geekhack
geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: colbs on Thu, 06 July 2017, 16:21:54
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Hi all,
For the last year or so, I have used mostly two layouts: an ergodox and ANSI layout 60% (have 2 of each, one for home and one for work). This has caused me no problems. I got a couple plancks to add to the rotation about a month ago (and love them).
I was switching between the ergodox and ANSI layouts all the time just fine, with almost no adjustment period when going from ortho to staggered or vice versa. However, once I got used to the planck, I became almost useless on the ANSI board, missing a ton of keys while typing, requiring quite a long adjustment period (10-15 minutes) before I have reasonable accuracy again.
So, here is what confuses me: why did switching between an ergodox and an ANSI board cause me no accuracy problems, but switching between a planck and an ANSI board did? In both cases, I am making a similar switch in terms of layout (ortho to staggered), so I find it bizarre that one transition seems so much harder than the other. Has anyone experienced something similar?
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Nope, the only confusion I experience, when switching between different keyboards (ErgoDox, TypeMatrix, heavily remapped staggered, and stock staggered), is position of Backspace/Enter and sometimes Control.
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Yeah, I have a bit of mixing up those keys as well. It is so strange, going from dox to staggered caused me no problems, but when I go from planck to staggered I keep messing up x/c and n/m. Welp, just need to get used to it a bit more I guess.
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One thing to keep in mind is that with the ErgoDox, you can rotate each half independently from each other -- so you can angle them such that your finger reach on a staggered layout can be similar. With an ortho-style layout, it's more like a fixed grid, so your fingers need to vertically up/down to reach the other rows. That's just a guess as to the cause of your problems.
One possible solution is to look at the Atreus or one of its derivatives. Another solution is to give up on staggered layouts completely (unless they come with the computer) -- this is my solution.
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One thing to keep in mind is that with the ErgoDox, you can rotate each half independently from each other -- so you can angle them such that your finger reach on a staggered layout can be similar. With an ortho-style layout, it's more like a fixed grid, so your fingers need to vertically up/down to reach the other rows. That's just a guess as to the cause of your problems.
One possible solution is to look at the Atreus or one of its derivatives. Another solution is to give up on staggered layouts completely (unless they come with the computer) -- this is my solution.
I think this is the difference, thank you. Makes perfect sense after looking at how I situate my ergodox halves. After another week or so, I have gotten more used to the transition but it still takes a bit of time to get used to the switch. I don't want to give up staggered layouts completely, as I still like to pull out the unicomp and hhkb once or twice a week. So until topre and buckling spring ergodox kits are available, I will have a bit of staggered in my life :P
thanks for your help