geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: pigmonkey on Mon, 08 October 2012, 16:58:16
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I'm considering purchasing my first mechanical keyboard. I've done a lot of searching through the archives here and so far I'm very attracted to the Happy Hacking Pro 2. My concern is in the non-standard layout.
I use a computer at work and at home. At $300, I'm certainly not going to be purchasing two HHKB Pro boards. I'm not worried about getting used to the HHKB layout at one location, but I am worried about using the HHKB at one location and a standard layout keyboard at the other location. Do any HHKB owners also find themselves needing to use a normal layout board much of the time? Do you have trouble switching between them, or find yourself hitting the wrong key combinations?
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It is a bit odd but I am ok with the switch, my biggest problem is the left control position!
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I'm in IT, and at my desk I use a HHKB about 50% of the time (along with a Kinesis Advantage) and about 90% of the time at home. I have to use standard keyboards throughout the day as I work on other peoples' systems. Honestly, I don't have any problem adjusting back and forth between the control position, but I do find myself hitting the \ instead of the backspace quite often on standard keyboards, though usually hitting it once is enough to remind myself I'm on a standard board and it doesn't happy again that visit. FWIW, overall, I greatly prefer the HHKB layout to the standard.
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I use the HHKB all the time, but when i'm on someone else's system I don't even notice it!
I'd say go for it!
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I should mention that I recently remapped caps-lock to control on both machines, so I'm already training myself on that little quirk.
The majority of my time on the computer is spent in vim and Firefox with the vimperator plugin, so most of my scrolling is done with h/j/k/l, but I do still find myself using arrow keys in other programs. I suppose my main concern is that I'll be on a normal board and find myself hitting ctrl+/ or something expecting a down arrow, or be on the HHKB and find myself hitting esc expecting a `. Little things like that could add up to a decrease in productivity, which would defeat the purpose of the HHKB layout.
Of course, If the Topre switches are all they're cracked up to be, I may have trouble switching between the HHKB and another board regardless of layout!
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I've never found myself trying to use the hhkb arrow combos on a standard keyboard, and I do use them all the time on the hhkb. You can always take your hhkb with you!
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I use a HHKB for my daily driver at work and I don't have a problem switching between layouts. You'll type \\\\ often but you adjust quickly.