geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Pylon on Sun, 13 February 2011, 13:45:11
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Looking through [H]ardForums, a lot of people seem to be turned off from mechanical keyboards because most of them (RK-9000, etc.) lack programmable keys and media controls.
So why doesn't someone make a USB programmable key module or something? Get a 2x5 cluster of programmable keys and place them next to your keyboard. Bam.
Like this:
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=15456&stc=1&d=1297626261)
Give it two layers: A programmable key layer and a media key layer, with a USB controller, and use cheap Alps switches or something.
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And I forgot to add the sound waves for the volume up and volume down buttons.
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I don't see the fascination with hardware programmable macros. You will always be pretty limited, to the point where all you can really do is send a (series of) scancodes. All the fancy stuff that I consider useful requires software. And once you go software, there are so many better ways than a few dedicated extra keys. For example a simple mechanical keypad. Thanks to tools like HIDMacros, you can even use it with more than one keyboard connected. I wrote a tutorial (http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11) on that a while ago.
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Looking through [H]ardForums, a lot of people seem to be turned off from mechanical keyboards because most of them (RK-9000, etc.) lack programmable keys and media controls.
Programmable keys are IMHO only useful if you want a non-QWERTY layout and you're dragging your keyboard around to different machines. As for media controls, the HHKB has all the Mac standard ones built in.
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Programmable keys are IMHO only useful if you want a non-QWERTY layout and you're dragging your keyboard around to different machines. As for media controls, the HHKB has all the Mac standard ones built in.
Can I use this 'mac' with Windows and finally use all my keys?
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Can I use this 'mac' with Windows and finally use all my keys?
It's not like a HHKB has keys left over. But I dunno. I only use it on Linux and OSX.
I Flip De HHKB Mac mode DIP Sweetch. It dooess NUTHING!
Probably some regedit hacking could be applied?
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It's not like a HHKB has keys left over. But I dunno. I only use it on Linux and OSX.
Hehe I was just pulling your leg.
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I recommend the HHKB heartily to anyone with a Unix Beard.
Best. Emacs. Keyboard. Ever! :)
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I started saving for a beard once. Then I got sacked.
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Best. Emacs. Keyboard. Ever! :)
Says the guy with a modified Haskell logo as his avatar.
Though, I totally agree it does make for an amazing emacs keyboard. Though I may prefer my buckling spring keyboard with an identical layout, just for the additional nerd cred from the common folk.
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It's the Clojure logo. Find it any fun?
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My bad. It looks a lot like many of the different Haskell logos I've seen over the years. That language looks rather interesting, honestly.
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Such a slim module would be tough to weigh down. However you design it, it will be tacky unless used with a certain keyboard.
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It's the Clojure logo. Find it any fun?
Well spotted. It's great. Though I would like more options for runtimes. The JVM is nice for server apps, but not nearly as great for smaller GUI or terminal programs, and I'm not really interested in .NET/Mono.
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on-topic:
Optimus mini three (http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-mini/)
Genovation 682 (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:10384)
Genovation 683 (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:6365)
X-keys (http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys.php)
off-topic:
Hmm.. I will have to take a closer look at Clojure some time. It seems quite interesting.
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Honestly, I could see plenty of stuff done as scancode macros.
I handcode a lot of HTML in my job, so I could see a lot of use in, say,
Control-X
Shift-Insert
I like the media keys as an option so I don't have to find the media player and send it keystrokes. I tried using a Media Centre remote which came with my TV card, but there's no tactility, and the wirelessness sucks too.