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Comment by davidjohnstone | Hacker News Reader

Don't all the other keyboards he suggests as alternatives have most of the same [perceived] problems as the Code keyboard? They all seem to have similarly positioned left Alt keys, wide spacebars and traditional (not ergonomic) layouts.

The Code keyboard does have multimedia keys — the insert/delete/home/end/page up/page down keys do that with a function button.

If I was in Atwood's position and making a perfect keyboard for myself, I'd do basically the same, but have dedicated multimedia keys.

The problem I have with all the alternatives suggested here is that I don't want my computer to look like a toy. Apple has done a good job at making their devices look sophisticated and professional, and I wish PC manufacturers made high end keyboards and mice for people apart from gamers.

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I think the authors point was to suggest that Atwood's keyboard is no better than existing models, which can be had for much, much less $$$

Most of the keyboards he links to don't achieve feature equality. As an example the first keyboard listed is the only backlit keyboard on the list. It has a bunch of extra "gaming" keys, has an identical list price of $150, and has a 70mb driver download. For the rest of the list the only thing they have in common with the CODE keyboard is mechanical switches. Sure Atwood didn't invent a new kind of keyboard, he just put one out with a certain set of features that he hadn't seen in an existing keyboard, which certainly wasn't contradicted by the linked article.

>no better than existing models

He didn't really go into that though. He looked at features, not materials or build quality, which are both major factors in mechanical keyboards. I can tell you first-hand that the materials that Logitech, Cooler Master, and Corsair use on those particular keyboards don't compare to anything that WASD uses; the K60 isn't even completely mechanical! Those are all "budget" mechanical keyboards. The Filco is more comparable, but at the same price and without backlighting or MX Clears.

From what I've read, Cooler Master and Filco use the same OEM (Costar) so there's almost no difference in quality between the two.

The CM Pro isn't Costar, but the linked one in the post is.

They keys are a bit nicer on the Filco and there are also more mods and replacement parts available for it (yay, aluminum bodies). The Filco PCBs are a bit better: "the through-holes for the switch pins has pads only on the top surface for CM, while Filco has pads that are on the top surface and goes all the way inside the holes. The trace/pads are less prone to being ripped out, but of course this probably only affects desoldering."

On top of that, Diatec (Filco) has great customer support and has been known to send their customers replacement parts long out of warranty.

I've heard that argument too, but so does Rosewill and there are definitely some quality issues there; that's certainly up for debate though. Some might also call Filco overpriced, but I've certainly never heard that about a WASD board.

Anyone who thinks a Filco is overpriced should just buy a Leopold.

Other than the stabilizer, they're almost the same keyboard by the same designer. :B

As a bit of a keyboard collector, I think the price for Atwood's keyboard is incredibly fair. It's actually priced pretty similarly to keyboards offering the same features and has some things that are really hard to get in an off-the-shelf keyboard (Cherry Clears).

The partnership with WASD Keyboards actually makes this board cheaper than it would have been otherwise.

Did you look at the keyboards linked at the bottom that the author suggests as good "modern" keyboards? They all look like either toys or else some kind of weird torture device for hands. I don't want a keyboard that looks like a modern art exhibit.

I've seen a bunch of these "reviews" and every single one of them seems to be complaining almost solely about the keyboard not being ergonomic. News flash, not everyone wants an ergonomic keyboard.

The only legitimate potential issue I've ever seen any of these reviews raise is that the keyboard might not be spill resistant which might be an issue for some.

Never been interested in an ergonomic even for a second, nor do I know anybody else who wants one.

I have a Das Keyboard S. Simple, high quality keyboard with everything in the right position.

I have the ultimate from Das. Best keyboard I've ever used.

about the left alt key, the author is an emacs user - so alt position is really important (Alt-X is a very popular shortcut). You can see on the pictures that alt keys positions do differ, sometimes as much as 1/4 of it's (alt keys's) width - it IS a lot.

Wherever the key is, you get used to it. Some keyboards put backslash in really dumb places, but a few hours in and you hardly notice.

I've used keyboards with backspace where F5 is on modern keyboards, and you know what? You deal.

"you deal" by remapping the keys, right ?

right ?

are you going to let a keyboard tell you what to do ?

You can't really remap keys on a dumb terminal. You're stuck with what they give you.

Your keyboard should be transparent, effortless, and this happens with any layout, no matter how ridiculous, with enough exposure. If customizing helps you, by all means, but some prefer to stick with stock layouts because it doesn't bother them.

The Alt key is one of the biggest critizisms (even though it's been the standard placement since the IBM-PC 101/104). Every other keyboard alternative shown has the exact same Alt key size and position.

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