What keyboard are you using now? Myself I have got pain in my finger joints only from full-travel rubber domes: some Dell keyboard and from Topre.
If you touch-type, going columnar makes more difference than if you tend to move your hands around a lot.
For the wrists: tenting and not having your desk too high. Your forearms should be horizontal and your wrists straight.
Separation between halves is more for the shoulders than for the wrists.
I'm using two mechanical keyboards, alternating depending on the household cleaning
)
- Cooler Master Quick Fire TK with Brown Switches
- Cooler Master Novatouch TKL with Topre
But I'm using the Brown Switches from some weeks now.. I don't remember how it was with the Topre...
I will try with it, now I'm feeling some inconvenience..
And yes I'm pretty sure that tenting will make the difference.. But I guess that having tilted keyboard is easier when it is split..
And having split keyboard will allow my arms to be parallel which seems also more comfortable..
A few points:
1. You don't need a $300 keyboard for more comfort. I'm using a $35 or so Periboard-512 (https://www.amazon.com/Perixx-PERIBOARD-512-Ergonomic-Split-Keyboard/dp/B075GZVD4T) at the moment while I wait for the opportunity to hopefully make the "perfect" board; but in the meantime, this is just fine and I'm decently comfortable. When I go back to standard, non-split keyboards, it's very noticeable in my wrists.
2. Don't underestimate layouts. I use the Norman layout and one of the design criteria of the layout was limited pinky load. Norman is criticized for having worse efficiency metrics than other layouts, but having gotten up to at least 50 wpm with both Colemak Mod-DH and Dvorak, in my experience, the price of alleged efficiency is discomfort. I liked Dvorak much more than Colemak Mod-DH, but when I got up to a decent speed, I began noticing nerve pain in my right pinky ("L" in Dvorak is where "P" is in Qwerty. Note that I broke my right pinky when I was a kid and it apparently never fully recovered), so I switched back to Norman immediately and was amazed by how comfortable it is in comparison to both of them. Some people may claim that layouts aren't very important, but based on my experience, you should ignore them.
Please note that this isn't a complete recommendation of Norman. You'll want to assess a layout's design philosophy/criteria and see how you feel about it. Also, I recommend getting up to at least 50 wpm when learning a new layout, since that's the beginning of "fluency", in my opinion and experience, and you won't really know how a layout actually feels before then. Don't be afraid to try out several of them. Download Amphetype or Klavaro (or whatever. I've used them and can recommend them. Amphetype is the best, in my opinion) and have fun!
3. To help alleviate pinky pain while you wait to locate/build your perfect keyboard, you might consider trying something like this, especially if you use an ISO keyboard:
https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/gfx/mod_dh_keyb_iso_wide.png
https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/gfx/mod_dh_keyb_ansi.png
It'll get you one key closer to enter and backspace with your right pinky which could potentially help a lot. Also, you might want to remap backspace to caps lock, which is really easy in Linux (saw that you use Linux in your other thread. To spare you having to maybe look it up, just use "-option caps:backspace" with setxkbmap). When typing heavily and using the standard backspace position when I was learning Norman and making all sorts of mistakes, it hurt my pinky, so it can potentially do damage. Besides that, you already pointed out some things to make hotkeys easier which would obviously be very smart if you have left pinky pain.
Good luck, and I hope you'll achieve a very comfortable computing environment. :- ]
P.S. First post. Hi, GH. :- ]
1. Yes I guess that one can easily have good habits and decent comfort with entry level keyboard..
Before the mechanical one, I'm used to have the Perixx PERIBOARD-506..
But I really think that the keyboard is THE most important tool someone that use a computer on a daily basis should have!
So I won't do the math for that..
But since I was graduated in EE with a minor in Mechanics, it will be a nonsense if I don't made my own!
Plus, I have some really great improvements idea related to electronics..
2. I'm using azerty (maybe the worst layout around there for programming
) but I started a process to remap all the symbols in one key stroke and het rid off all unnecessary glyphs (or at least made them available with modifier).
But I agree that the layout is really important.. For example, I started to test a mapping where I mapped all control keys (backspace, delete, enter, arrows) around the home row when using a modifier key.. And indeed it seems better..
I need some adjustment with xkb since I'm tweaking since less a day
I thought many times about definitely switching to an alternative layout like dvorak (or bepo for french) or colemak but I never decided.. So I sticked with azerty..
I never tried some sessions in those different layout because I don't think that testing a layout a moment cannot bring me enough visibility to check for the efficiency (I mean more the comfort efficiency than the speed).
But in order to get rid off my pain I think that a good position among touch typing will be enough..
I'm not really concerned about speed efficiency. I'm not a writer after all..
3. Yep I'm using an ISO keyboard and already mapped the caps to escape..
But as I said I'm trying some stuffs by setting the space as a modifier.. I think that going this way feels good..
P.S. Yeah! GH is a great community (myself I am more a ghost user though)
A high tenting angle will fix all of that..
don't bother with a flat fixed keyboard, they won't do anything for the wrist.
Yep, when I want to rest I rotate my hands as if I'm using a tilted keyboard and it feels good.
But now I'm more concerned about my pinkies that start to show some inconveniences and I'm afraid that this would become worse.