I think I saw some post from you that you also are a programmer? If so what model do you suggest, both Mac and PC?
Not a programmer, no. A court reporter. Purely high speed text generation, with little or no navigation, but for hours on end at the speed of speech, with the usual recommended breaks.
I once did a calculation that showed over a 30 day month with an 8 hour day, I was averaging 23 words per minute, with absolutely no stopping for anything. These days I'm sort of retired, but still like to keep the mind and hands active.
As for recommending a model of keyboard, since I've little experience with programming, I'd hesitate to make any firm statement (I also know next to nothing about using a Mac), although I do recall seeing a (photo of a) programmable Maltron. It was probably a "once-off" product, but you could perhaps contact Martin at Maltron Sales and see what they can come up with.
I rest my hands on the keyboard so much I've glued rubber pads there, but because of the size of my hands my fingers are able to extend right up to most of the function keys while still resting.
I suspect that the "don't rest your hands"idea is one which is really only applicable to the QWERTY layout, since there are so many gross movements of hands and arms, hurdling from bottom row to top and back etc, that one would be forever lifting and lowering one's hands and probably cause more problems than just "hovering" the hands. It's something I notice that when I flick the switch on my Maltron and bring up the QWERTY layout (which I DON'T do very often) I have to hover, and getting back onto a flat QWERTY, my hands just about need a commercial jet pilot's licence to stay in the air. However, the Maltron, both in its physical form and key distribution has pretty much reduced the majority of keystroking to simply bending and straightening the fingers, with little gross hand movement.
I've never considered using the central trackball on the Maltron, preferring to use the Logitech Trackball Marble. I will sometimes have two computers operating simultaneously, so I have a trackball on either side of the keyboard, with each set for either left hand or right hand as required. If I was doing work which required lots of "mouseing" on a single computer, I'd probably have them both plugged into the same computer (via USB) and use whichever hand was suitable. But I've only done that very rarely.
When I was court reporting full-time, I had to get "dolled up to the nines", even wear a tie ... when I was actually in court, but other than that it was pretty much jeans and sneakers.
But when I played music, it was in an Irish pub band ...
so different strokes for different folks.
(Me playing mandolin, 12 string guitar and wooden flute.)
With regard to the lightweight nature of the keyboard, (on a different bulletin board?) it was suggested removing the bottom of the case and tape resin cored solder inside it to give it a bit of mass. Although mine doesn't seem to move about much as it has pretty good rubber feet on the corners.! (Plus I'm also resting my hands on the case, which helps keep it in place.)
Joe
