The best ergonomic keyboards on the market. | Hacker News Reader

The best ergonomic keyboards on the market.

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4 pointspeter1237 comments

I use the Kinesis Advantage Ergonomic Keyboard featured (except in black). It's pretty great.

The best bit is the placement of the non-alphanumeric keys e.g. space, enter, delete, backspace, ctrl, alt, etc. They are all placed in those two clumps under each of your thumbs where a traditional long space bar would be.

It also has arrow keys arranged in a Vim-like JKLH arrangement just below the "normal" keys.

I also type Dvorak on it and I can configure that within the keyboard software rather than in the OS, not that that's particularly hard but it's nice to plug and go. (I don't have the slightly more expensive Dvorak keycaps model they sell because if you're looking at the keys then you're doing it wrong)

The placing of the common modifier keys under your thumbs is great on this keyboard. I think it has a lot of design features I'm not even conscious of (the thing is just so fast and comfortable), but another of my favorites is how little force is required to put the keys, and how deep they press before they hit bottom (as soon as they engage, the circuits trigger an audible "click" so you know you don't need to press further). That leads to a lot less strain on your tendons and joints.

Every time I've had a question about one of mine, they give me great support. They're sturdy and well-engineered -- no disposable-age manufacturing shortcuts. I own two, and I'll take them with me to the grave.

EPID, but in my personal experience the most ergonomic keyboard is the smallest keyboard (with full-size keys obviously) as that involves the least amount of hand movement and least unnatural stretch to the mouse.

For many years I have been an enthusiastic user of the Happy Hacking keyboard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard

Not to sound like an infomercial, but it fixed all my hand/wrist pain problems. The other advice I received, which also helps after that too-long playstation session, is to sleep with your hands straight (wrist unbent, fingers uncurled).

Not a comprehensive summary of the available options. If you're really interested, you might check out the Typing Injury FAQ and their list of alternate keyboards at http://tifaq.org/keyboards.html

Does anyone have experience with a chording keyboard? The idea has intrigued me, but I haven't ponied up to try one out, yet. It appears there are now more choices; the last time I looked, I didn't find much other than the BAT, and the over $200 pricetag (at that time) was a deterrent.

http://tifaq.org/keyboards/chording-keyboards.html

I spent a couple of months with a Twiddler, and while there was something satisfying about learning a new typing-language, it ended up hurting my hands more (I would switch off hands). It could have been just the shape of my hand, but it put a lot of strain on my wrist tendons to keep it steady and mash the keys.

I've always wondered about that AccuKey though.

I own a CyKey (in a cupboard, little used) and briefly owned its predecessor the AgendA.

Chording is a nice idea, could be brilliant if wrapped around the edge of a phone/PDA (e.g. http://www.xaphoon.com/dataegg/ ) but is too slow to be an everyday desktop keyboard replacement. Less comfortable than normal typing, as you use many fingers per character instead of just one. Even if you're one handed it's probably still faster to type on a normal keyboard.

As the CyKey goes, it has a bit of a classic Spectrum rubber keyboard feel, not much feedback.

Don't splash out just to try the idea, I've just cobbled together some Python/TKinter that you can play with here:

http://pastebin.com/fbb84a75

It's a text box and you can chord using the right arrow key along with the numeric keypad keys 4/6/8/enter (I find them a pretty good fit for my fingers).

The chords are here: http://megasharp.com/cykey.asp (plus "thumb" on its own for space).

There are many more in the CyKey system for numbers, punctuation, shifting, control keys and so on, but a) I don't know what they are, and b) it's freaking patented/copyrighted so I oughtn't even use these few.

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