Typing Keyboard Recommendations

[emenel]

I love the functionality of the Core … but it drives me nuts that there’s a key that says “Win”. Are those standard key caps? If it bugs my ocd could I just replace it?

[stripes]

i don’t know too much about keycaps, but i know the ones on the core are DSA profile. they can be found online but usually you have to buy some kind of set vs just a single key, and like all weird niche things they are usually expensive. i’m also not sure if that exact color grey that vortex uses is available from other sellers.

could definitely be done, but may take some digging to find exactly what you want… would be nice if they just included different OS caps with the keyboard.

[scrag]

I quite like the look of this… is it plain sailing with Teletype - just plug it in and go? Any gotchas / niggles to be aware of before I splash out?

[stripes]

yea - just plug in and type!

a couple things to note that mine does:

• the tilde ~ for switching into pattern view isn’t printed on the ESC key, but still, pressing Fn1+ESC will take you to pattern view all the same.

• you don’t have to press Fn+Caps for Tab to toggle between live and script view, you only need to hit Caps.

those were the only TT specific things that i noticed, and they ended up being things that i was happy to discover so i never read into it. everything else works as expected.

[sam]

I’m currently rocking an HHKB Professional 2 Type-S (such a daft name…), the layout works really with Linux, and it’s really nice to type on. I like the fact that there is little in the way of accessories to buy, no $$$ key sets, or anything like that. Just the odd coloured key cap or space bar.

I did build a Planck, but never really clicked with it. It’s just sat in a drawer at the moment waiting for me to sell it…

[oscillateur]

I could never code with a keyboard like that… I use the arrow keys (and also insert/delete/home/end) far too much. And they numpad pretty often too (though this one I could live without if needed).

I actually use arrow + modifier key (ctrl, shift, etc.) very often when navigating code, you’d need an additional keypress to do the same thing, right ?

These things look nice though, I kinda want to like them but I need my arrows .

[lijnenspel]

All keys incl arrows are available, its just a matter of switching layers which means you need to hold an additional key. The arrow keys might be hidden under ‘wasd’ or ‘hjkl’ keys. Here’s for example the keymap of the planck, the bottom row contains the layer keys ‘lower’ and ‘raise’ which allow you to go up or down to the symbols, numbers or even music layer Might sound like a hassle, but your muscle memory will learn quick.

[sam]

I’m either using something with Vi style keybindings and modes. Or failing that I will fall back to Emacs style key bindings. Neither of which need arrow keys for moving. Arguably it’s better as you don’t need to remove your hands from the home row, especially as the HHKB has the CTRL key in a useful place, it’s also a lot easier to press ALT without a CTRL key next to it.

If you use OSX it’s well worth learning some Emacs bindings as they work in most text fields, you can change caps lock to CTRL to in the keyboard settings too.

In fairness to the HHKB, the arrow keys are really easy to use. But maybe not with modifiers too.

[rick_monster]

finally received a keyboardio model 1 in the post after a worryingly long kickstarter delay. First impressions of this thing for basic internet use & typing is very positive. Obviously jumping straight from many years typing on a regular square layout is pretty brutal but an hour or so in and I’m basically able to type again. Here’s a picture of the weird clunky thing in all it’s rainbow LED-ed glory.

For some people the most weird thing about this keyboard would be the extensive usage of thumb keys for shift, space, ctrl, alt etc. However I’ve been doing something similar for ages with my keyboard layout. Xah Lee’s ‘swap ctrl & alt’ tip is genius but be warned this blog post could be considered a gateway drug for expensive keyboards http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/swap_CapsLock_Ctrl.html .

The first thing I did notice compared to typing on a square mechanical layout is I couldn’t read the text on my screen properly when using a ‘tented’ configuration on the keyboardio. This is because the keyboard actually makes you sit up straight! Yup, as in straight upper back!!! I tilted the screen back 10 degrees & continued the test…

An hour or so later my weak hunched over spine is kind of protesting at being forced to sit straight but slowly getting to grips with the new layout & finally stopped hitting ‘Esc’ instead of ‘B’. First impressions this thing does exactly what it says on the tin - finally a really really well designed keyboard that isn’t constantly trying to ruin your posture.

I’ll report back on this thing again once I figure out how much messing around will be required to drive emacs after such a huge upset to my central nervous system…

[bpcmusic]

For traveling with my TT, I’ve settled on this little collapsable keyboard that has its own internal battery for operating its backlight (which is amazing to have on a dark plane flight):

Not the cheapest thing in the world (approx. $43) - but way smaller than any other portables I could find and has a pretty good key feel for its size.

Amazon.com: MoKo Universal Foldable Keyboard, with 3 Color LED Backlit,...

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Brendon Cassidy

Brendon Cassidy

[rick_monster]

persevered with keyboardio & back to emacs coding using the unfamiliar layout. This thing has been really very well designed & thought through.

It fits my hand incredibly well & seemingly allows every conceivable pressing/chording hack without noticeable hand strain e.g:

• ‘double-thumbing’ adjacent thumb keys
• shifting the whole hand down to chord thumb keys with fingers.
• excellent use of 'outer-palming-technique in place of pinky-hyper-extension

Firmware updating was a breeze & the code seems pretty clean (at top level anyway!).

The stock bindings were somewhat terrible for my emacs use - ended up spending basically a whole day figuring out a workable layout but with that out of the way I can code again at probably half my previous speed. Switching to & fro a laptop chiclet it’s really noticeable how little this thing strains the hands & the tented/angled layout still feels like it will fix 90% of my bad posture.

So teething problems aside, I’m calling this is the holy grail of ergonomic keyboards! Well worth a shot if you spend one half of your life contorting your hands at a computer & the other half contorting them round a guitar…

[lijnenspel]

Had an evening of keyboard building. Built a Lets Split with Matias Quiet Clicks, my fav switches. Up next a white Nyquist.

[szymon_k]

I’m on ergodox currently, but with my custom mappings and the way I use thumb keys, I could get rid of about 20 keys I’m thinking of designing my own small split layout and 3d-printing at some point.

[lijnenspel]

I’d love to see something in between a Lets Split and Ergodox. The bottom row of the LS is a bit hard to reach with thumbs when doing combos, so I’d love to see the thumbkeys of the ergo dox on a 30/40% ortholinear split keyboard.

[jlmitch5]

This one is small, minimal, mechanical, non-backlit and under $40 USD…I wonder if the wireless will work with Teletype?

Velocifire K61WS

[jonsimon]

i got this and i love it. it perfectly matches the 128’s led’s, also.

Amazon.com: Royal Kludge RK61 61 Keys Wired/Wireless Multi-Device Yellow LED...

also i successfully used this logitech bluetooth keyboard. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014EUQOGK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_mShUAbHZA2GVC)

it just isn’t anywhere as cool as the first one☝🏼.

[jonsimon]

[jlmitch5]

@jonsimon Thank you for sharing. I’m considering this Royal Kludge keyboard, because of the multi-device stuff. Specifically, I would love to be able to use just 1 keyboard and switch back and forth between my Mac (bluetooth) and the Teletype. Have you happened to try this feature of the keyboard out?

Also–I feel like I’ve fallen down a mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. The amount of variation between keyboards (layout/switch type/wire(less) features/led/etc.), combined with the fact that there really isn’t a way to find exactly what you want (without going into the pretty expensive custom/boutique stuff) has caused me to sink a lot of time into this, hah

[laborcamp]

Did you try it?
Or did anyone?

[jlmitch5]

I can no longer find the 61 key velocifire one I had posted about (the link seems to have been replaced with a kinda clunky looking full-size layout one). I never ended up grabbing that one.