Hacker News Reader

Comment by ashton314 | Hacker News Reader

The most important thing to look for (imo) is programmability. You want a board that supports QMK or ZMK firmware. This lets you set up stuff like mod-tap, macros, mouse keys, etc. Mod tap is my favorite thing ergonomics-wise: v and m act as shift when held, normal letters when tapped. Really takes the strain off my pinkies. I also like having a navigation layer: hjkl in this layer act like vim-layout arrow keys.

I use a ZSA Moonlander. Best investment ever.

View on HN

In addition, get QMK with Via[0] or Vial[1] support compiled in! Then you could edit the keyboard configuration in a web browser (that supports WebUSB and WebAssembly), and you don't have to compile and flash the firmware every time you want to make a change.

0: https://www.caniusevia.com/

1: https://get.vial.today/

That is true, however, one thing to keep in mind, is that these tools like Via / Vial, will always be limited compared to a fully fledged programming language like C with and its QMK framework. Something that I only realized after the fact.

I think physical ergonomics is still way more important (so staggered splits with thumb cluster or even gloves)

So even with bad firmware you could move shift to a thumb key, which is better than V

But even with all the programmability you wouldn't be able to overcome the rsi-inducing design of the regular block when typing regular letters

Another good option is one of the UHK (Ultimate Hacking Keyboard) keyboards — I've been using them for years now and I'm very happy with them. The huge customizability is a big plus for me, especially as I use multiple operating systems: the ability to quickly switch the keyboard to generate Linux-friendly sequences (for things such as moving windows or switching between workspaces) makes life much easier.

https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com

I recently received me Moonlander; not only it's an amazing keyboard, but the customisation is beyond good; i'm still getting used to it, so my typing is slow, but i'll get there. And the team behind it is just out of this world, helping you in every step or question you have. This is a hardware company done right

Oh hi, another Moonlander connoisseur!

I love mine. The layout, the adjustments, the thumb cluster, the firmware. I put the navigation onto asdf to have a numblock-layer under my right hand.

Only negative is my cat managed to break the rather flimsy plastic around the thumb cluster screw and I had to lay it flat until I put something more solid under it to stabilize.

The Logitech K740 is hands down my favourite keyboard ever, but it's out of production.

The problem is the replacement is wireless and much thicker to accommodate that.

I tried the Logitech G915 but I like a full-size keyboard, they put the stupid "G" keys on it and it completely ruins the ergonomics for me.

I recently picked up the G915 and share the same frustrations. And it's too bad too because the keyboard itself is the best-feeling, lowest wrong-key-pressed keyboard I've ever used.

I'm desperately looking for the same keyboard without the G keys.

I hate the G915. I didn’t realize it before I bought one but my left hand indexes off of left CTRL and that extra column of G keys destroys my ability to use the keyboard because I’m always one column off.

Same although for me it's just stress - I manage the keyboard position with my pink along that edge, but the G keys mean I have to hover it instead. The slight posture change got pretty painful pretty quickly.

> The most important thing to look for (imo) is programmability.

This. In Plasma I swap some keys, but when I switch to TTY the keys are not swapped. Frustrating. This should clearly be done at hardware/firmware level.

As someone who switches between macos and windows on a daily basis, custom keyboard firmware has been such a game changer!

QMK can auto detect the OS and can easily remap some keys based on it, and since it's baked in the firmware it'll work with any program on any machine I plug it into!

Check out keymapper, it let's you rebind keys and intercepts keystrokes before the application receives them: https://github.com/houmain/keymapper

Have you tried Kmonad?

The moonlander looks a bit intimidating. How long did it take to transition from a standard kb?

I'm sure plenty of people had no trouble -- but personally I bought one after a shoulder surgery hoping I could use it to type without having to move my hands together, and I failed to ever get to the point where I could comfortably type with it. After trying for a couple weeks, I bought a Keychron Q11 QMK -- this is also split but with an otherwise standard layout -- and had no issues learning it. I actually still use it on my primary workstation even though I can physically use a normal keyboard.

Yeah, staggered rows of keys is what my muscle memory knows and whay I wouldn’t mess with it. Maybe for new generations who don’t want to wear our baggage but are these standardized yet?

A week or so. I regularly use normal keyboards and moonlander and I struggled with it. Too difficult to go back and forth throughout the day. Use a laptop regularly as well. Love the programability of moonlander but not worth it for me since I still need to use regular keyboards on a frequent basis. Wish they paired their software with a normal keyboard layout. Went back to regular qmk mechanical keyboards.

Took me 2 days or so

Do you have qmk on the moonlander?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com