geekhack

geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: User on Mon, 17 August 2015, 01:50:25

Title: Choosing keyboard for emacs/xmonad user
Post by: User on Mon, 17 August 2015, 01:50:25

Recently I started thinking about switching to mechanical keyboard (currently I use a standard curved keyboard where I can touch type). As one of my coworkers had a sample set of switches I could try a few and I liked the clear switches the best (with both greys on second and brown on close third). As he had a clear keyboard I borrowed it for a day. While it had a very good feeling I've noticed that something's 'wrong' with my wrist after day of typing on that keyboard, which made me consider my options before making decisions.

About my use-case:

• I'm programmer and I use emacs/xmonad so I use relatively large number of special keys and symbols
• While I currently touch type I usually use 2-4 fingers
• Programmability of keyboard would be an additional plus as KVM switch requires 5 key presses to switch by keyboard
• I do use the laptop from time to time

I've thought so far about following keyboards:

• Standard flat mechanical keyboard with a wrist rest and/or adjustment of height of desk. This seems to be fastest (no relearning) & cheapest option.
• TEK keyboard - it seems nice though it's doesn't seems to be very programmable
• Kinesis Advantage - it seems bulky and intimidating but I've read some good reviews. Also the feature list includes the macros
• ErgoDox - it's not immediately available as I don't have any workbench for soldering. However it should have great programmability

(This is almost a repost from new member forum but I did get a suggestion there to post here and I could not find any guideline regarding reposting etiquette)

Title: Re: Choosing keyboard for emacs/xmonad user
Post by: vvp on Mon, 17 August 2015, 03:34:05

From the options you propose, I would go with kinesis advantage and I would add palm switches (so that keypad shift is easily available):
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=26579.msg654438#msg654438

Allegedly kinesis advantage can have problems with USB3 on Win7. In the worst case, a replacement controller can fix it: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56923.msg1289042#msg1289042

I built my own version of split kinesis with middle columns from ergodox and thumb clusters from maltron:
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/katy-keyboard-or-k80cs-key80-contoured-split-t8524.html#p247068

Title: Re: Choosing keyboard for emacs/xmonad user
Post by: davkol on Mon, 17 August 2015, 15:01:14

Being an Emacs user myself, I really like my 80key ErgoDox with essentially two rows of thumb keys (see here (http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/post-your-keyboard-keycaps-t7834-510.html#p233196)).