboard, which like the UHK is missing the F* keys. I'm right now prototyping some F* keypads, not unlike an independent numpad, but in truth I doubt that I will approach the level of comfort as the Matias boards.
I'm happy to answer any questions you have about mechanical or split boards. I've had quite a few )).
I know everyone makes a big deal over key switches, but that's not something I've ever felt strongly about.
I really wish I could find an old MS Natural keyboard without the number pad. It would be great if the sides were fully separated, but that's less important to me. I've been using the MS Sculpt for a couple years now, and even after all that time I find my muscle memory is still calibrated to the old MS natural.
> I really wish I could find an old MS Natural keyboard without the number pad.
I actually sawed off the end, and folded the membrane underneath. The rest I filled in with Sugru I believe. I really don't remember if that was before or after I saw someone on Geekhack do the same. Those were terrific keyboards, I still have at least one (modified, but in a different way) in storage.
The Matias has volume keys, but they are on the F10, F11, and F12 keys when pressed with the Fn key. But the new version of the Matias can be reprogrammed, so the otherwise useless Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste keys can be made into volume keys.
The lack of tenting is about the only thing giving me pause. There's also no Home, End or Insert keys[2] but that is not a deal breaker for me.
[1] https://x-bows.com/products/x-bows-knight-ergonomic-mechanic...
[2] Can possibly deal with that via function layers.
ly going to be making errors like this. If you can get your hands on one to evaluate first I’d recommend that. For normal text typing though it’s probably fine.
I have a gallery of mechanical split keyboards, but I don't think what you want exists there either. You could design a PCB yourself.
The "Natural Ergonomic Keyboard, Type A", an open-source, mechanical reconstruction of MS Natural.
A fixed keyboard forces you to find an appropriate position and stick with it, whereas I spent too much time constantly fiddling with the spacing and positioning of the split halves.
To make matters worse, the particular model I had didn't stay put, as each half was only half the weight of a single unit, and thus prone to being nudged out of alignment when I got up / sat down / moved about (I am not the most graceful of people).
In the end, I used a little plastic hinge to keep them together (while still allowing some room to open / close the angle they met at), and gave up on it entirely when the plastic hinge broke.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that unlike most split keyboards, this one snaps together such that you wouldn’t even know it is split. This is useful when you do want to pick it up or when you let someone else type on it
As for moving it, I don't move the keyboard that often, and even if so, the halves can lock together.
I'd wager you're setup really is more ergonomic.